By Carol Rugg, C.S. Mott Foundation

After today, our blog will “go quiet” as we conclude our month-long series of essays from those working in the nonprofit sector in South Africa. And after Sunday, the shouts, the cheers and the “trumpets” of the World Cup will fade. But we at the Mott Foundation hope the insights shared by our guest essayists – about their disappointments and setbacks, as well as their reasons for faith and hope – will stay with you for some time to come. We intend to leave these posts available online and hope you will send new visitors to this site. You can be assured that even as I write this, we are looking for new and interesting ways to shine a spotlight on this “blog” and the work of our grantees in South Africa. For us, the game is not yet over. Not by a long shot!

By Vuyiswa Sidzumo, C.S. Mott Foundation

A common marketing tagline for my country goes, “South Africa: alive with possibilities!”

That’s how I feel about this country. Sixteen years into democracy, I wouldn’t be anywhere else.  The World Cup has brought some excitement that we haven’t seen for a while and, as a friend often says, South Africa is blessed. Just when we think the country has taken a turn for the worse, something magical happens.

Sports has been a great unifier. The rugby World Cup in 1995, through the magic of Mandela, united the country to support the national team in ways that could not have been imagined. The 2010 soccer World Cup is doing the same. The world did not believe that an African country could pull off the event, and not only did we prove them wrong as the country exploded in yellow on the 11^th of June to support the national team, but the dose of optimism throughout the country has been priceless.

As South African flags fly from cars, homes, shops, offices and street corners, you see a nation united. One, however, hopes that this will spill over to our everyday lives. The big question is: “When the last vuvuzela [plastic trumpet] is blown on the 11^th of July, what happens then?” We remain hopeful that the spirit will be sustained and that race relations, which have threatened to explode out of control during the past few years, will improve. The Mott Foundation has supported initiatives during the past decade that address racism and discrimination. It is not always easy, but there are certainly success stories. 

Civil society remains a critical part of South African life. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) not only contribute to policy formulation, but also provide a lifeline to many South Africans who sometimes fall by the wayside and don’t enjoy state benefits. While there are still glaring challenges – poverty, homelessness, inequality – it would be naïve, and even irresponsible, to pretend that all is hunky-dory. Yet, the success stories need to be celebrated.

I’ve had the privilege of working with many organizations throughout the country that are Mott grantees. I’ve often been moved by the passion of many NGO leaders who, against all odds, make things happen. I’ve also been disappointed by others, who lead “successful” and well-resourced organizations but whose impact is sometimes questionable.

There is no doubt that our civil society has weakened since 1994 as a result of declining dynamism and passion for community development work. For many, working in an NGO is no longer only about a passion to contribute to social change, it has become a job. But we would be over-indulgent to start focusing on what cannot be. Therefore, we need to focus on the possibilities. But where are they?

Mott continues to support efforts aimed at strengthening the NGO sector, and while there are many challenges, there also are opportunities.  But sometimes we’re too blinded by pessimism to see them. I choose to be optimistic. I believe in this country and its people, and I know we can make it work!

Following the announcement May 15, 2004 that South Africa will be hosting the 2010 FIFA  World Cup, the country was in the grip of an exciting countdown to the last day, hour, minute and the final second to see the games begin in earnest on June 11, 2010.

The six years that stood between that dream day and actually living the dream on June 11, 2010 stood apart like goal posts on a soccer field, with understandable anxiety over whether things would come together to make the country ready for the games. Those six years simply whizzed past in the exciting preparations that went with the countdown until the first whistle was blown by the referee for the games to begin.

For an organization steeped in a child-centered tradition, not only did the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund look forward to children being part of living the dream, but also found it most opportune to rally peer organizations within the sector to do their utmost to ensure that each game begins and ends with little or no tears for children. This could only be if no child got lost, went missing, was left unattended or neglected or unfed; and avoided any harm or exploitive treatment.

As new roads and stadia were built; airports spruced up or newly constructed buses and train scheduled coordinated for ease of public transport use, we too, travelled the length and breadth of our country to spread the word that children’s safety should, at all times, be part of the plan and a factor in the world’s most loved sport. This plan came in the form of the “Champion for Children” campaign launched on December 9, 2009, at which our Trustee, Graca Machel, became patron.

Since then, all sectors of society have added their weight behind the campaign. The Champion for Children Campaign is truly cementing the notion that it takes a village to raise a child. One of FIFA’s sponsors, Sony, suggested that children be part of the World Cup games as flag bearers.  For children, there was no better way to bring the games closer than to be part of the games, see the stars within touching distance and then be pampered to sit back and enjoy the games under the care of guardians. The Flag-bearing experience ignited in children the idea that there is a world waiting for them to claim their space and find their role in it. The challenge now is how to translate that idea into actionable programs that speak to children on a massive scale.

That our children should remain safe, protected and cared for at all times is the greatest goal of all who care now, and beyond the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

By Chris Mkhize, Uthungula Community Foundation

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in South Africa became weak after 1994, the year the country got a democratically elected representative government. Most activists in the NGO sector joined either government or political organizations.

Many activists in community-based organizations and NGOs joined trade unions that, in general, openly declared alignment with political organizations. Such developments made some political organizations strong, together with newly established NGOs and community-based organizations that had decided to form alliances with registered political organizations.

The reality of the South African society is that NGOs and community-based organizations continue to strengthen democracy in South Africa. Political organizations simply do not have the will nor the power to effectively oppose political leaders or to expose identified incidents of abuse of power. Only NGOs and opposition parties in parliament have the ability and power to keep government controlled, in check and publicly accountable. This is what NGOs do all the time.

At the same time, NGOs and community-based organizations in South Africa focus more on welfare services. Such services include: management of HIV/AIDS; promotion of early childhood education; delivering health, and humanitarian services; securing immediate shelter to victims of natural disasters; reducing abuse against women and children; providing assistance to poor families; and caring for the elderly.

Establishment of community foundations in the late 1990s helped strengthen the capacity of NGOs and community-based organizations. In the process of developing local communities, community foundations – working with and through NGOs and community-based organizations – provide services for a wide range of community issues.

Community foundations, in particular, are currently viewed as the most sustainable of all NGOs and community-based organizations to mentor and guide other NGOs and community-based organizations on their road to participatory democracy and sustainable and accountable socio-economic development. However, the culture of philanthropy in South Africa still remains under-developed. This is quite often ascribed to a lack of, or limited information about, how philanthropy could be used to pull communities out of poverty and underdevelopment.

In 2010 NGOs and community-based organizations mainly need capacity and resources to share, advertise and market goods and services. It is often costly to do this and one also needs the skills to do so. This is considered another factor that retards an accelerated development of NGOs and community-based organizations in South Africa.

By Sue Howell, WHEAT Trust

We can’t underestimate the positive strides that women in South Africa’s official political offices have made. For example, South Africa has a gender caucus, which is a multiparty platform for women in politics. It also has a Ministry of Women, Children and People with Disability.  

South Africa has passed the Equality Act, the Domestic Violence Act, the (Child Support and Child) Maintenance Act, the Civil Union Act and the Sex Offenders Act. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) played a significant role during the consultative processes leading to their passage. Also, South Africa has among the highest percentage (33 percent) of women serving as Members of Parliament and Ministers of national ministries.

Economically, South Africa has an increased number of women who are chief executive officers and women serving as commercial board members. There is tangible evidence that women are drivers of economic growth through their spending power.  Also, the spending power of the poor is now being recognized by businesses, and funds for development are flowing through businesses of women who are working at the grassroots level. Additionally, NGOs put considerable pressure on the private sector to include rural women in their corporate social responsibility programs.

For staff at WHEAT Trust (Women’s Hope Education and Training Trust) – also known as WHEAT Women’s Fund – development is a positive term. It refers to sustained growth, progress and planned expansion for the benefit of women.

WHEAT experienced the effects of the global economic downturn and got a double whammy when already reduced corporate sponsorship was withdrawn entirely in favor of sport sponsorship coinciding with the World Cup soccer games. Clearly, women would again bear the brunt of the downturn and reduced funding. However, borrowing a saying from an American sister, we embarked on raising our profile with renewed vigor and a mantra of “Never waste a crisis!”

We started educating individual givers about the importance of supporting women’s funds, and we were pleased that our fund received its first 1 million rand donation ($127,933) in 2010. We also have increased our corporate income, formed new corporate partnerships and retained our past partners at the same level of support. So, I must repeat what I said at the start: “We can’t underestimate the positive strides that women in South Africa have made!”

