From garbage dump to squatter’s camp to struggling, but close-knit community: the poorest of the Eastern Cape’s poor built Itipini out of cast-off scraps of metal, cardboard, and anything else they could find. Now home to nearly 3,000 people, Itipini (from the Xhosa word for ‘dump’), just miles from Mthatha, is a place rich in spirit but burdened with many hardships:

• No electricity, sanitation, or public transportation

• Two water taps for the thousands

• Many living with HIV, making them vulnerable to other diseases

• HIV positive mothers unable to nurse babies

• Unemployment topping 80 percent

• Limited educational opportunities for children

African Medical Mission’s Itipini Community Project started in 1992, with the aim of meeting some of the residents’ most basic healthcare needs. With the closest hospital a five-mile walk away, many residents chose not to seek medical attention for their problems, causing conditions to worsen and eventually require even more care. Today the project, run by Jenny McConnachie, is a vital force, serving community members in mind, body, and spirit.