Meet Desmond Malgas, triple-P’s project co-ordinator and community Engagement Guru.
A long-time advocate for the idea that the health of a community is directly linked to the health of the environment around it, while Desmond only joined our team in 2022 we first connected in 2016 through his role as chairperson of Rural Community Upliftment, an NPO he co-founded. “We were a group of volunteers working in the local communities around Ezimbokodweni, south of Durban in KZN, to create cleaner and healthier physical environments, while at the same time promoting environmental care and conservation,” explains Desmond.
AECI supported this work and through triple-P (then i4WATER) formed the Wise Wayz Water Care Project which provided education and training to the volunteers in environmental conservation i.e. management and monitoring of aquatic ecosystems and alien invasive plants among other things.
As a result of this training and a need to formalize the work being done to support environmental conservation and mitigate unemployment in the area, several different entities were formed, including Enviro-Care Management Systems PTY LTD which Desmond became founding director of.
Growing up and living in marginalized communities, Desmond’s lived experience gives him a deep understanding of how they operate, one that stands him in firm stead in his role of community engagement. “The mediation role between implementing organisations and communities starts with the organisation recognizing that the project strategy has to fit the ways of the community and not the other way round,” said Desmond.
Desmond is heading up our next exciting initiative, having worked steadily on the concept and planning, and almost ready to bring it to life!
“I am motivated by the belief that you can’t be in two places at once, so be where you are and do what needs doing at that particular moment with commitment and everything you have.”
Read more about the other members of the triple-P team
