volunteering

Peace Corps volunteers, working closely with Zambian software developers, have developed a mobile application that will translate English words and phrases into any of seven languages spoken in Zambia.

The Peace Corps say ‘Bantu Babel’, which is intended to help Peace Corps volunteers, international aid workers and host-country nationals communicate more effectively, is now available for Android-compatible devices in the Google Play store.

It says the application can be used as a training tool for government and aid workers or as a supplement to formal language training, runs offline, eliminating the need for an Internet connection.

To read the article titled, “Peace Corps volunteers create mobile language App,” click here.

With the State of the Nation Address and the 2013/14 Budget speech behind us, we now more than before have a gripping awareness that the South African reality is one that will need a lot more input before it is what we as South Africans need it to be.
 
We have made great strides towards equity and the sharing of wealth and knowledge but it has been staggered. This means that there are some areas that need more attention than others. One of these areas is youth development. I have always been passionate about the value of education and the attaining of skills because I understand that it empowers the individual as well as society, to improve. If we have knowledge and skills, our dependency on others will be less and we will be more equipped to be also self-sufficient, this is enriching in terms of dignity.

As a political science graduate, I know from experience how difficult it is to break into the job market, especially into one's own field. We can see that the youth is battling to come to grips with the reality that there are simply not enough jobs for everyone. We cannot continue to look at the state to resolve the issue, although we know that we can depend on it for assistance. It is the accumulation of these ideas that have led me to get off my behind and give my input. However, it goes without saying that actions speak louder than words, so this is what I am working on. I was given an opportunity to write articles on politics, to be edited published on a website by Shari Cupido, a Brussels-based diplomatic, to keep the poolsci juices flowing while doing my daily job. Upon completing the two-month online internship, I asked Cupido whether we could partner with the Claremont Volunteer Centre so that future interns who do not have a day job can gain working experience and build contacts through volunteering, to which she agreed. I then approached the Volunteer Centre, since I cannot volunteer due to my working - I collect goods and donate to when I can; I spoke with Shahida who also was in agreement. Shahida arranges for local and international volunteers to come and assist those who are in need of working experience. She hopes to grow her base of international volunteers to a group of more than one hundred. Shahida has put forth the invaluable opportunity for young political science and international relations graduates to motivate the volunteers by means of talks, and to workshops or lectures, to discuss issues such as diversity and HIV/AIDS.
 
The status of refugees in South Africa, as well as the more other issues such as how did the youth come to have a sense of entitlement and how young people can more broadly impact the community.

We had had our first successful talk, focusing on the issue of diversity, delivered by Fazlin Fransman, a member of the South African Political Science group.

It is our mission to give graduates a platform to gain the experience that they will need to put to use the knowledge that they have attained through their studies and allow them to polish real time ideas into articles on politics. The articles should speak to the contemporary issues as well as ultimately engaging in a broad-spectrum enrichment in terms of the actual volunteering and assisting of the administration of volunteering.

This blog serves to show that creative though in the face of difficult circumstances can lead to the development of ideas that are able to address issue and empower us as the people of South Africa to make a difference in our own communities. It has also been to thank those who are involved in SA Pol-Sci and the Claremont Volunteer Centre for the amazing work.

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The increasing socio-economic conditions faced by many South African communities call for corporates to start channelling adequate resources into their corporate social investment (CSI) programmes. Apart from increasing their CSI spend, utilising the skills at their disposal (their staff) in partnership with the beneficiaries to implement the programmes will add value to the investments they are making in communities. Furthermore, transferring the ownership of the CSI initiatives to the beneficiaries will not only turn them into participants of social change, but also ensure that their CSI initiatives are sustained.

On 9 March 2012, I had some of these ideas while I was travelling to Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg, to witness the launch of the Transnet Volunteers for Villages Programme (EVP). The EVP is a pioneering programme that will see intensive volunteering efforts ploughed into selected villages over a period of three years, and has now become a major component of Transnet’s CSI spend. Travelling with a newspaper journalist, two photographers and one of the organisers of the event, I was reminded  of the current socio-economic challenges faced by the majority, especially the historically-disadvantaged, requires commitment from government, private sector, civil society and the communities themselves to work together.

Transnet Foundation, a CSI unit of Transnet, used the day to introduce its staff, who will be volunteering a maximum of 24 hours a year or three hours per week for a period of three years, to doing community work at various centres within Diepsloot. Their involvement is limited to three years, a time in which all interventions must have reached sustainable levels.

Briefing the employees on the EVP, rules for engagement and the introduction of the village walk guide, Susie Mabie, senior manager for EVP, emphasised the need for the volunteers to integrate themselves into the community. Mabie urged the volunteers to use their three years of engagement to transfer skills, guide and to capacitate the community.

The importance of involving employees in CSI was reiterated by Cynthia Mgijima, head of Transnet Foundation, who pointed out that while the developmental needs of most underprivileged communities are extremely broad, spanning education, health, infrastructure and far more, the vast wealth of skills found within the ranks of its employees offers a match for all requirements. “With engineers to trades people as staff, we believe that we can create many and diverse volunteering opportunities for our employees,” she explained. 

The volunteers then embarked on a ‘walk about’, hosted by Patrick Maseko, to Skills Development Centre, Bona Lesedi, Diepsloot Pre-school, OR Tambo Clinic, Diepsloot Youth Centre, Diepsloot Methodist Church, and Diepsloot Primary School.

The highlight of this event was when Ernst & Young, in partnership with Transnet, donated 300 pairs of shoes to Grade 1 learners at Diepsloot Primary School, which currently accommodates 1 100 learners. Ernst & Young accounts coordinator, Zonke Mnyandu, explained that her company saw the need to make a contribution to the school, after hearing that the Transnet Foundation adopted it. Mnyandu emphasised that the donation is an acknowledgement of the important role that schools play in shaping our future.

The delighted school principal, Joe Makhafola, assured everyone that the donation will make a difference in the lives of the beneficiaries. