Catholic Welfare and Development

2012/2013

Annual Report

A leading, dynamic organisation professionally enhancing self-reliant communitiesCWD MANAGEMENT BOARD

Archbishop Stephen Brislin (Patron)Mr Malcolm Salida (Director)Mr Donovan Adonis (Chairperson)Fr Jerome Aranes (Spiritual Accompanist)Sr Eleonora Dittrich ISSMMr Owen KauMs Stephanie KilroeMr Arthur JohannesFr Matsepane Morare SJMr David Taylor

NPO Registration no: 002-836

Written and compiled by Michail Rassool

Designed by Rothko: www.rothko.co.za

Printed by Hansa Print

Moving Forward

For several years CWD’s preferred banker and a proud sponsor of this year’s Annual Report.

A leading, dynamic organisation professionally enhancing self-reliant communities

CWD’s MissiON

Catholic Welfare and Development is a development organisation. Our interventions aim to unleash the potential of individuals and the communities with which we work, to be self-reliant.

We strive to promote an integrated and inclusive approach that recognises human dignity in accordance with the Social Teachings of the Catholic Church.

We contribute towards the eradication of poverty through partnerships with communities and organisations that work towards greater human development. We do our work with passion, love and deep sense of commitment and accountability.

CONTENTsREFLECTiON FROM OuR pATRON 3FOREWORD FROM ThE ChAiRpERsON 4MEssAGE FROM ThE DiRECTOR 7

FOCus AREAs 11Economic DevelopmentHealth and NutritionEarly Childhood Development Youth Interfacing ProgrammeVulnerable Women and Children

COMMuNiTy DEvELOpMENT CENTREs (CDC’s) 23Masiphumelele, Gugulethu, Delft, Tafelsig, Elsies River, Atlantis, Samora Machel, Khayelitsha, Mbekweni

spECiALisED pROGRAMMEs 31Trauma and HealingCatholic Counselling Network (including Casework)Crisis Relief and PreventionNeighbourhood Old Age Homes (NOAH)

NOAh’s iNDEpENDENCE 36REMEMBERiNG FR MiCk CROWLEy 37iN MEMORy OF sANDRA LEukEs 38FiNANCiAL suMMARy 40LisT OF FuNDERs 42 CWD CONTACT LisT 43

4

SUGGEST PIC PLEASE

“My journey with CWD started in 2010”

5

Catholic Welfare and Development (CWD) is

the development outreach of the Archdiocese

of Cape Town, and is an important means for

people to become involved in making a difference in the

lives of people, whether it is through WARMTH, Jobstart,

the Catholic Counselling Network, Women In Need, the

Community Development Centres, the Educare centres,

to name a few. We are deeply grateful to our staff and

volunteers who make all this happen. We know that this has been a

difficult time for everyone with much uncertainty and anxiety.

We know that many NGOs have not been able to continue due to

funding issues. We can only be grateful that despite all the challenges,

CWD has not only continued the good work it does, but continues to

do it with commitment and dedication. None of this could have been

achieved without our benefactors and donors. They have made the

work possible and we are grateful to them – their involvement is far

more than a distribution of funds, but is a real partnership – solidarity

reflection

with the people we serve. As with any non-government

organisation there are always challenges around

management and governance issues. I am grateful to the

Board of Management for dealing with these and ensuring

that appropriate steps are taken in terms of rectifying any

weaknesses. We are happy and pleased to welcome Mr

Malcolm Salida as the new director of CWD.

He has already brought his own unique gifts to CWD

and we have no doubt that through his dedication and hard work he will

meet the challenges of the future. Thank you to all our staff, volunteers,

benefactors and partners. There is such a great need in our society and

CWD certainly plays an essential role in meeting that need. I know that you

will all continue to give your support – it is the beneficiaries that count

and we should always have them as our focus.

+ STEPHEN BRISLIN

Archbishop of Cape Town

reflection from our patron

6

One is easily tempted to characterise the challenges of the last few years in the life of our beloved agency, CWD, as a “dark night of the soul”, or at least a dark tunnel through which we push on until we emerge into the light, a particularly apt analogy in view of the theme of this year’s Annual Report – “Looking to the Future”.

We have witnessed CWD continuously soldier

on over the past financial year, 2012-13,

often in the midst of crippling uncertainty,

its programmes carrying on performing their intervention

miracles. This is due largely to the lateral thinking of their

managers, dwindling programme staff pulling together,

volunteers playing their part and, in no small measure, the

loyal funders and donors who continue to support CWD’s

work because they believe in its intrinsic value.

Such tenacity, to me, is nothing short of inspirational, and fills us

with hope that all difficulties can be overcome through perseverance and

hard work, working together, believing in the work we do as well as joint

commitment to the core values of our agency, not to mention loads of prayer.

I therefore take this opportunity to thank all who have played their

part in the agency’s efforts to make good its mission during 2012-13: the

Board, the Director, staff, volunteers, funders, donors, social partners and

service providers.

Till fairly recently CWD’s core funding base could always be relied

upon to provide crucial support to programmes, enabling them to meet

Foreword

their costs over and above the dedicated funding they

receive from partners, both locally and overseas.

A stressed world economy, reduced levels of funding

and skyrocketing inflation placed massive demands on

core funding – literally to depletion point. To say that

the agency has been in “survival mode” would not be an

over-exaggeration!

Leadership and programmes, particularly during

2012-13, had to make some hard choices, from retrenching and

retiring key staff (making more use of volunteers) to cutting overheads

and streamlining operations.

It is to the credit of past CWD leaders who, with a view to making a

real difference in the lives of the poor in the Archdiocese of Cape Town,

saw the virtue of investment as a way to secure a fairly substantial

core pool of funding. It’s an idea that continues to be vital for the

agency to serve humanity on the scale that it has and still hopes to

do in future.

We are fortunate to have a new director on board who realises this

and who, because of his extensive business and financial experience,

cwd annual report 2012–2013

7

will guide the agency in devising innovative means to attract a more

diverse pool of donors and funders willing to invest in CWD’s unique and

effective models of development, which have made a real difference to

so many lives.

We all invoke God’s special blessings on him as he journeys with the

agency at a crucial stage in its long history, taking on a very, very real

challenge.

Nearly 20 years into democracy there is still much work to be done to

address the old imbalances in access to the goods and services that serve

as building blocks to a truly meaningful and fulfilling life.

Recognition of the crucial intervention role we play lies at the heart

of our partnership with government, and it is widely believed that poverty

reduction, upliftment and social advancement can materialise only

through collaboration and joint endeavour. In other words, we’re all in

this together!

Hence, we look to the future with hope in our hearts, knowing

that with prayer, expertise, proper planning, more financial prudence,

teamwork, commitment and hard work, our beloved agency will be back

on track and carry on, as always, in the right spirit of charity and solidarity

with the needs of the poor and marginalised.

DONOVAN ADONIS

Chairperson of CWD

foreword from the chairperson

Almost 20 years into democracy old imbalances still persist, and all must play their part in addressing these.

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SUGGEST PIC PLEASE


9message from the director

Dear Funders, Donors, Partners and the International Family of Catholic Welfare and Development (CWD) Supporters,

i feel very proud and honoured to have come on

board as the new director of CWD, an organisation

which has played such a significant role in creating

self-reliant communities, throughout the greater Cape

Town area for over 40 years now.

This has been achieved only through the valuable and

loyal financial assistance of so many, which has enabled

us to continue providing assistance and skills-based

training to our beneficiaries. These are poor and vulnerable persons

who come from impoverished communities across Africa, often fleeing

abuse, violence, and great poverty to seek employment and a better life

for themselves and their families here in picturesque Cape Town.

My own sense of pride, however, is tempered with a strong sense of

reality, as I have assumed this role at a time of huge financial challenges

facing so many non-profit organisations. With my own financial

background and managerial experience at an executive level and my

work across Africa and Madagascar in social development, I wish to

direct CWD into far more sustainable paths.

“The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray

to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to

send more workers into his fields” (Luke 10:2). Financial

challenges over the last few years especially have induced

us to revisit our financial systems and to engage our existing

and long-standing partners locally and internationally, and

to rebuild old relationships, partly to mitigate the effects

of the current atmosphere of uncertainty.

I am also mindful of the fact that organisational leaders are not lone

players; it takes teamwork and collaboration at all levels. Thus, I believe

that if we all work hard together in arriving at, and owning, the crucial

solutions that are key to our survival as society, with faith we will work

our way through and surmount any major obstacle in realising our joint

mission to the poor by working collaboratively with other community-

based stakeholders.

I feel that as an organisation we are far too centred on physical

structures/buildings and we need to go out into the field more and

engage more with communities at grassroots level, away from our

message

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offices. We need to discover where the real poor, hungry, vulnerable

and lonely are, as they are not always the ones that have access to our

community development centres or feeding kitchens.

“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and

dies, it remains a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24).

A big part of our vision for the future, in which we serve our beneficiaries

even better, is that we arrest our past failings and truly learn from them, so

that we are able to approach the road ahead with the greatest confidence

and insight.

