HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION AND AWARENESS RAISING: This programme entails information sessions during onsite visits to structures targeting about twenty members of the community. Community outreach events focussing on children, women and older persons comprising of a full-day event with live drama performances, speakers, etc. Here we target about 300 people per event. We anticipate that based on the number and type of cases reported to Community Advice Offices and in turn to KCHR, a baseline will be formed as to the severity or lack thereof of human rights violations. Human rights abuses are still rife in rural areas, especially on farms. This could be attributed to its isolation and dependence on farmers to provide an income to this sector of society. A very high percentage of the geographical area of the Karoo area is agricultural land. Agriculture, therefore, forms the backbone of the economy and is the largest employer. As a proactive step, farmworkers should be sensitised on dealing with their expectations, dealing with conflict, how to debate and negotiate and at the same time, be accountable for their actions. Unskilled labour should be encouraged to enhance their skills in order to be more productive thereby becoming eligible for higher wages. Educating them on their human rights, but also their responsibilities, would empower them to deal with these issues in a democratic and non-violent fashion.
MENTORING AND COACHING:
The purpose of the mentoring and coaching site visits to organisations in the Western Cape, Northern, Eastern Cape and Free State Provinces is to build the institutional capacity of the these structures focusing on its governance, financial management, product development, marketing, risk management, compliance and sustainability. A further purpose is to create an enabling environment by ensuring the long-term institutional sustainability of these institutions, through the provision of an integrated and comprehensive support service. The rationale of mentoring and coaching visits is that community drove and managed structures were formed due to a very specific need in a particular society. Seeing that these structures need to attract funding from various sources, e.g. government, they need to be institutionally sound. They are only able to convince any potential investor to finance their activities should they practice good governance and financial control, comply with relevant legislation (NPO Act, SARS, labour legislation, etc.), and have a strategy that will ultimately ensure their sustainability and less dependency on so-called ‘handouts’. The rationale behind the mentoring and coaching visits is to strengthen and in some cases, even build the above-mentioned capacity. Through our interventions, we are creating a platform conducive for attracting funding by institutions.
TRAINING AND CAPACITY BUILDING (TARGETING NPO’s)
NPO’s (NGOs, CBOs and FBOs) are not for profit organisations, working from a generally strong community upliftment ethos. They are driven by widely shared values and a belief in the social change mission inherent in their work. They play a role in terms of championing the needs of the poor. NPO’s generally have an advantage of being able to concentrate on activities relating to the needs of the poor and they have more direct interaction with the poor. NPO’s are different to the private sector because their approach is focused on combining sustainable service delivery with developing people and building social capital. Their approach can be described as: