Imagine a community in which everyone works to serve and help one another. Such self-sufficient communities have come into existence in two villages adjacent to the Kwandwe Private Game Reserve, through the help of the Angus Gillis Foundation.
Imagine a community in which everyone works to serve and help one another. Such self-sufficient communities have come into existence in two villages adjacent to the Kwandwe Private Game Reserve, through the help of the Angus Gillis Foundation.
“Because of the history in South Africa, communities have been made to feel like they don’t have very much to offer, that they can’t drive their own development,” Angus Gillis Foundation Director Lucy O’Keeffe said. “But we try to empower and help them become self-sufficient."
The villages the foundation works alongside are Brandeston and Krantzbrist. According to the foundation, these villages epitomise life in the country’s poorest province, in which 72% of the population lives in poverty, with 32% of households surviving on a monthly income of R200 or less.
Yet through applying an asset-based approach to development, emphasising communities’ existing assets and skills, and focusing on capacities rather than their needs and deficiencies, O’Keeffe said the foundation had inspired each community to drive its own development.
“It is impossible for us to do everything, since there are only four of us in the foundation working closely alongside the community,” she said. “So it forces us to stand back and let the community lead.”
Over the years, the foundation had helped establish 40 successful self-help groups, O’Keeffe said. These groups comprised between eight and 20 members, mostly women, who met regularly and started by saving between R1 and R2 a week. These savings were used as seed money to establish small businesses supported through the Foundation’s Economic Development Programme and which generated a steady income for individuals and families.
O’Keeffe, who has worked with the foundation for almost a year, said she saw the positive changes in the attitudes of the people in the communities. “The long-term model is that groups build up financial capital that they can then use to start up income-generation projects and earn sustainable incomes with their families. "They are also building up social capital. Relationships built within their groups give them the confidence in themselves to change their lives,” O'Keeffe said.
One of the greatest changes came for the villages in 2008, when they were motivated to come together to build a community centre for their babies and toddlers, called Imizamoye. The centre inspired the community so much that they again came together in 2009 to build a larger community centre, known as Camabele, where preschool children came come to learn and enjoy playtime.
The building of the two centres was backed by the fundraising and encouragement of the Angus Gillis Foundation. Noluvo Sideba, the community practitioner who watches over the children in Camabele, said the Angus Gillis Foundation had changed the way she'd seen her purpose in life, and made her a leader within her community.
She'd told the women in her self-help group that she wanted to care for the young children. “I used to just sit in the house and not do anything, Sideba said. “However, the foundation helped me. They helped me recognise the leadership within myself. "From them I have learned how to solve problems. I also see that the children are much happier now.”
Although building up communities can sometimes be a slow process, Angus Gillis Economic Development Coordinator, May Quntu, said she and her colleagues were confident about the future of the communities they were working with. “You act as the person who is guiding them, so when you see what they have managed to come up with, you feel great. It pushes you to do more and more to see their ideas put their into practice,” Quntu said.