The process of putting in place far better and more effective

management controls which are even more transparent and

accountable than before, casting out the unworkable and streamlining

existing systems, has occupied much of my time since I arrived in

May 2013. After all, efficiency is key to effectiveness, and optimising

systems lends itself to even better quality of service, enhanced and

re-established relationships, an expanded resource base, further room

for growth and an even wider net of beneficiaries.

We were especially blessed to receive several bequests in the past

financial year. We believe that the gift of a bequest from each of our

supporters will help CWD to meet the challenges of coming years. A

bequest also creates a living memorial of compassion to someone who

has cared about the poorest of the poor. Our sincere gratitude must

go out to all our bequest benefactors and their families for their vision

and generosity.


Malcolm’s work across Africa and Madagascar in social development, coupled with his deep sense of Christian charity, makes him well placed to tackle CWD’s challenges and mission.

11

Attention is being paid to optimising existing organisational

strengths, particularly Buckets-of-Love, which is one of South Africa’s

most successful donor appeal campaigns. It touches the hearts of so

many, capturing as it does the very essence of giving at Christmas

time, by providing beneficiaries with a meal on Christmas Day. This

calls for further investment in it, which I believe will attract both

additional and diverse donors; and reach many more beneficiaries.

We also need to reconnect with previous partners, to renew local

Church-based partnerships, strengthen overseas funding, and to

source new partners especially within the ambit of local government

and businesses.

St Vincent de Paul, champion of the poor and marginalised, wrote:

“We should not judge the poor by their clothes and their outward

appearance nor by their mental capacity, since they are often ignorant

and uncouth.” Serving others obliges us, periodically, to look inwards

and reflect on why we do what we do, if we are doing it properly

and well enough, and if we are doing it unstintingly, without prejudice

and with sincere hearts. Let us always respect those whom we serve

“Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams, think not about your frustrations but about your unfulfilled potential, concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but what is still possible for you to do” - Pope John XXIII

and those who make it possible for us to continue this purposeful work.

“Charity takes precedence over any rules,” St Vincent says, “everything

ought to tend to it above all… Let us show our service to the poor, then,

with renewed ardour in our hearts, seeking out above all any abandoned

people, since they are given to us as lords and patrons.”

With such hallowed sentiments in our own hearts, let us truly invoke

God’s blessings on yet another challenging year ahead, for we do have

faith in a bright future, filled with hope and love.

I would like to thank all our donors who have continued to support

us in these trying times. We look forward to your continued financial

support in the upcoming year. Thank you so much!

Yours sincerely,

MALCOLM SALIDA

Director of CWD

message from the director

1212 cwd annual report 2012–2013

13focus areas

Economic Development, Health and Nutrition, Early Childhood Development, Youth Interfacing Programme, Vulnerable Women and Children

Limited resources and cutbacks in an ever-

shrinking funding environment, lateral thinking

around sustainability in difficult times and

social partnerships and resource sharing both within

and outside the organisation are current scenarios

that applied no less to CWD’s main Focus Areas of its

development praxis over 2012–13.

For the Economic Development (EcoDev) focus

area which, according to manager Chance Chagunda, was forced

into being creative in terms of providing services due to funding

challenges, the demand for its services was no less intensive, although

the demographics had shifted.

EcoDev trains job seekers in the hospitality industry; it trains

people to run small businesses and provides support and mentorship

to community entrepreneurs. The intake from local communities at

Jobstart, its hospitality training facility at CWD’s headquarters in

Green Point, was far less than from foreign national ones.

This, Chance said, was mainly because South Africans could not

afford the minimum fee for Jobstart training, showing that they were

more hard-hit by the recession than their foreign counterparts, for

whom there was significant support from organisations dedicated to

Focus

their well-being. He believes that when the locals receive

support from the South African government, through the

social grant system or otherwise, they are mainly left on

their own and are thus more vulnerable.

This demographic scenario, Chance said, was being

addressed by the donor base that EcoDev is in the process

of building. Moreover, he said, teams of Jobstart alumni

have been deployed in areas such as Philippi, Crossroads,

Mfuleni and Khayelitsha to sell the programme’s services to other

youth, and its 90% job placement component (short-term, long-term

and part-time) is also a big draw card. Integration of CWD programmes

such as Youth Interfacing Programme (YIP) and Health and Nutrition

(H&N) has contributed positively to Jobstart intake. NGO networks such

as Aresta and the Cape Town Refugee Centre were also playing their

part in plugging Jobstart, aside from marketing it at local career and

training expos.

In the last year, EcoDev has expanded job placement partners in the

hospitality industry (hotels and restaurants) and elsewhere for Jobstart and

Zanokhanyo graduates, and there is already a long-standing preference

in the industry for CWD trainees owing to their rigorous and holistic

training. Aside from Food Preparation, Assistant Chef, Housekeeping,

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Five-star Domestic Maintenance and Waitering, trainees also learn life

skills and small business skills. The latter course, entitled “Micro-MBA”,

has blossomed, as the last year has seen even more graduates than before

start their own small business initiatives, Chance said.

Despite taking much of the heat of funding shortages in 2012–13,

Zanokhanyo – EcoDev’s training facility which empowers women in the

most desperate of circumstances in Harare, Khayelitsha – continued

apace with its training and made 100% job placements.

Many of Zanokhanyo’s clients are from the surrounding informal

settlement, having arrived there from the rural Eastern Cape to access

jobs with negligible success, with no proper household incomes to speak

of. Before coming to Zanokhanyo, many had no working exposure to the

simplest facilities that urban dwellers take for granted (vacuum cleaner,

electrical stove, hand-mixer).

Brand New, EcoDev’s clothing manufacturing facility that makes

graduation gowns and catering, domestic and hospitality-related

uniforms for the focus area’s graduates and trainees, performed well in

this period, Chance said. The label was first used to re-brand confiscated

imported jeans that had been clogging up state customs facilities for sale

to support CWD’s work.

Du Noon Mushroom, situated in the informal settlement near

Milnerton, a communal container-based mushroom growing project,

once supported by the National Development Agency and partnered by

African Gourmet Mushrooms, where products were packaged, marketed

and sold by members of the community, has been dormant since

June 2012. Chance said that lack of finances and ready returns on

products supplied to retailers (at R95 per kilogram) were the chief

factors here.

Aside from the usual corporate supporters – DG Murray (for

Jobstart) and Hivos (for Zanokhanyo) – EcoDev, he said, was seeking

new funding opportunities from the USA Community Grant and

Australian High Commission.

Of its original 53 War Against Malnutrition, Tuberculosis and

Hunger (WARMTH) community kitchens, CWD’s Health and Nutrition

(H&N) focus area had exited 43 by 2011 in view of adopting more

integrated approaches to nutrition, as its name suggests. It now

focuses only on the 10 community kitchens run at CWD’s Community

Development Centres (CDCs) and programmes.

What’s more, the kitchens had never really been the most cost-

effective aspect of development work, however innovative the model

may have once been. Their myriad operational and supply costs were

a monetary drain that no longer appealed to funders and donors in a

post-recessionary era.

The very idea of running a community kitchen from a storage

container, which has since been adopted by many development

agencies, including government, originated with CWD. As H&N

manager Angelo Timmers hastens to point out, letting the kitchens go

wasn’t just an arbitrary affair.


15

He said the remaining WARMTH kitchens, between April 2012 and

March 2013, saw more than 70 000 meals served, more than 460 000

people served individually and 36 000 coupons distributed, a reduction

from previous years owing to financial challenges that often call for

logistical, practical action. He said budgets differed from kitchen to

kitchen, based on need.

Regarding its more integrated model that stresses health generally,

and not just nutrition, H&N has since formed partnerships with other

organisations and government to run clinics for HIV/Aids voluntary

counselling and testing (VCT), baby clinics promoting nutrition of both

mother and child, and peer breastfeeding programmes.

Over the last year, said Angelo, H&N continued to run baby clinics

(for children 0–5 years old) at various community centres across the

Cape Flats, including the CDCs (incorporating the peer breastfeeding

focus areas

programme) in partnership with the Western Cape Department of Health’s

integrated nutrition programme.

Poverty-stricken mothers with a Breast Milk Index (BMI) of under 19 were

referred to community kitchens to boost their nutrition levels (and, hence,

their index levels), while being issued with special formula distributed by the

department. By August 2012, H&N’s VCT function had served more than

3 000 people, although outsourcing the function did not work. CWD VCT sites

had the highest number of patients (as part of CWD’s integrated development

approach), although the VCT clinic at Tafelsig CDC closed down in this period.

HIV and TB were the subject of 15 outreach initiatives from H&N

during 2012–13, which saw more than 3 000 people counselled and eight

referred for HIV treatment.

As for the future, Angelo believes that community kitchens shouldn’t

be open to all, as they have always been, but only to the most vulnerable

in the community – the elderly, vulnerable women and children.

Moreover, he feels that kitchens should always be integrated with

other services at CWD centres, where kitchen operators should ideally

be employed full time. Angelo also sees H&N playing a consultative role

in the setting up of independent kitchens. He also sees the advent of a

mobile clinic that would enable the focus area to provide many integrated

health and nutrition to more far-flung places.

