A Personal Story
By Kate Winter

We don’t have very many inspiring conversations in our lives but talking to Munyaradzi Katumba leaves you feeling just that.

When Zimbamwe’s economy went into meltdown in 2003, Munya moved to neighbouring Botswana in Southern Africa. He settled in the remote urban village of Maun in the Okavango Delta, a thousand km from Gaborone, Botswana’s capital city.

Munya, who is now 31, started working for the Coping Centre for People Living with HIV/AIDS.  “I had so much passion about the HIV and AIDS work I was doing in the community and I wanted to gain more knowledge and skills to effectively provide better services,” he says.

In 2004 he transferred to the Love Botswana Outreach Mission which provides support and information about HIV and AIDS. He began researching qualifications for project managers on the internet which, he says, is becoming more reliable. He found The Diploma in Programme and Project Management and contacted several training organisations. The first to respond was The Projects Group(TPG) in the UK.

Instead of the usual induction process, which involves a face to face interview, Jan Underdown, DPPM, Course Director at TPG, talked to Munya on the phone. “We quickly established that he was a suitable candidate for the diploma,” Jan says. “It was clear that Munya would benefit from the qualification because of his role.”

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