Churches involved in urgent relief for cyclone Idai survivors

This partnership stems from the fact that this disaster will require the highest level of mobilisation possible.

The South African Council of Churches (SACC), Red Cross South Africa, Hope Worldwide, and other civil society partners have been involved in consolidated and urgent relief efforts to help survivors of cyclone Idai in Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe.

Red Cross South Africa CEO Lindel Papiyah said ahead of a planned media briefing: “We are partnering with the churches because this is a disaster that will require the highest level of mobilisation possible, and churches have that footprint and goodwill.”

Cyclone Idai has wreaked havoc on Beira and surrounding areas of Mozambique, resulting in loss of communication, damage, and destruction to shelter and settlements, health and water/sanitation facilities and thousands of hectares of standing crops, communication infrastructure, with loss of life and injury.

SACC’s Bishop Mpumlwana said: “We know that many more people will die from disease resulting from this tragedy, far more than those lives taken by the cyclone itself. Human lives will need to recalibrate in the new reality, including dealing with hundreds of children orphaned in this disaster.

“This is an urgent but long term joint effort by us as churches and civil society to help our neighbours that will require consistency of commitment.”

Deloitte has joined the partnership, bringing in pro bono audit support to the fund that is being launched.

Deloitte CEO, Lwazi Bam said: “We have been looking for civil society partners to respond to this disaster, and are happy to have the partnership with the SACC and faith-based organisations. We shall be calling on all our associates to participate in this noble endeavour.”

– African News Agency

16 Days of Activism confronting Gender Based Violence (GBV)

CA in South Africa is again involved in 16 Days of Activism confronting Gender Based Violence (GBV) in the country – through our emerging joint ACT Ubumbano Solidarity Hub work.

We focus on 2 key solidarity activities this year to empower communities to take forward the justice struggles against GBV (prophetic voice in action) far beyond the 16 days – watch this yammer space for updates in the new year:

  1. Intergenerational Dialogues on GBV – Building Solidarity through Liberation Theology
  2. Improved Community-based GBV protection systems – through community paralegal advice office network

The intergenerational dialogues within a faith space have the aim of creating safe space for dialogue between younger and older women (especially linking those below 24 with those above 65 – both groups experiencing GBV) and develop concrete solidarity and networking plans for different communities and groups involved involving church leaders and various communities and community-based social movements. While individual church leaders have spoken out on GBV, this initiative hopes to advance a collective ecumenical voice to amplify voices from grassroots social struggles.

The community-based GBV protection system is a pilot for using the well-respected community advice office network as a catalyst to shift the focus of GBV approach at community level from response and support to protection, where communities become agents of their own protection, by involving varied actors: churches, local police, migrant women, community savings clubs and local CBOs.

This responds to a major challenge in South Africa that GBV plans often remain national policy documents without filtering to other levels, particularly communities. These can then in turn support advocacy towards more informed future plans at higher levels.

Both these actions will link with several member partners of ACT Ubumbano and will involve church leader engagement in the approach.

What is ACT Ubumbano?: We are a network of Southern African and European organisations working for economic, gender and environmental justice.  ACT Ubumbano brings together about 30 southern partners (with a strong faith-based participation, but inclusive of others with no specific faith identity) and 3 ACT E8 European members (CA is a co-founder) – as an initiative of ACT Alliance members and other partners. The partners work on different themes and from local to global, but a priority has emerged of intersecting and connecting different justice struggles and amplifying community voice.

Gender Justice is a key component of this work, and a key strategy is around engaging faith leaders and GBV survivors, as well as focusing on women/girls as well as men/boys in different activities and taking their voice to decision makers. We look forward to exchanging with other countries to amplify and learn from each other, for example connections related to Side-by-Side or other similar connections engaging communities and recognizing the role of faith actors in advancing Gender Justice.

Government’s Intervention Vital in the Waste Industry

Community activists are calling for government to intervene in the waste pickers industry. The community of Thulani Snake Park informal settlement in Soweto wants the government to regulate the industry by protecting waste pickers and thus allow the community to make a meaningful living from collecting waste.

“Residing in a community that is contaminated by mine waste radioactivity is not easy for the people of Thulani Snake Park, as this causes health hazards and endangers our livelihoods. People around the area are now making a living as waste pickers to survive” says community member and activist Thokozile Mntambo.

Picking up waste has allowed the community to make money from recycling, thereby ensuring that they can pay for electricity, paraffin and food.

Waste picking is not covered by any type of legislation or policy, and waste management policies in South Africa cover only the formal waste sector.

“It is hard for women waste pickers as they need to wake up early  and walk long distance pushing a trolley to get items like metal scrap and plastic bottles for recycling” says Mntambo. In the suburban areas’ women waste pickers get labelled with derogatory names such as “bomalala pipes” while security guards also chase them away from picking up waste.

“Waste pickers also do not get enough money from waste collection because the scrap yard does not pay much, especially when the scale is small,” continued Mntambo.

A 2017 report by Department of Science and Technology through the National Research Foundation’s Centre of Excellence in Food Security found that on average waste pickers made between R290 to R 770 a week from the waste they collect.

In Thulani Snake Park, some of the waste pickers are drug addicts, who use the returns from selling scrap metal to feed their addiction. This contributes to the dangers faced by women waste pickers who are exposed to intimidation by these addicts.

“The Thulani Snake Park community is calling on government to formulate policies that will ensure that they are recognisedas an informal sector,and to stop the municipality from privatising the waste picking sector,” concludes Mntambo

NOTE TO EDITORS: The Ubumbano Community Voice website and application is a platform for community activists in Southern Africa to share stories of their struggles for dignity and justice, and for journalists and others to get direct access to those stories. It is supported by the ACT Alliance, a global coalition of faith-based organisations.

For More Information and Interviews Contact:

Nhlanhla Kubeka
frayintermedia: Account manager
Tel: +27 11 888 0140
Cell: +27 79 847 897
Email: nkubeka@frayintermedia.com

Thokozile Mntambo
Thulani Snake Park community activist
Cell: +27 65 326 4565

Ashely Green-Thompson
ACT Ubumbano: Change Manager
Cell: +27 83 442 4497
Email: AGreen-Thompson@christian-aid.org

NGO creates citizen journalism app for communities

By Sibahle Malinga, IT Web Journalist
Johannesburg

CT Ubumbano, a network of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) around Southern Africa, has unveiled a mobile and Web-based application aimed at helping community members report and share their personal stories of social, economic and gender injustice.

ACT Ubumbano is part of the global ACT Alliance consisting of members from Europe and Southern Africa, aimed at helping communities fight societal ills such as child abuse, lack of service delivery, crime, domestic violence, racism and xenophobia by collaborating with, and supporting, solidarity initiatives.

Speaking at the launch in Johannesburg yesterday, Ashley Green-Thompson, change manager at ACT Alliance, said the citizen journalism platform, the Ubumbano Voice Community Project, is aimed at giving a voice to marginalised communities and those most affected by social injustice.

“Mobile phones have become a critical tool to change lives in communities. The digital platform is about giving communities the opportunity to speak to each other and to the public, in a way that is unfiltered or unedited.

“Primarily, we want to create a network of communication between communities, government councillors, NGOs and churches, through sharing stories which will explore relevant issues.

“Oftentimes other people such as the media and politicians speak on behalf of community members without always representing facts or reality. As ACT, we don’t decide what the messaging should be, it’s the community member who does so, by sharing a personal story about something that affects them directly and raises awareness on an issue that could go unnoticed,” she explained.

In citizen journalism style, the user shares an image, video or a written article of their personal story or incident on ACT’s social media pages on Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter.

The moderator analyses the stories, makes minor edits and then uploads them to the ACT Web site, which automatically feeds them onto the mobile app.

The app, currently only available from the Android app store, is not only about having journalists follow up and report on some of these stories. It also aims to go beyond telling stories and creating a flow of information, sending a message to key decision-makers, such as national government officials and local councillors, to be aware of what’s happening in their communities, Green-Thompson pointed out.

“There could potentially be hundreds of stories told per day and it’s important for the policymakers to have access to these stories, through the app. While there is no limit to the type of stories shared, there are obviously guidelines to follow regarding the type of content published, and the stories have to be credible and based on factual events.”

Global impact

The ACT Alliance is a global network of 146 churches and NGOs working together in over 120 countries to create positive and sustainable change in the lives of poor and marginalised people. The NGOs include: Act for Peace, the Centre for Disaster Risk Management and Community Development Studies, Baptist World Aid and the Council of Churches.

In response to changing global conditions, and to effectively amplify the impact of its work, the Alliance collaborated with three European Protestant development agencies and Southern African partners, to explore new models of solidarity and collaboration between European development organisations and civil society organisations in Southern Africa.

“A key element of this process was establishing a ‘Solidarity Hub’, which is the focal point for interaction, learning and dialogue among local and international partners. The Ubumbano Voice Community Project is part of the Solidarity Hub, seeking to take targeted and strategic action to make real change and deepen solidarity in communities,” according to ACT Ubumbano.

With the advent of technological advancements and social media, the popularity of citizen journalism has spread across the globe. Some major news events have been recorded by citizens who were in the right place at the right time. These include the widespread destruction of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 London subway bombings and the 2005 Air France crash in Toronto.

Other NGOs that have introduced citizen journalism digital platforms in SA include youth organisation loveLife; amandla.mobi, which runs online social activism campaigns; and the Citizen Journalism in Africa Project, a partnership project between NGOs Sangonet and Hivos.

Source: IT Web

Ubumbano Wants To Empower Communities To Tell Their Own Stories

By Shaazia Ebrahim

Your smartphone is a powerful tool. It is a basis of a terrible inequality, and one of the reasons that the Democratic Republic of Congo – and various countries in Africa – suffer disruptions. But it can also be used as a tool for change. ACT Ubumbano wants to empower communities to use their smartphones to tell their stories and empower themselves.

ACT Ubumbano is an organising tool and enables users to post stories about their communities on it. It was designed to help highlight community struggles and allow communities to interact with and learn from each other. It launched its website and a mobile app that accompanies it as part of it’s ‘Solidarity Hub’ on Wednesday in Rosebank.

Ubumbano is a Nguni word for solidarity. The organisation is made up of local organisations and three European Protestant development agencies of global faith-based association the ACT Alliance. It was developed to explore new models of solidarity and collaboration between European development organisations and civil society organisations in Southern Africa.

All these organisations have “a shared commitment to human dignity”, ACT Ubumbano’s Ashley Green-Thompson said. ACT Ubumbano was developed to “solve social justice challenges and build solidarity between organisations and people based on shared values” and to “challenge dominant narratives governed by the ‘big men’ and to say the voice of ordinary communities must be heard as well,” he added.

Community activist from Snake Park in Soweto, Thoko Mntambo, said the initiative is important as a platform for communities to tell their stories independently. “Who better to understand the community’s problems than themselves?” Mntambo poses.

Mntambo says communities want to be able to work independently of NGOs. “If communities can stop depending on NGOs and do things themselves, we can make change,” she said. Mntambo says that NGOs often come into communities with their own research which is not always helpful to communities.

Mntambo also says that in her experience, communities need tools that can be used with existing resources because funding always complicates activism. “When funding comes, there is corruption because as activists we forget what we’re fighting for,” she said.

What Mntambo likes about the app is that “it’s not focused on only one thing, it can be about environmental issues or social issues. It gives communities a platform to explore themselves without limiting them”.

Mntambo hopes ACT Ubumbano will conduct workshops in her community of Snake Park.

For her part, she will be speaking to as many members of her community about the app so they can get started on telling their stories.

The Ubumbano app is available on the Google Play Store and App Store for download.

Source: The Daily Vox

Digital Activism Key to Galvanising Communities

Press Release
17 October 2018

“Cell phones have become a critical tool to change lives in communities.” This was highlighted by community activists at the launch of the Ubumbano Voice Community Project in Johannesburg today. Bobby Marie of the Bench Marks Foundation facilitated a panel discussion on the value of digital media in promoting social change. He said “We have not understood fully how significant cell phones are in driving change in communities. An app like this has massive potential to bring communities’ voice into the mainstream”

Community activist from Thulani Snake Park, Thoko Mntambo echoed this sentiment when she described how digital tools have helped her expose many of the difficulties the communities face by living next to discarded mine dumps and tailing dams. She told of children being affected by cerebral palsy, respiratory disease and other medical conditions caused directly by exposure to poisonous chemicals.

Mukasiri Sibanda of the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) challenged journalists to pay attention to the stories of communities. “We have a wealth of information, but a poverty of attention by the media”. Reporting on community experiences can help to hold investors and governments accountable for decision that affect the wellbeing of people living in mining-affected communities.

The app is a platform for interaction, learning and exchange ideas amongst local and various stakeholders. This seeks to give voice to communities we work with, and that builds solidarity across the global south and north. Clarity Sibanda from the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) is the moderator of information that flows to the app, and described it as “a way of communities telling their stories without being filtered by anyone – it is authentic community voice”. The challenge is for journalists to get in touch with those who post stories, and the app can help them do that.

The app can be downloaded from the Play Store.

NOTE TO EDITORS: The Ubumbano Community Voice website and application is a platform for community activists in Southern Africa to share stories of their struggles for dignity and justice, and for journalists and others to get direct access to those stories. It is supported by the ACT Alliance, a global coalition of faith-based organisations.

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND INTERVIEWS CONTACT:

Nhlanhla Kubeka
frayintermedia: Account manager
Tel: +27 11 888 0140
Cell: +27 79 847 897
Email: nkubeka@frayintermedia.com

Ashely Green-Thompson
ACT Alliance: Change Manager
Cell: +27 83 442 4497
Email: AGreen-Thompson@christian-aid.org

Arda Transau Relocation, A Tale of the Resource Curse

Drug abuse, commercial sex work, domestic violence and family disintegration are some of the social ills that remain embedded in most rural communities. Villagers residing in Arda Transau, a state owned farm turned residential area for people displaced by mining activities in Chiadzwa’s diamond fields have argued that these challenges are faced predominantly by women.

“These challenges date back to 2009 when villagers from Marange were displaced to pave way for large scale diamond mining.People’s rights were violated, they were relocated without adequate compensation and compensation procedures were not properly followed.”According to Zimbabwe Diamonds and Allied Workers Union (ZIDAWU)’s official, Cosmas Sunguro.

Sunguro further highlighted that the villagers, particularly women, in the resettled community felt disoriented and traumatised by verbal, psychological and other types of abuse perpetrated by the military officials who were actively involved in the forced displacement.

Some women residing in the area have raised concern over domestic violence and sexual harassment in their families attributing this to insufficient or lack of food to feed the family among other basic necessities. Most of the families relocated to Arda Transau from Chiadzwa diamond fields do not have income generating projects that can assist them to fend for their families. The rate of unemployment is estimated at around 95%, the community of Arda Transau has not been spared.

Speaking in her local language, Marry who resides in Arda Transau said,”lack of livelihood projects to sustain their families has brought untold suffering in the community adding that the government and former mining companies who relocated them did not provide alternative livelihoods options for sustaining them.”

According to a survey conducted in Arda Transau by the Zimbabwe Diamonds and Allied Workers Union (ZIDAWU) in June this year, some of the women interviewed revealed that they are engaging in commercial sex work to earn a living. If given other alternative ways of survival, they confided that they would quit the trade. Women hardly have access to employment opportunities in the mining companies to be able to sustain their families.

In addition, most parents cannot afford to pay school fees and the burden often falls on the mothers who have to take manual jobs to secure school fees. The management at a local school in Arda Transau has also come under the spotlight for sending pupils back home for failure to settle tuition fees. This is in direct contravention of Section 75(1) of the Zimbabwe Constitution which notes that; every citizen and permanent resident of Zimbabwe has a right to a basic State funded education.

ZIDAWU argues that there is a need for continuous engagement with communities that depend on and are affected by extractivism while development partners and the government must ensure that mining companies honour their obligations.

Press Release: Arda Transau Relocation, A Tale of the Resource Curse

Drug abuse, commercial sex work, domestic violence and family disintegration are some of the social ills that remain embedded in most rural communities. Villagers residing in Arda Transau, a state owned farm turned residential area for people displaced by mining activities in Chiadzwa’s diamond fields have argued that these challenges are faced predominantly by women.

“These challenges date back to 2009 when villagers from Marange were displaced to pave way for large scale diamond mining. People’s rights were violated, they were relocated without adequate compensation and compensation procedures were not properly followed.” According to Chairman of Zimbabwe Diamonds and Allied Workers Union, Cosmas Sunguro

Sunguro further highlighted that the villagers, particularly women, in the resettled community felt disoriented, and traumatised by verbal, psychological and other types of abuse by the military who were actively involved in the forced displacement.

Some women residing in the area have raised concern over domestic violence and sexual harassment in their families attributing this to insufficient or lack of food to feed the family among other basic necessities. Most of the families relocated to Arda Transau from Chiadzwa diamond fields do not have income generating projects that can assist them to fend for their families. The rate of unemployment is estimated at around 95%, the community of Arda Transau has not been spared.

Speaking in her local language, Marry Kusena who resides in Arda Transau said, ”lack of livelihood projects to sustain their families has brought untold suffering in the community adding that the government and former mining companies who relocated them did not provide alternative livelihoods options for sustaining them.”

According to a survey conducted in Arda Transau by the Zimbabwe Diamonds and Allied Workers Union (ZIDAWU) in June this year, some of the women interviewed revealed that they are engaging in commercial sex work to earn a living. If given other alternative ways of survival, they confided that they would quit the trade. Women hardly have access to employment opportunities in the mining companies to be able to sustain their families.

In addition, most parents cannot afford to pay school fees and the burden often falls on the mothers who have to take manual jobs to secure school fees. The management at a local school in Arda Transau has also come under the spotlight for sending pupils back home for failure to settle tuition fees. This is in direct contravention of Section 75(1) of the Zimbabwe Constitution which notes that; every citizen and permanent resident of Zimbabwe has a right to a basic State funded education.

ZIDAWU argues that there is a need for continuous engagement with communities that depend on and are affected by extractivism while development partners and the government must ensure that mining companies honour their obligations.

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND INTERVIEWS CONTACT:

Nhlanhla Kubeka
frayintermedia: Account manager
Tel: +27 11 888 0140
Cell: +27 79 847 897
Email: nkubeka@frayintermedia.com

OR

Cosmas Sunguro
Zimbabwe Diamonds and Allied Workers Union: Chairman
Cell: +263 772 763 209
Email: zzidawu@gmail.com

Illegal Sand Mining, An Ecological Negative Practice

By Booker Menzva

Illegal sand mining in the Kruger to Canyons biosphere is depleting the rivers ecosystem adversely affecting the livelihoods of communities who live around and depend on the rivers. Miners are leaving deep holes that fill up with water and are a hazard to children and livestocks, drowning cases are on the rise. Villagers fear if uncurbed these illegal mining activities will destroy their rivers and deprive them of their source of water and livelihood.

Illegal sand mining is leaving untold damage to the environment