Rebecca Davids, manager of the Early Childhood Development

(ECD) focus area, also called the Early Learning Services Organisation

(ELSO), says that her, the focus area’s programme name, had to make

For many people, WARMTH Community Kitchens have often meant the difference between nutrition and starvation.

16

some hard choices in the 2012–13 period, such as diverting crucial core

back-up funding mainly towards the training involved in its empowering

and resourcing of neighbourhood-initiated crèches.

There was also internal resource sharing with H&N around delivery of

food provisions for crèches that ELSO was still developing.

No less than in previous years, around 70 students – ie. trainee

educators, principals, governing body members – graduated in this period,

following Level 1, governance/management, first aid, financial management,

nutrition, HIV/Aids, and on-site monitoring and evaluation training.

Much of this training is contracted to partner organisations, such as

the Church-based Rural Development Support Program (RDSP) and the

Red Cross Society, aside from the training received from ELSO staff (using

ELSO-developed modules), and membership of local ECD forums made

the free use of government facilities for these purposes possible.

In terms of ELSO’s development model, there is a three-year phase of

development between the entry and exit of the requesting or recommended

crèche, after which they are ready for registration as an Early Learning

Centre with the Western Cape Department of Social Development (DSD).

They are also ready to acquire a Zoning Certificate and Health

Environmental Certificate. Some may even have the resources to

add Grade R level to their services, usually a voluntary, independent

choice. The demand for training had increased, which necessitated

split groups, “so the eagerness to learn was tangible,” Rebecca said.

Lifestyle retailer HomeChoice, a long-standing supporter of CWD’s

work, especially ECD, funded six crèches in Samora Machel for three

years in the period under review. The number of schools increased to

166 which, aside from HomeChoice, were funded by DSD and included

the 10 contracted to ELSO by the Community Chest.

Site visits to schools were ongoing in this period, in which ELSO

was also in consultation with CWD’s Women In Need (WIN) programme

around ECD services.

As always, many donations of toys and clothing were made

in this period, Rebecca said. Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish in

Durbanville, for example, adopted the ELSO school, “Little Blossom”

in Delft, to provide with toys, educational aids and blankets/cot

covers as well as gifts and cake for Christmas.


The quality of Early Childhood Development is crucial to progress in more advanced stages of life.

17

For the Youth Interfacing Programme (YIP), CWD’s youth

development focus area, challenges over 2012–13 meant that popular

youth facilitator Taski Sithole, could carry on coaching rope-skipping

and other sports only on a voluntary basis.

Former YIP manager Nosakhele Mpushe said it also meant cutting

down on activities, such as rope-skipping in Masiphumelele and

Atlantis, although soccer activities in Mbekweni, Paarl, two areas of

Khayelitsha, Tafelsig, Gugulethu, Samora Machel went well. She said

the focus area managed to reach its planned targets for the year.

It was also a year in which YIP expanded the partnership in

August 2012, with Artscape, which saw the re-establishment of

a contemporary youth dance group (10–17 years old) as well as

workshops in playwriting. Contemporary dance classes started with

girls’ dance group (15–17 years old) in Tafelsig.

This new partnership also gave rise to a mural art project, when

Artscape mural artist Garth Erasmus guided children (10–17 years old)

as they painted a mural that now graces the passage of YIP’s new

offices in Ottery, where the programme moved to in this period.

Former CWD staff Zukiswa Qutyelo and her husband assisted YIP

in starting a new troupe of Ballroom and Latin American dancers, from

6 to 15 years old, in Makhaza, Khayelitsha with one group winning

a competition. A previous group, now older, has continued to be

overseen by long-standing YIP partner Solomon Tshemese of the

Khayelitsha School of Ballroom and Latin American Dance.

focus areas

Also, a drama group was begun with teenagers in Samora Machel,

sourced by the CWD’s Weltevreden CDC there, as was a marimba group.

This period also saw referrals from YIP to EcoDev’s Jobstart Training

centre, marking the strength of integration between the two focus areas.

YIP volunteer Lindela Mgqatsa used his YIP stipend to fund his Chef

Assistance course at Jobstart, while another YIP volunteer and Jobstart

The whole future sustainability of our country is dependent on youth empowerment.

18

trainee, Athini Mtwetwe, started her own catering business and now also

services YIP.

Nompumelelo (“Mpume”) Prusent, formerly YIP coordinator and now

focus area manager, speaks of the strength of YIP’s Youth Forums and social

networks that promote Active Citizenship (as part of YIP’s life-skills activities).

Youth dialogues are among YIP Life Skills activities which, in this

period, dealt with, among other things, running efficient and effective

community-based organisations, personal development, HIV/Aids, sex

and sexuality, gangsterism and substance abuse. These were run in

Atlantis, Gugulethu, Khayelitsha, Mbekweni, Masiphumelele and Tafelsig,

denoting a cross-pollination of CWD service provision.

YIP also conducted holiday programmes involving excursions to

places of educational value, train travel, sports, environmental activities,

recreational activities and therapeutic art. YIP also assisted the Samora

Machel, Tafelsig and Masiphumelele CDCs with after-school care activities

including assistance with homework and encouraging reading.

“All these new initiatives were the result of strategic planning and

the expansion of YIP’s focuses to new areas of activity,” Nosakhele

pointed out. YIP’s groups of traditional dancers in Harare, Khayelitsha

and Gugulethu were ongoing, and the groups participated at the National

Schools Festival in partnership with Artscape.

The Artscape partnership as well as R2 million from the National

Lottery Foundation, the bulk of which was intended for YIP (for

costumes, sound, refreshment and transport) and EcoDev, shows

tremendous promise for the continuation of YIP’s intervention role,

Nosakhele said. Long-standing funder Caritas, once again, funded

sports and life-skills activities.

Thus YIP continues to strengthen and build fruitful relationships

for the plight of young people in disadvantaged communities.

Strategic engagements with the Premier’s Office (Western Cape)

and other stakeholders continue to be one of YIP’s objectives,

to strengthen the Western Cape’s provincial Youth Development

Strategic Framework, while observing the National Youth Policy

(NYP) and National Youth Charter (NYC) adopted by the government

in 2009.

How have the challenges of 2012–13 affected the work of

CWD’s Vulnerable Women and Children (VWC) focus area? The

Bonne Esperance Refugee Shelter for Women & Children in

Philippi experienced functional challenges, which affected such

plans as a partnership project between Bonne Esperance and

Samora Machel CDC.

The Foundation for Human Rights had provided funding for

fostering more integration or “social cohesion” between refugees

resident in townships and South Africans, at community level.

Bonne Esperance social worker Gugu Shabalala said research was

undertaken in this period into the current situation of communal

relationships at Samora Machel, which found that appropriate

interventions were needed.


19

She said the research also found that integration without economic

self-reliance created resentments all round. So Bonne Esperance was

looking at CWD Jobstart food preparation and hospitality training and

training in home-based care with The Robin Trust. It is noteworthy,

though, that some clients could not be sent for training on account

of very low literacy levels. But all this endeavour was put on hold in

August 2012, Gugu said.

As part of the research, for World Refugee Day in June that year

the women of Bonne Esperance conducted a door-to-door survey on

communal relationships covering 70 houses on three blocks of streets

in Samora Machel, with a view to starting a general conversation on

the subject, something the women spoke about long afterwards.

Another challenge for the centre in this period was the closure of the

Cape Town Refugee Reception Office at the Department of Home Affairs

the same month, effectively putting breaks on the movement of pan-

African newcomers to Cape Town, who are now especially vulnerable

to deportation, especially many of the women at the Bonne Esperance

shelter. They have to travel all the way to Johannesburg to process their

asylum applications, which the shelter assists them in doing.

Bonne Esperance, a 40-bed facility, has offered shelter and

support to refugee women and children for a period of six months

since 1996. Some women stay an extra month to sort out the terms

of their new accommodation, which many find through the shelter’s

accommodation networks.

focus areas

One of Bonne Esperance’s biggest achievements in 2012–13 was to lay

the groundwork for the start of a Business Centre Project (BCP), together

with its long-standing partner, the Cape Town Refugee Centre (CTRC),

enabling its clients to set up small businesses in fish drying and sewing

as means of income generation and self-reliance. The period also saw the

renovation of two containers on the premises, one of which is intended

for the new BCP.

It also marked the start of talks between Bonne Esperance and CTRC,

which refers clients to the shelter and provides capital for start of empowered,

Many women refugees, along with their children, arrive in South Africa with nothing, traumatised, needing help and rehabilitation.

20

integrated lives. CWD and CTRC will develop a Memorandum of Understanding

around mutual cooperation. Influx to the centre was ongoing in this period,

Gugu said, with 46 women and 74 children accessing the shelter continuously.

Referrals also come from the Scalabrini Refugee Centre, DSD, the police

service, churches, mosques, employers (especially where they do char

work). Accompanied children are registered at local schools or, in the case

of younger children, access the crèche services of CWD’s WIN Playhouse.

Gugu said that financial challenges had affected Bonne Esperance’s

daily operational aspects, so could provide only for basic needs, and not

such things as transport stipends for clients to get around, which affected

their ability to access services for themselves and their children. In such

circumstances, she said, the shelter relied on the goodwill of its partners,

the Scalabrinian Fathers and CTRC.