By Oshadi Mangena, Pitseng Trust

When the Pitseng Trust gave its first grant for a program called “the economic empowerment group,” it worked wonders. By the end of that year (2004), the group was so proud because it had offices – complete with electricity, a telephone and a fax – at two early childhood development centers. Operations became quite efficient so those involved never looked back, only ahead.

Today, the two centers have been officially recognized by the Education Department and they are able to pay two teachers at each center. The centers also employ other women as workers, who are paid with the income generated. The next grant was given in 2005 and it was used to start their sewing and beadwork projects.

The groups also were given a contract to make traditional wedding attire. The attire was decorated with various kinds of embroidery that required a special machine and special beadwork. The contract, which was successfully completed, paid for all the materials so any income generated went into the pockets of the women. These two groups operate stores today where articles they made are being sold to 2010 World Cup visitors.

These are only a few examples of how Pitseng grants improve the daily lives of women. But through the years, the country and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have tried many other approaches to increase development and employment.

The variety of strategies illustrate one major challenge that South Africa has faced continually since it entered its post-apartheid period: Which approach to development could best improve the lives of the hitherto disadvantaged, who make up the majority of people in South Africa?

Is it a bottoms-up approach that is people-driven, in which the government gives resources to those who take initiative to design and implement development projects in their communities? Or is it a top-down approach that favors the industrialists and labor groups? Here, the benefits “trickle down” but people must still take the initiative to access the benefits.

South Africans had high aspirations and expectations post-apartheid. They struggled for a better life – and then suffered high anxiety because it didn’t happen fast enough. I like to say: “Nothing comes to anyone in a big lorry (delivery truck). You have to work for it.”

The truth is this: “Our future lies in all of us working together.”

By Amanda Blankfield, MaAfrika Tikkun

South Africa’s troubles didn’t miraculously end with the first democratic election of 1994. The new government inherited a country already creaking under the pressure of social and economic burdens, much of which was the result of decades of often blind and willful neglect on the part of the previous regime. In addition, the elections heralded not just the dawning of political freedom but enormous, joyful expectations that everything would change overnight; that the hungry would have food to eat; the destitute would have a warm, safe home; the ill would be healed; the illiterate would be educated – South Africa would be a rainbow utopia.

Those expectations would, in themselves, become a burden as the rural poor flocked to the cities in search of a better life, and political and economic refugees flooded over our borders in a quest for safety and hope in what was seen as a land of unlimited opportunity. 

For insightful leaders – like the founders of MaAfrika Tikkun and the founders of so many other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) – that unbridled optimism was tempered by a healthy dose of realism. They recognized that even the most experienced government with an unlimited budget would find it difficult to address the backlog in social and economic development. These leaders understood that it would be up to civil society and corporate South Africa to raise their collective hands and work with government to tackle the enormous challenges facing the country.

They vowed to do just that. Acknowledging that no single organization could possibly do it all, they chose to focus on the areas in which they felt competent and capable of making the greatest, sustainable difference – and to partner with others who could provide the skills and resources they lacked to ensure that a difference was achieved. We know change won’t happen overnight. It probably won’t happen in one generation. But it is starting – and NGOs like MaAfrika Tikkun are driving it.

By Y. Obenewa Amponsah, Steve Biko Foundation

Sixteen years after the establishment of a full democracy, South Africa has much to be proud of.  It is a nation whose constitution is the envy of many human rights activists around the world; a democracy which has demonstrated a maturity far beyond its years in weathering political storms; and which has seen the creation of 3.5 million jobs in the past decade and a half.

Yet, South Africa is also a nation that struggles to overcome inequality on a daily basis, both the disparities that are a legacy of apartheid and those that have been fostered in the present.  These inequalities are evidenced by the fact that as of 2008 only 36 percent of third graders could read and count at grade level; that life expectancy has fallen to age 50; and that 40 percent of households are extremely poor.

In the early, exhilarating days of post-apartheid South Africa, government – in concert with a variety of stakeholders – worked to create policies that embodied the hopes and dreams of South Africans from every walk of life. Yet, today, as the nation approaches the third decade of its democracy, the struggle has shifted from the creation of equitable policies to their implementation. This is a fight that civil society is well-positioned to champion. Not by promoting a passive culture of service delivery and entitlement, which unfortunately has come to frame so much of the developmental discourse, but by reinvigorating the culture of activism that marked the years leading up to the realization of South Africa’s freedom. 

