ANSA International Program Blog

My first work in Cape Town was a lengthy and wildly productive day with Helen Lieberman, the founder of one of the oldest and largest service-oriented non-profits  in South Africa, Ikamva Labantu.  For 45 years Ikamva Labantu has been assisting with social programs run by the community and today there are over 1000 of these programs operating throughout the country.  For the first 30 years they operated in spite of the apartheid government's regulations against such organizing activities.  I asked Helen how many times she had been arrested and she said, "that's like asking me how many times I ate."  To say that we have come upon a valuable partnership is an understatement of tremendous proportions. 

I spent the morning with Helen and Jo-Anne Prins, Ikamva's grant writer and the woman who originally responded to my introductoy email.  After a few hours of discussion and time to get acquainted with our intentions (which were scrutinized), Helen made the firm decision that we were worth Ikamva's time and attention, and she wasted no time getting me jump started in our work here.  Starting Monday morning i will be set up with an desk space and telephone at Ikamva to call various key local contacts - all the names and phone numbers already provided to me - and I have permission to use Helen's name to ensure I get a meeting set up. 

Over the next weeks I will be meeting with: the Director of Health for the Western Cape; the head of all local health clinics in the Western Cape; the lone nutritionist who does all of the nutrition education and trainings for Ikamva's local progams (on a part-time contractual basis); the Red Cross Children's Hospital; Feedbank, the main distributor of food products for the Cape; the Peninsula School Feeding Program; TB Care; and five health clinics in the townships of Crossroads, Philani, Phumlani, Weltevreeden Valley, Nzamezabantu.  All of these are in addition to the meetings with Treatment Action Campaign, Medicens sans Frontier and other large organizations.  Ikamva is setting me up with a driver to take me to the clinics and to the community programs they had originally recommended we visit to asses potential partnership opportunities.

Today Helen took me to three feeding centers in Pillipi and Khayalitsha, and to visit a woman with 27 orphans living in her home in Khayalitsha.  There are many, many of these women living in townships throughout South Africa.  She is taking me to several schools and other programs all day on March 23.  She will be bringing along a woman from Art for AIDS who she thinks we might have an interest in possibly collaborating with in some creative way.

Ikamva is active and well known in the SANCOs (South African Neighborhood Councils), the local governing groups within all of the townships.  These SANCOs work directly with, and are funded by, the regional and national governing parliamentary offices.  Helen will connect me with representatives from both the SANCOs and, as appropriate, Cape Town partliamentary officials "once we are ready."  

The meetings and activities this morning were incredibly valuable not only for the connections, but also because all of us spent a great deal of time discussing our respective approaches to non-profit work and our philosophies on community involvement.  We only scratched the surface on issues of community linkages, funding and other pertinent topics.  There will be much ground to cover together, and we are unbelievably blessed to have this sort of guidance and assistance to get us started.

I spent the evening enjoying some of the wonderful local culture and letting the day settle in.  As you can imagine, my mind and heart are still reeling from so much stimulation.

Peace to all...Mary