It was a period when the need far outweighed Bonne Esperance’s capacity,

said Gugu. The usual client exit care starter packs, consisting of a two-plate

stove, blanket, cups, plates, cutlery and a mattress, were suspended.

In future, Gugu said, she would love to see Bonne Esperance become

a one-stop service centre in line with CWD’s vision of developing self-

reliance in people, in this instance those who can easily become integrated

into the South African family.

The second component of the VWC focus area, Women In Need

(WIN), which has two components, the WIN Outreach and Drop-In

Centre in Woodstock and the WIN Playhouse in Salt River, soldiered on in

2012–13 too, against all odds.

For many years the programme has intervened in the lives of

women in the most desperate and degrading of circumstances and

those of their families, changing lives completely which many have

often lived to tell afterwards.

WIN’s Sr Vimala Varghese said that WIN Outreach continued the

leather work project it had begun the year before, funded by SADDOC

which channels donations from Viennese parishioners to worthy

causes in developing countries, continued and gave rise to much

integration within CWD.

This time round, Sr Vimala trained six women from the Woodstock

area, five from Bonne Esperance and 14 from Delft (via the CDC there).

Drop-ins continued, with the usual provision of healthy meals

daily, feeding 250–300 people per month (including the regulars),

which also saw cooperation from CWD’s H&N focus area which

supplied groceries. Donations also came from Woolworths and several

kind-hearted people, Sr Vimala said.

WIN also runs a savings scheme from January to November, from

which clients can draw at least once a year (with 10% interest from

CWD), mainly in December. During 2012–2013, 56 children from WIN

Playhouse and 42 people from three areas profited from the scheme.

The period saw the departure of WIN’s second outreach worker

Marlene Jansen, which affected the programme’s crucial outreach to

clients living in makeshift circumstances on the streets, under bridges,

in shelters, derelict buildings, and so on.


21focus areas

Importantly, from January to March 2013, WIN Outreach

employed Belinda Lewendal, a professional social worker and

enjoyed the services of three third-year social work students

from the University of the Western Cape, who were able to assist

with casework and counselling under Belinda’s supervision. The

Woodstock facility also hosted a social work student from Germany

from October 2012 to March 2013.

WIN Outreach also collaborated with CWD’s Crisis Relief and

Prevention programme around the distribution of clothes and plastic

sheeting to WIN clients as needed. WIN also threw a Christmas party

for 250 clients – women, men and children, although circumstances

compelled the programme to suspend its usual distribution of Buckets

of Love, which provides poor families with food and treats lasting

about 10 days over Christmas.

Highlights in this period for WIN Playhouse, which provides ECD

services to the children of WIN and Bonne Esperance clients, began

with a Mother’s Day celebration, organised by their children and the

teachers for parents, a joyous occasion of singing and dancing, where

gift packs of soap, lotion and other toiletries donated by the Hilton

Hotel were distributed. Framed, decorated portraits of each child taken

by old Cape Town photographer Van Kalker were also given.

According to teacher Wilhelmina Bruce, present for most of

the 2012–13 period (and who stepped in to assist when principal

Clara Madzinga resigned, till a new principal could be appointed),

Children living on the streets with their parents share all their hardships. Only constructive intervention will help break the cycle of homelessness.

22

it was an occasion for encouraging parents to feel that they can talk

and share freely.

The Hilton Hotel also entertained the children towards the end of

March, giving an Easter party that included games, an Easter bunny, a

jumping castle and face painting.

In all, 56 children were registered at the Playhouse in this period (a

moveable number owing to a range of family circumstances), and 15

children graduated in December 2012 to proceed to Grade R. Unlike other

graduation days, no Buckets of Love were distributed to families this time.

The year also saw a series of meetings with parents, attended by more

than 30 parents at a time (some of them even from Bo-Kaap who’d come

at considerable expense), which surprised staff (who saw it as a measure

of clients’ gratitude for WIN’s acknowledgement, service and care).

The staff saw it as the only way in which parents could introduce

themselves to get to know their family situations and to share common

concerns over, say, a child’s personal hygiene level, and so on. Special

tactics, such as icebreakers and songs, Wilhelmina said, were ways to

draw them out.

Often grandparents would be involved in the whole enterprise; one

grandmother has tended the WIN Playhouse vegetable garden set up by

the staff of King James Advertising Agency in 2011. After all, here the

children, who live with their parents in their makeshift shelters wherever

they may be, receive proper meals. Parents have also helped out with

supervision tasks at the Playhouse.

Playhouse staff would meet every Friday to discuss issues such

as the state of the Playhouse, relationships with parents, activities,

concerns and other issues.


Overtures from the public, even small gestures, to children in need can be memorable enough to stay with them for life.

23focus areas

Workshops for parents – on life-skills, vocational skills, parenting

skills – were held during 2012–13, and the Playhouse also has good

working relationships with DSD social workers who are called

upon to advise, thus intervening in family situations through the

Playhouse. It is, for example, very often the women who hold the

family together and try to make the conditions work. The men often

appropriating the social grants mainly to service their addiction. This

is the kind of situation that needs much intervention.

Parents also received provisions from the vegetable garden

and items such as soap, facecloths, and so on.

In this period, 10 children from Bonne Esperance joined

the Playhouse children for six months while their mothers

were at the shelter receiving training, including vocational

training at CWD’s Jobstart .

The programme caters for Levels 2–3, 3–4, 4–5, all subject

to inspection and evaluation by the Western Cape Education

Department. The Playhouse was also subject to health inspection

(for cleanliness, maintenance and safety standards).

Last year, four volunteers – one from Austria, three from

Denmark – donated their services to the centre – three for six

months, the other for nine months. On Fridays, Ignatius and Martin,

Christian Brothers novices, as part of their formation, would come to

the Playhouse and perform activities with the children, supervising

playtime, washing dishes and gardening.

Sr Vimala Varghese (right) answers an enquiry about WIN’s work from Miss Mary Wilson, a CWD donor and supporter, at the agency’s 2012 AGM.


25

Networks, partnerships and lateral thinking

on the part of centre management during

2012-13 were key to CDCs’ capacity to

deliver many of the integrated CWD services they are

intended to render.

Masiphumelele CDC, for example, is part of an NGO

Forum that consists of several organisations combining

forces and resources to respond to social needs in

the greater False Bay area effectively, and where referrals between

organisations are common. Centre manager Denise Klassen said a

challenging year had seen an increase in referrals to the CDC from

various organisations for kitchen services, life skills and leadership

skills workshops, positive parenting and Mother-to-Child Bonding

(the last thanks to special funding from the Department of Social

Development [DSD]).

The area is characterised by up to 80% unemployment, children at

risk, ongoing population influx leading to spatial issues, with shacks

encroaching on the surrounding wetlands which leads to respiratory

health problems.

As before, the centre’s partnership with the local municipality

also assisted clients with work opportunities for up to two years

Masiphumelele, Gugulethu, Delft, Tafelsig, Elsies River, Atlantis, Samora Machel, Khayelitsha, Mbekweni

COMMuNiTy

community development centres (cdcs)

from the latter’s Extended Public Works Programme

(cleaning streets, forestry, and so on), giving households

much needed income, and has linked unemployed school

leaver volunteers at the centre with jobs at the local

Shoprite-Checkers.

Denise says many of Masiphumelele CDC’s unemployed

clients are encouraged to use their skills at the centre –

doing electrical work, cleaning and volunteering – as part

of a worker exchange programme.

She said the centre has an excellent complement of 10 strategic

tenants. Living Hope facilitates support groups and Desmond Tutu

Foundations facilitates adherence and counselling. Government structures

such as the Unemployment Insurance Fund and Department of Home

Affairs also render services from the centre, to mention a few.

Masiphumelele Municipal Library offered free lessons in computer

skills and a local vegetable and fruit seller, Roger’s Fruiteries (Catholic-

owned) supplied the CDC’s community kitchen with free provisions.

The “Pink House”, as the centre is fondly known in the community

(owing to its colour), also participated in a successful door-to-door

campaign on fire and flood prevention in the densely populated informal

settlement. In the surrounding wetlands, many people construct their

26

shacks in close proximity, lending itself to winter recurrences of water

reclamation and flooding.

The campaign was run by CWD’s Crisis Relief and Prevention

programme and the CDC, with partners such as Eskom, Fire Safety, Traffic

107 and Mercy Net, a coordinated disaster management forum, in which the

centre functions as the only disaster care management partner in the area.

Engineers, for example, show people how to construct shacks in a manner

that would leave “corridors” for easy flow of water, thus reducing flooding.

The CDC continued its school holiday and after-care programmes

successfully in partnership with a local school and World Teach, which has

local and international volunteers running classes at the centre.

In this period Ss Simon and Jude parish, Simonstown, with the help

of other surrounding Catholic parishes, raised R14 000 to improve the

centre’s security and plumbing. The parish’s next fundraising drive will go

to painting the building. Denise sees this as an affirmation, almost, of the

centre’s indispensable role, whatever the challenges, in making a difference

to the lives of people in the community. It highlights the importance of

inter-parish collaboration with CWD around charitable needs.

Programmes at Gugulethu CDC also continued despite limited

funding and retrenchments, said CDC manager Zodwa Sonkqayi.

Life skills and leadership skills were run in Philippi, where “community

leaders led with no vision and which saw no real development”. The centre

also ran conflict management training workshops in Gugulethu’s Kanana

and Barcelona informal settlements.

Zodwa said the centre’s relationship with the Philippi community,

which falls within Gugulethu CDC’s geographical service area, has

since vastly improved as a result. The centre has also run workshops in

Gugulethu’s Better Life informal settlement and Crossroads, in Mother-

to-Child Bonding (especially for teenage mothers), Father-to-Child

Bonding (which addresses the limiting effects of cultural biases around

child rearing).

It has also run discussion forums and workshops for about 1 000

young women, 18-35, on issues of violence, in partnership with

Network Against Abuse of Women and Children.


Youth from Gugulethu are given the space to express themselves freely at our CDC in the area.

27

The centre, CWDs oldest, also played a crisis prevention role,

facilitating discussions between engineers and the community over

more strategic ways to construct shacks, using methods of house

construction in the wetlands of Milnerton (including pre-construction

preparation). Beneficiaries, especially, were the community of “Europe”,

the Gugulethu informal settlement strip along the N2 highway which

is prone to flooding.

Housing is one of the principal social issues of Gugulethu, due

to overcrowding, often with up to four generations living on the

same premises. The CDC facilitated the start of discussions between

community groups and the City as well as with provincial housing

representatives about making unused land on the Cape Flats available

for Gugulethu’s backyard dwellers.

The centre was hard hit by the departure of tenant organisations

such as the St Kizito’s Programme for Orphans and Vulnerable Children,

Nicro, which rehabilitates offenders, and Sibanye, a community

savings facility that also assisted the local elderly materially. Aside

from income generation, these organisations were also invaluable in

terms of partnerships and programmatic resource sharing.

Youth unemployment intervention also took place at the CDC,

especially the running of life skills programmes and arranging for youth

clients to attend “open days” held by institutions such as Northlink and

Boland colleges as well as assistance with scholarship applications.

Referrals within CWD itself also took place, especially by sending


youth clients to Jobstart for food preparation and hospitality training, and

to Kolping Society, also for skills development.

Partnerships were also vital to the success of school holiday

programmes which, during 2012-13, were between the nearby Ikhwezi

Community Centre and Africa Unite, which promotes pan-African peace

and harmony in South Africa. Agencies such as WasteWise, one of the City

of Cape Town’s Solid Waste Management awareness programmes, and the

Paraffin Safety Association held preventative workshops at the centre as

part of the programme.

The process of integrating the three Northern Suburbs CDCs, Delft,

Elsies River and Tafelsig into TED CDC (named after the three centres),

began before the 2012-13 period, according to Pam Sickle, new TED

coordinator of centres, with the economic crunch calling for the pooling

At Tafelsig CDC, after-school care numbers were boosted by children from a local school.

28

of resources, the only way to ensure that good services were rendered

to clients.

Associated especially with the three centres was women’s

empowerment. Describing the process, Pam, formerly manager of Delft

CDC, related how unemployed women with low self-esteem, but with

the potential to change their lives and don’t have the personal resources,

underwent capacity building in personal growth, building and sustaining

relationships and leadership (particularly women’s leadership).

A link was made with DVV International Southern Africa, with its focus

on Adult Education Development Cooperation, which provided services to

the centre, and with CWD’s Women In Need (WIN) programme, which

provided training in leatherwork to women empowered by the centre.

The CDC also offered Mother-to-Child Bonding workshops to teenage

mothers and ran school holiday programmes successfully.

Delft CDC also serves Blikkiesdorp, the relocation area for homeless

people in the area, with which its relationship has strengthened. One

breakthrough, says Pam, is that workshops are now being held there,

such as the ones on Mother-to-Child Bonding. She said the secret of Delft

CDC’s future in the community lies in the cross-cutting and adaptive

nature of its work.

Very successful, said Pam (speaking on behalf of the late CDC

manager Sandra Leukes, who had recently died) was Tafelsig CDC’s

gardening project, a mainly vegetable garden run by women and youth

from the community, which yielded a range of products, boding well for

serious food security issues, with the extra bonus of cooking lessons

for the beneficiaries.

Leadership development workshops for local parish structures

also took place as well as Mother-to-Child Bonding workshops for

adolescent mothers. Cooperation was also experienced from Nicro and

the Matrix Clinic, the provincial health department’s outreach to drug

addicts. After-care numbers were boosted by children from the local

Cascade Primary School.

On a very high note, 16-year-old Marco Booysen, who had

been involved in activities at Tafelsig CDC from the age of 7,

participated in the national rope-skipping competition in Pretoria.

Long-standing Tafelsig CDC supporter Vince Vallely sponsored the

studies of a young woman, Misha Cieverts, who recently qualified

as a nursing sister.

One measure of Elsies River CDC’s experience of cutbacks and

internal restructuring is in its use of volunteers, whether for coaching

rope-skippers via CWD’s Youth Interfacing Programme or running

the holiday programme. Despite challenges, the centre had some

significant gains, said CDC manager Natasja Solomon.

It established a good relationship with Goodwood Prison, giving

motivational talks for young inmates awaiting trial. The Medical Research

Council also spoke to youth at the centre on substance abuse. The CDC

also established a good relationship with the leadership of Immaculate

Conception parish, Parow and with the organisation Africa Unite.


29

A television documentary film was also made showing what it’s

like to grow up in Elsies River, and the young people featured in it were

sourced by the centre.

For the area the year 2012 was also characterised by gang violence

and shootings, which saw 18 people killed and children caught in

the crossfire. The situation interrupted the holiday programmes as

concerned parents hurriedly collected their children to ensure their

safety, and the centre was often forced to shut its doors.

An indaba with police organised by local NGOs, if anything,

showed the difficulties police face in fighting crime in the area.

Like other managers, Natasja has learnt that creative thinking and the

move to share resources among stakeholders merely implies adaptation to

existing conditions, which is vital to a centre’s continued role.

With the little bits received by Atlantis CDC the centre was

still able to offer services to its clients, said CDC manager Anthea

November, despite its prospective closure being mooted on account

of its falling numbers. The period 2012-13 saw the possibility of

expansion of Atlantis CDC’s work deeper into the surrounding rural

areas, to Mamre and Pella.

Ongoing services included casework, crisis relief, a three-year

programme of DSD-funded workshops on Mother-to-Child Bonding.

A significant event was the very successful crisis awareness

and prevention indaba on 1 June 2012 involving several partners

– CWD’s Crisis Relief and Prevention Programme, Atlantis CDC, the


City’s Disaster Risk Management centre, Fire and Rescue Services. 107

Emergency Services, the police service, among others.

Anthea also saw the event as a way to market the services of the

centre, and at the time of writing it was still reaping benefits.

The centre also offered learnerships for volunteers in community

development training at the local FET College, and hosted six volunteers in

this period. If anything, Anthea pointed out, these partnerships highlighted

the central element of collaboration in effective social development and

responding effectively to needs in Atlantis and its surrounding areas.

Other significant partnerships were with child rights group Molo

Songololo, church group Christelike Onafhanklike Bediending (around

Misha Cieverts completed her studies in nursing, thanks to the support of long-time Tafelsig CDC donors Vince and Peggy Vallely.

30

responding to young people with addiction problems). A major tragedy

for Anthea was in the withdrawal of NICRO, a much needed service to the

community, from the CDC, even though it enabled other NGOs in the area

to step into the breach.

For Samora Machel CDC, though, shortage of funds during 2012-13

meant serious curtailing of the sort of workshops the centre is known for

– on leadership development, child abuse, domestic violence and women’s

empowerment, climate change, xenophobia, HIV/Aids prevention, and

crisis prevention and safety.

Moreover, said then-centre manager Dikeledi (“Kele”) Xorile, the

food at the community kitchen isn’t enough. Also, there weren’t enough

emergency food parcels, blankets or plastic covers for shacks to

distribute during crises. The centre’s elderly clients, who loom large

there, continued coming each Wednesday, although there were

reduced resources to support sewing and knitting activities.

About 100 children participated in the CDC’s holiday programme;

casework and counselling continued apace. Kele pointed out that

needs escalated during the year - more unemployment, domestic

violence, and so on – so partnerships were essential, and one had to

be especially wise with resources. She said calls for volunteers from

the community garnered a good response.

Samora Machel is very politicised, torn between the African

National Congress and Democratic Alliance, and Kele often felt

compelled to emphasise the non-partisan, faith-based nature of the

centre’s work.

Kele believes that the steering committee she had put in place

before leaving CWD in November 2012, composed of church, refugee,

civic, health and police, elderly and youth representatives, is key to the

future effectiveness of the CDC.

Under Nosakhele Mpushe’s temporary leadership, only two staff

members were left (administrator and caretaker). Activities such as

casework and counselling continued at the centre for part of the week.

Partnerships played a significant role in this period. Someone

from the local library came to the centre to read to the elderly each

Wednesday. English literacy classes for foreigners were arranged


Community development workers at CWD CDCs soldiered on despite more limited resources for intervention programmes.