It is only through partnering with those at the periphery of South Africa’s democratic spaces to equip the marginalized with the skills, information, and, most importantly,  a sense of ownership, that the nation will achieve its true potential. Only in recognizing the inexorable link between biography and history, between consciousness of self and national ideals, will South Africa attain the vision articulated by Steve Biko: In time we shall be in the position to bestow upon South Africa the greatest gift possible: a more human face.”

By Christine Delport, Greater Rustenburg Community Foundation

Communities have many needs but they also have many assets. We have long-held this belief at the Greater Rustenburg Community Foundation, and last spring we started to share this view with the people in our community. We used an innovative development strategy that was adapted to the South African context. It is called the ABCD approach (Asset Based Community Driven), and it is really as simple as the letters of the alphabet.

The ABCD approach starts by focusing on what the community has, rather than what it lacks. It shows that by pooling assets a lot can be achieved with little outside help. This approach helps communities realize they are richer than they think. And we’re not talking about just money. We’re also talking about people and their talents and experiences.

We started with pilot programs in Mathopestat and the Kgetleng region and it is easy to see the visible improvements because of this. Many projects, both social and economic, have started up. The most powerful change, however, is the light of hope I see in people’s eyes as they realize they have far more control over their own lives than they realized. There is also a change in attitude as people begin to understand they have the power to raise themselves and their communities out of poverty – if they work together.

Another interesting adventure for GRCF is our trips to prison. Yes, GRCF loves going to prison, especially when it’s to help a group of inmates develop a business plan. The inmate-driven Losperfontein Anti-Crime Awareness Project (LACAP) aims to show youth that crime does not pay; inmates want to prevent others from following in their path. The prison program also tries to reduce re-offending by sending released prisoners to a halfway house where they can develop job and life skills.

The LACAP group members are dynamic and passionate. When we listen to them speak about their project and what they already have accomplished, it’s hard to believe we’re listening to convicted murderers and rapists. With crime as an issue of concern now more than ever in South Africa, this project has a lot of promise in helping our community become a safer place for everyone.

Started by maximum-security inmates who wanted to atone for their past mistakes, the project allows men to make a useful contribution to society from within prison walls. This is an asset that few organizations would see as such, but we do at GRCF.

By Amanda Cooper, Cape Town Holocaust Centre

It’s been 16 years since our Rainbow Nation first burst forth joyously into democracy. That first rosy flush of peace, love, understanding and wide-eyed optimism has faded slowly into a morass of cynicism and finger-pointing.

Sadly, we’re no longer the loving parents of a young democracy, ever so proud of everything our baby does. We’re now the cranky old folks that yell at neighborhood kids to get off the lawn. Not without reason, you understand. With the media parading a constant stream of stories about corruption, hate-speech, crime, infighting, backbiting, bribery, striking, protests and constant embarrassing sports defeats, it’s hard not to slump into discontented pessimism.

This is why non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and public service organizations are ever-more important. It’s why we need to play the role of mentor and cajoler, and be a mirror to reflect the need for change. We need to promote growth, spread positivity, celebrate diversity, educate, inform, and strengthen our society.

The pessimists are wrong: Look all around and the evidence is there. I’ve seen hundreds of “born frees” – kids born into democracy – come to the Centre, positive and enthusiastic about learning; ardent social activists, with a developing culture of volunteerism. I’ve seen educators who truly care about developing young minds and fighting intolerance and injustice in their communities; I’ve seen religious leaders who preach hope and tolerance and who emphasize commonalities – people of all hues and cultures coming together to learn about the past, with their eyes fixed firmly on a better future – no, a better today!

NGOs need to be the ultimate optimists – the ones bridging cultural and societal chasms, celebrating rich diversity and the value of every life. They need to remind us all that democracy takes work, dedication and ultimately perseverance – but it is worth it.

NGOs remind us all that it’s possible to be a realist and an optimist. It’s not an easy fight, trying to make yourself heard over the clamour of the bitter, the cynical, and the afraid. But I think as long as there are those who are willing to take on the challenge, this will one day be the rainbow nation of our dreams.