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Vuyiswa Pike and Mthetheleli Nomkhile, together with their team, have been hard at work registering people daily on the DreamWorker programme. Both are from Hermanus and have a passion to help build a better world in their community.
 Vuyiswa Pike, Office Administrator
Vuyiswa recalls the days when her father was head chef at the then Riviera Hotel. "At that time, unemployment was low and Hermanus was truly a village in every sense!” she laughs. She herself worked at Birkenhead House for several years, before making the career switch towards community work. Through her efforts with the municipality, she was drawn towards working for the RDP and in particular, putting her energy into the upliftment of women.
As a single mom, putting my 4 kids through tertiary education has been a real challenge. At times I thought I would never hold the family together, but today, I know that with some help and hope, anyone can find and maintain work and support their kids”. It is this empathy for working women who lose their jobs and still have to feed their families, that inspires her unrelenting energy to get DreamWorker flourishing in Hermanus. She adds “Working here puts a smile on my face. Today I sent eight women to the municipality and they will start on Monday. How cool is that?
 Mthetheleli Nomkile, Office Manager
Mthetheleli Nomkile was born in the Eastern Cape but attended primary and high school in Zwelihle. He then attended UWC and studied BA in management. Mthetheleli has also been involved with both the municipality and RDP and is ensuring that the programme is run efficiently from an administrative perspective and that the outlying areas of Hermanus are also attended to.
He is most excited about the prospect of bringing employers and employees together in the community. He feels he can offer help to both parties, assisting with the correct selection, with setting wages, intermediating all round.
I want to organise short courses for people to help them gain more skills and am looking for funding to do this. It is the only way we are going to reduce poverty and crime in our country – to help people improve themselves and help people find work. What is so amazing about our programme is that it is all for free. We do not charge; we only ask for donations. But what we really ask is that employers open their hearts and help us to help them even more!!!
 Dr Millicent “Milly” Rink
Dr Milly Rink has been the treasurer of the R.D.P Forum for last 10 years. Previously, she served as an executive member of the Education and Training sub-committee of the R.D.P Forum.
She is a retired professor from the Faculty of Music at U.C.T. Since residing in Hermanus, she has served on many committees such as the Ratepayers Association, the Ward Committee and the Department of Water Affairs committee for environment affairs.
The plight of people standing along the road hoping to get a job was my motivation to start skills training in order to make people more eligible for work. Courses such as Domestic Service training, Gardening, Arts and Crafts, Hospitality were begun at the R.D.P. But once we had helped upskill, we needed to find work for our newly trained ‘graduates”. When I heard about a new employment creation programme starting in Cape Town, I knew I had to bring the same model to Hermanus!
The fact that the R.D.P is situated in the heart of Zwelihle and the staff are all from the local community make an Employment Office very relevant. By collating employment opportunities, we hope to alleviate some of the poverty due to unemployment in this beautiful town of ours. It is my dream to continue helping people upskill themselves, as well as to help them find ongoing work.
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