31

through CWD’s Bonne Esperance Shelter for Refugee Women and

Children. This period also saw the start of Swahili language classes,

owing to a demand in the area. Mother- and Father-to-Child Bonding

workshops also took place.

These were also offered at Khayelitsha CDC, also beset with

staff shortages and relying on volunteers. Partly under Noluthando

Fuku’s leadership in 2012-13, the centre ran holiday programmes, saw

clients for casework services, and ran Life skills and Leadership Skills

programmes (four workshops), reaching 117 youth.

The four-day leadership workshops, directed at community

leaders (chairpersons, treasurers, secretaries), included components

on roles and responsibilities, constitution writing and drafting a

business plan. The centre also ran workshops on conflict management

and financial skills.

It hosted a DSD-funded workshop dealing with conflict issues

for families, sourced from beneficiaries of the centre’s community

kitchen. It was run by the agencies FAMSA, NICRO and The Parent


Centre, equipping families with bonding and communication skills and

teaching them family values.

Nontsikelelo (“Ntsiki”) Dwangu, the current CDC manager, believes

the CDC has potential for more, owing to its good relationships in the

community. There is a productive relationship with local government

as well as ongoing participation in the Khayelitsha Social Development

Forum (part of the Khayelitsha Development Forum) on which referrals

to and from the centre rely. Ntsiki says belief in what the centre is doing

ensures that it continues to play an important intervention role in

community life.

Getting activities off the ground and sustaining them at Mbekweni

CDC in Paarl was a challenge over 2012-13. However, partnerships

within CWD in this period bore some fruit. The Health and Nutrition

programme continued to run the WARMTH kitchen at the centre, where

queues are long and coupons distributed to those who cannot afford

to pay.

The Youth Interfacing Programme continued with its coordination

of soccer activities in the Mbekweni area, forming direct relationships

with young team players.

Working partnerships are especially central to responding to the

social needs of the area, particularly with the Drakenstein Municipality,

referrals to DSD for pensions and social grants, and with the Department

of Health with clinics referring patients to the centre for assistance with

food, especially if they were unemployed, and vice versa.

In 2012, Fr Pirmin Spiegel, General Director of Misereor, visited CWD programmes, including Samora Machel CDC.


33

Trauma and Healing (T&H), which addresses

the psycho-social effects of violence, forced

displacement, dispossession and social ills, was

most active at CWD’s Bonne Esperance Refugee Shelter for

Women & Children in Philippi, although intervention there

is ongoing, said T&H manager Robyn Rowe. It included

individual counselling, an art therapy group facilitated by

Joseph Malinga, a university student equipped with the

T&H manual working under Robyn’s supervision.

T&H also organised Mother-to-Child Bonding at Bonne

Esperance, facilitated by Maliswe Sobukwe and funded by Misereor.

Robyn also ran workshops on the effects of trauma at Goedgedacht

Farm in Malmesbury. A “Healing Garden” was begun in this period at

the shelter, consisting of 16 vegetable beds as well as rose bushes.

The programme also did work with the incipient CWD TED

Community Development Centres (Tafelsig, Elsies River and Delft),

which had begun their process of integration. T&H sponsored its

therapeutic art model that deals with adolescent identity issues,

which fostered mixing with adolescents from outside of one’s

own community, enabling them to see commonalities among all

adolescents and society generally.

Trauma and Healing, Catholic Counselling Network (including Casework), Crisis Relief and Prevention, Neighbourhood Old Age Homes (NOAH)

specialised

specialised programmes

Robyn was also engaged in individual counselling at

the centres, which are seen as “Beacons of Hope” in the

midst of despair by the communities they serve.

Robyn along with Gugu Shabalala, social worker at

Bonne Esperance, were awarded certificates for their work

for displaced persons by Howard University School of

Social Work in Washington DC, whose dean and doctoral

students had visited Bonne Esperance and were impressed

by their interdisciplinary psycho-social approach.

Professor Renos Papadopoulos of the Tavistock Clinic in London

(Robyn’s alma mater) also visited T&H and judged its psycho-social

therapeutic model as conforming to international standards.

For fieldworkers and facilitators at the centres Robyn also ran

workshops on trauma and, for CWD’s Catholic Counselling Network,

ran training workshops for lay counsellors of 16 parishes on issues

surrounding grief and bereavement and how to respond when dealing,

especially, with elderly clients.

Despite not being fully funded over 2012–13, the Catholic Counselling

Network (CCN) was still able to provide a full and complete service and to

cover its basic expenses, according to CCN manager Mary Finlayson. Yet

another unique CWD development model, this programme has existed

34

for 13 years. Volunteer lay counsellors, trained by Lifeline, assist people

with a range of problems, personal and social with a view – especially

– to referring them to the appropriate service providers if necessary.

Over the last year the volunteer lay counselling service was offered

from 14 parishes, in some cases with parishes in close proximity to each

other combining to offer it to all in surrounding communities, and not

just Catholics (CCN’s service at Grassy Park parish, for example, is also

open to people from Parkwood Estate and Lotus River). The demands on

the service were no less significant, Mary said, especially in poorer areas,

where unemployment, dislocation and many social ills are commonplace

and where intervention is essential.

Mary pointed out that many of the volunteers have day jobs,

so their lay counselling sessions tend to take place after hours. She

said for some, especially during 2012–13, safety has proven to be

a challenge owing, for example, to the waves of gang violence in

Matroosfontein or the risk of walking along the streets of Tafelsig or

Bonteheuwel in the evenings.

Mary said that the scope of the counselling service was also expanded

somewhat, with the volunteers, in addition to individual counselling, also

facilitating support groups in their communities to intervene in needs

identified mainly in consultation with the parish priest and other leaders.

As required, CCN lay counsellors were subject to regular external

supervision by a psychologist and meetings with their parish priest, and

regularly attended support groups.

“With 350 cases over the 2012–13 year, we have seen the

benefits of the service to communities,” said Mary. “Many people are

in poverty and pain, and the service is available for them to access,

free of charge.”

Regarding CCN’s Casework component, a phenomenon of recent

years is the need for the services of CCN casework and counselling

among people from more affluent backgrounds, many of whom are

unemployed and are losing everything, including accommodation, so

the shelters are bursting at the seams.

Such situations, says CWD caseworker Iris Randall, are giving rise

to conflict in families, and depression and despair are on the increase,

with so many on medication, Iris said, adding that very often people

simply need someone to talk to.

Over 2012–13, no less than in previous years, there were no permanent

jobs for unskilled people, who tended to be underpaid with access only to

piecework or casual labour. They are generally paid in cash and thus have

no legal leg to stand on when it comes to labour redress.

What’s more, the government has prioritised young job seekers,

especially school leavers, a factor in the struggle of the 35–45 age

group to find work.

The most noteworthy NGO trend of 2012–13, Iris believes, is the

combined lobbying and advocacy against social injustice and for social and

economic rights, which has given rise to discussion forums and campaigns.

These involve groups such as Black Sash, Scalabrini Development Centre,


35

Commission for Gender Equality, and so on. The group successfully had

the Sexual Offences and Community Affairs Unit – a pioneering criminal

justice facility that first operated as a service to abused women and

children 20 years ago – reinstated at the Wynberg Regional Court.

Iris says that very often a referral letter from CWD carries much

weight and gets good results, getting the relevant agency to respond

in a humanitarian manner, whether it’s a shelter, the Family Court or

Department of Home Affairs in an asylum seeking case.

specialised programmes

For example, a standard CWD letter requesting casual work on behalf

of a client, over 2012–13 and at other times, has had over 80% success.

On the whole, Iris says, her casework – whether it concerns a request for

a state pension, child support or disability grant, had a 100% success rate

in the given period.

A real plus for Crisis Relief and Prevention in 2012–13 was its

recognition by other stakeholders in the crisis response arena, such as the

City of Cape Town’s Disaster Risk Management centre, Fire and Rescue

Services. 107 Emergency Services, the police service and CWD’s CDCs.

These significant collaborative links were taken to even higher levels, said

programme manager Nontsikelelo (“Ntsiki”) Dwangu.

The Prevention and Safety Indaba that took place in Atlantis on 1 June

2012, attended by around 250 community members, was a resounding

success, she said. It was also addressed by Alderman JP Smith, Mayoral

Committee Member for Safety and Security, who has clearly shown how

impressed and inspired he is by the partnership.

Crisis Relief does its work through volunteers recruited from the

communities, with the assistance of community structures and, as before,

groups received training on fire fighting. This was done by personnel from

Fire and Rescue Services, the programme’s partner.

Crisis Relief also ran a door-to-door safety and prevention campaign

in Langa in the aftermath of the devastating fires of March 2012 (when

the programme was involved in crisis response measures), which saw

around 150 homes and 750 people canvassed.

CCN’s volunteer lay counsellors assist people with personal and social problems, referring them to appropriate service providers. The period 2012-13 saw many expand the scope of their services.

36

The programme continued with its partnership with CWD’s Siyakhulisa

CDC in Masiphumelele around crisis relief after flooding in the informal

settlement near the False Bay coast, which is situated in wetlands that are

prone to winter flooding.

The “Crisis Basins”, which are associated with the programme, were

distributed through other CDCs too, while some 2 000 basins benefited 10 000

people, joint clients of the Mowbray-based Educational Opportunities Council

and Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) in Observatory,

the latter in partnership with the funder Dreikönigsaktion-Austria (DKA).

In this period, the programme and its partners ran more workshops in

fire prevention, educating 464 people (representatives from community

structures) from Langa, Khayelitsha, Philippi, organised through their serving

CWD’s CDCs. On 7 December 2012, the partnership organised a Festive

Season Safety First Awareness Campaign, which reached about 300 people.

Almost all of Crisis Relief’s activities, Ntsiki said, were made possible

by a multi-year contract the programme has had with its European partner

Caritas Germany, whose senior advisor for sub-Saharan Africa, Hannes

Stegemann, visited CWD in the 2012–13 period and was impressed by

Crisis Relief’s integrated approach.

Lifestyle retailer HomeChoice also donated good quality home

appliances, bedding, crockery, comforters, duvet covers, sheets, pots,

cutlery, plates, suitcases, and so on, which helped people who lost their

belongings in fires and floods. Other well-wishers donated old furniture,

clothes and other items.


Home, health and happiness continued to be the core values

underpinning the service to older persons rendered by Neighbourhood

Old Age Homes (NOAH), as it soared on its way to eventual

independence from CWD.

Director Anne van Niekerk said that NOAH, in 2012–13, spent much

time looking inwards, reviewing and consolidating its services, support

structures and sustainability, central issues that would concern any

well-nigh independent agency on its own journey and trajectory. She

said it gave rise to a three-year strategy which also involved making

some tough decisions.

Ntsiki Dwangu, manager of Crisis Relief and Prevention, packs “Crisis Basins” which are distributed mainly to people rendered homeless by fire and floods.

37specialised programmes

NOAH has also become a leading player in collaborative efforts

of addressing government at provincial level. In 2009 NOAH

spearheaded the formation of STTOP (Sector Task Team for the

Older Person), now an independent NPO and the sector’s channel

for intervening in policy, legislation and best practice issues. STTOP

is convened by NOAH housing coordinator Gavin Weir, while Anne

serves as its treasurer.

Building such relationships is indispensable to NOAH’s mission; it

has, for example, good relationships with both DSD and the Department

of Health, which both see NOAH as reasonable, working within policy

and budgetary constraints, and with whom the programme exchanges

information, knowing as it does the situation on the ground.

Started more than 32 years ago, the 13 NOAH homes continued

to provide dignified and affordable accommodation. They are in eight

residential areas – Woodstock, Atlantis, Rondebosch East, Athlone,

Elsies River, Khayelitsha, Parow and Stellenbosch. McNulty House

in Woodstock (attached to NOAH headquarters and administrative

offices) is where assisted living takes place.

Each home has its own steering committee, with quarterly

meetings and challenging engagement at board level – a governance

structure put in place under Anne’s predecessor, Dee Wills.

Through this model, away from the idea of institutional care,

elderly people can remain active members of their community

and society.

The two established primary health care clinics, along with wellness

support and general health oversight continued to provide consistent

quality health care to its members.

NOAH Happiness comes in the form of our three service centres or

“clubs”, two in Khayelitsha and one in Woodstock, and offers a range of

services, including exercise, meals, income-generation, talks, recreational

activities and outings.

Anne says that, in this period, having a very engaged, involved

and challenging Board (which has the best interests of older persons

at heart), makes an extremely valuable difference to NOAH’s work. In

challenging times, especially for NGOs, sustainability is a key issue,

the Board established a Sustainability Committee in order to review

cost effectiveness, assess income sources and strategies for income

generation, and to ensure that NOAH is “working smart”.

One project in particular, the “Soap Project”, was a tremendous source of

pride, adding to state pensions and, in time, “club” incomes. Products are well

packaged (individually or as gift packs) and are sold via the NOAH website.

NOAH does its own marketing and fundraising, some of its funders

include DSD, Caritas Germany, national corporates and foundations.

“The solid foundations are there to build on,” said Anne, “and knowing

and believing in our model, governance, the strength of our board, our

processes and structures, and the involvement of people of integrity. We

work hard, but with humour, and enjoy our beneficiaries, whom we value

and respect.”


Other organisations that began life as

CWD programmes include Abalimi

Bezekhaya, the food gardening project,

and Men on the Side of the Road, which builds the

capacity of casual workseekers who gather mainly

at highway intersections.

NOAH was begun in 1981 by CWD as the development arm of the local

Catholic Church, in response to a decision to respond to the housing needs

of poor older parishioners in the Archdiocese who had been forced out of

their homes by apartheid policies and, as pensioners, faced homelessness

or living with relatives in grossly overcrowded conditions.

After much consultation, NOAH signed an autonomy agreement with

CWD in 2005, which empowered its steering committee to elevate its

status to that of a governing body, enabling the programme to make its

own decisions within agreed parameters.

Since then, it has established itself as a significant player with other

stakeholders, including the Western Cape government, in bringing the

combined response to the needs of elderly people in the province more

and more in line with new legislation, the Older Persons Act.

“NOAH had to choose either to give up

its autonomous status and fully reintegrate

within CWD or move to independence,” its

Annual Report of 2010-2011 says. It says

there was consensus that the programme’s

future growth would be best served by NOAH

registering as an organisation on its own, acquiring its own NPO

number, developing its own constitution, setting up its own financial

systems and becoming its own employer. All of this has now been

achieved.

Moreover, NOAH retains its Catholic orientation, with Archbishop

Stephen Brislin serving as its Patron and co-signatory to its new

constitution.

These last few years of autonomy have amply demonstrated

NOAH’s capacity to take this step (as NOAH’s final presentation in

this Annual Report as a CWD Specialised Programme attests).

CWD proudly acknowledges NOAH’s capacity to fly the coop and

wishes the new agency well on its journey to make a real difference in

the lives of the elderly of the Archdiocese and, indeed, the province.

noah strikes out on its ownNeighbourhood Old Age Homes (NOAH), formerly a CWD specialised programme, officially became independent in April 2013.

39we remember fr mick crowley

Fr Mick, as he was affectionately known, passed

away on 17 August, 2013 in his native County

Cork, Ireland, to which he had returned in 2004

on account of age, and uncertain health, and to pursue

pastoral work on a smaller scale. He was 79.

Fr Mick led the CWD Management Board at a time of

major transition. It was a period when the visionary and

enterprising Peter Templeton, as Director, oversaw the

agency’s transition from a small-scale welfare bureau located inside

the Archdiocesan Chancery to a fully-fledged, programme-based

organisation operating from its own premises at 37A Somerset Road,

Green Point.

This transition, wrote fellow board member Sydney Duval in an

obituary for South Africa’s Catholic weekly newspaper The Southern

Cross (4-10 September), was integral to his own view of Church and

society and his belief in the Pastoral Plan of the Southern African

Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), which was to “develop

communities that would serve humanity in the spirit of Christ”.

Duval said Fr Mick fully backed Templeton’s efforts to develop the

agency into “a dynamic and professional organisation that

would build bridges into the various communities of the

Cape Flats and pioneer new initiatives and interventions.

Along the way, CWD became a lifeline of compassion

and solidarity to communities struggling with hardship,

displacement and humiliation under apartheid.”

In South Africa since 1960, Fr Mick - one of the country’s

leading catechetics exponents - pursued a social science

degree at the University of Cape Town in the 1970s, which “would bring

him closer to the economic and psychosocial distress experienced by

grassroots communities in their daily life”.

He supported the Church’s preference for the poor, Duval said, encouraging

others to do the same. In the process, Fr Mick wished to expand the

concept of ministry, linking pastoralism and development more closely

with each other in the context of apartheid and “its devastating impact on

a society obsessed by race and fragmented by racism.”

Fr Mick also published a memoir, To Cape Town and Back, which Duval

described as “a tribute to the many missionaries, men and women,

who came to South Africa to evangelise, to teach and to heal…”

Old associates of CWD and its work will remember Sacred Heart Missionary Fr Michael Crowley, who served as Chairperson of the Board from 1979 to 1994.

we remember


Life at the agency for Sandra began on a voluntary

basis, when she became a lay counsellor with

its Catholic Counselling Network at St Timothy’s

parish, Tafelsig. This was where her passion and love for

helping people grew ever stronger, said Natasja Solomon,

community development coordinator for TED CDCs (Tafelsig,

Elsies River and Delft), who worked closely with Sandra for

several years and knew her well.

As a result of Sandra’s involvement with the Holy Family

Association, funding came from the Holy Family Sisters who lived in

the Tafelsig community, for establishing the Community Development

Centre there. The centre has since become a ray of hope in the midst

of despair in an area that has up to 80% unemployment and where all

manner of social ills exist.

Various activities, such as casework and counselling, family

support, after-school care, organising and sustaining youth support

groups, health and nutrition, to name a few, are run there.

“It is hard to believe that Sandra is gone,” Natasja said. “The day of her

death was a day unplanned in the lives of the many people she touched.

Sandra’s life was one of true humility and serving others.

Of the many stories she shared about her life, the most

animated concerned her family. Sandra loved her family;

family life was at the heart of everything she did. It makes

perfect sense that she would be part of the Holy Family

Association, and in turn want to mend and heal so many

broken families in the communities we work in.”

Sandra also arranged many activities for the different ministries of

the parish, which came about through the generosity of funders, such

as Vince and Peggy Vallely, who wanted to work within the Catholic

Church, especially in developing potential parish leaders.

Writing from England, Vince said: “We appreciated how much

of herself Sandra gave to the people of Tafelsig. Whenever help was

needed she was always there.

“But it is with the children of Tafelsig that one saw Sandra at her

best. She loved the children and constantly looked for ways to support

them and help them take the first steps towards a better life. She was

also a loving wife, mother and grandmother, and we know she will be

greatly missed by her family.”

Restoring family life – in all its manifestations - lay at the very heart of Sandra Leukes’ sense of service to the communities she worked in, healing their brokenness in holistic ways. Manager of CWD’s Community Development Centre in Tafelsig, Mitchells Plain, she passed away suddenly at her home on Wednesday, 4 September, 2013.

we remember

41

LEFT: Sandra Leukes comforts a Tafelsig family after their house had burnt down. Ntsiki Dwangu, CWD’s Crisis Relief and Prevention programme manager, is on the right. RIGHT: Sandra Leukes (back row, centre) with some members of the Tafelsig community on the day the vegetable garden at the Tafelsig CDC was launched in April 2011.

According to Natasja, different groups attended workshops in

leadership, conflict management, listening and communication, and

planning. Afterwards, she said, they developed a sense of ownership

of parish activities.

She said it was Sandra’s dream that the local priest’s call for helpers

would result in as many parishioners as possible standing up, being

counted and not baulking at the myriad responsibilities this entailed.

For Sandra it would indicate, in a tangible and measurable way, the

growth of the parish. “We are now in year two of the roll out, so we

hope to fulfil her dream,” Natasja said.

“Together with the rest of our Team [TED] we started the first

Women’s Leadership Empowerment Process at CWD, another

highlight for us. Sandra used to spoil the ladies with her renowned

chocolate cake and in sharing another love of hers, the yields from the

centre’s memory garden.”

Natasja related how Sandra had given each participant a succulent to

plant in their own little gardens, symbolising their own growth along with

it. The process assisted women with personal growth, relationships and

leadership development, a journey on which they open up to themselves

and allow for transformation to take place.

“Sandra’s time with us has come to an end and she will be dearly

missed by many,” Natasja said. “People who met Sandra have told of how

they were touched by an Angel, and that their lives were never the same

again. May she rest in peace.” +

we remember sandra leukes

42

2013 2012 R R Income 34 555 556 33 170 351 INCOME - BEQUESTS AND DIRECT MAIL 7 890 411 7 167 246 INVESTMENT INCOME 987 585 1 413 763 OPERATIONAL INCOME 6 003 678 3 269 433 PLANNED PROGRAMME INCOME 18 388 356 21 234 909 Community Development Centres 2 206 679 3 313 438 Early Childhood Development 1 975 292 2 264 344 Economic Development 1 816 823 2 461 798 Health and Nutrition 3 355 213 2 234 094 Specialised Programmes 6 540 545 7 549 457 Youth Development 2 493 804 3 411 778 OTHER INCOME 1 285 526 85 000 Surplus on sale of assets 1 280 739 85 000 Variance in market value of shares 4 787 0 Expenditure 34 847 529 40 538 782

catholic welfare and development

financial summary for the year ended 31 march 2013


43

EXPENSES - BEQUESTS AND DIRECT MAIL 1 544 259 2 344 140 OPERATIONAL EXPENSES 8 363 303 10 846 514 PLANNED PROGRAMME EXPENSES 24 939 967 27 348 128 Community Development Centres 3 536 332 4 521 455Early Childhood Development 2 584 532 2 757 603 Economic Development 3 549 275 4 202 224 Health and Nutrition 3 240 616 2 509 650 Specialised Programmes 9 632 341 8 886 030 Youth Development 2 396 871 4 471 166

Net loss for the year -291 973 -7 368 431

financial summary

income Distribution

Funding Agencies, Trusts & CompaniesR18,3m: 53%

Government FundingR5,1m: 15%

Local DonorsR6,09m: 18%

BequestsR2,2m: 6%

Overseas DonorsR2,9m: 8%

44

Anonymous Donor

Anglo-American Chairman’s Fund

Atlantic Foundation

Australian High Commission

Board of Executors

Breadline Africa UK

Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)

Church of our Saviour, The Hague

Colas South Africa

Community Chest Western Cape

Dreikönigsaktion-Austria (DKA)

Department of Health, Western Cape

Department of Social Development, Western Cape

Desmond Tutu TB Centre (University of Stellenbosch)

Deutsche Caritasverband (Caritas Germany)

DG Murray Trust

Eskom

Friends of Zelda’s House – Ireland

Grand Parade Investments

Home Choice

Home Choice Development Trust

Catholic Welfare and Development (CWD) would like to thank the following funders who have contributed more than R20 000 towards the needs and upliftment of poor and marginalised communities in the Western Cape over the 2012-13 period:

our generous

HIVOS (Humanist Institute for Cooperation)

Investec

L’Athénée de Luxembourg

Lenten Appeal (Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference)

Low & Co Tonnesen Trust

Mensen met Een Missie

Misereor

Missio Aachen

Missio Munich

Nestlé

National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund

Ruth Mensinger

Southern Africa Documentation and Cooperation Centre (SADOCC)

Stichting Het RC Maagdenhuis

St Michael’s Fundraising Group

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York

The Holy Family Sisters

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

US African Development Foundation

Vallely, Vince and Peggy

Women and Children’s Hospital Foundation (WCH)


45

CWD

CWD Headquarters, 37A Somerset Rd, Green Point – Tel: 021 425 2095,

[email protected], www.cwd.org.za,

Catholic Welfare and Development, Cath_Wel_Dev

St Columba’s premises, 146 Lawrence Rd, Athlone – Tel: 021 696 9253,

where the following Focus Areas and Specialised Programmes are based:

Early Childhood Development (ECD)

Health and Nutrition (H&N) (incorporating WARMTH

Community Kitchens)

Catholic Counselling Network (CCN)

Trauma and Healing

Community Development Centres (CDCs)Atlantis CDC – cnr Sun & Penelope Sts, Atlantis, Tel: 021 572 2739

Masipuhlisane CDC, Khayelitsha – E505 Scott St, Khayelitsha,

Tel: 021 361 2684

Masizakhe CDC, Guguletu – NY 22-24A, Tel: 021 633 3458

Mbekweni CDC – 3511 Pinzy St, Mbekweni, Paarl, Tel: 021 868 1510

Siyakhulisa CDC, Masiphumelele – “The Pink House”, 19 Skina Road,

Masiphumelele, Tel: 021 785 5198

TED CDC Cluster: Delft CDC – cnr Silversands & Caledon Sts, Leiden,

Delft, Tel: 021 956 2373

Elsies River CDC – St Dominic Ave, Matroosfontein,

Tel: 021 931 5331

Tafelsig CDC – 18 Mountain St, Tafelsig, Mitchell’s

Plain,

Tel: 021 397 2461

Weltevreden CDC, Samora Machel – “The Old Age Home”, 62 Lillian

Ngoyi Cres, Samora Machel, Tel: 021 371 8646

Economic Development (ECODEV) Jobstart Training Centre, 37A Somerset Rd, Green Point –

Tel: 087 943 7618

Zanokhanyo Home Management Training Centre, Z 69 Jama Cres

(cnr Fumana & Qamela Sts), Harare, Khayelitsha – Tel: 021 363 1782

Brand New Project – 37A Somerset Rd, Green Point,

Tel: 087 943 7618

Youth Interfacing Programme (YIP)Unit 1/2, 220 Ottery Rd, Ottery, Tel: 021 762 6377

cwd contact details

46

Bonne Esperance Refugee Shelter for Women & Children4 Lower Ottery Rd (off Lower Lansdowne Rd), Philippi, Tel: 021 691 8664

Women In Need (WIN) WIN Outreach/Drop-In, 20-22 Regent St, Woodstock –

Tel: 021 448 6484

WIN Playhouse, Coleridge Rd, Salt River – Tel: 021 447 3789

Crisis Relief and PreventionE505 Scott St, Khayelitsha, Tel: 021 361 2684

Neighbourhood Old Age Homes (NOAH)19 Regent St, Woodstock; PO Box 142, Woodstock 7915,

Tel: 021 447 6334, [email protected], www.noah.org.za,

Neighbourhood Old Age Homes, NOAH_ZA

Z69 Jama Crescent, Khayelitsha, Tel: 021 361 3320

“Catholic Welfare and Development would like to sincerely thank all donors, both past and present.”


2012BuCkETs OF LOvE

47

2012BuCkETs OF LOvE

Catholic Welfare and Development

Documents

development cwd

development organisation

development outreach

greater human development

dynamic organisation

work possible

good work

cwd contact list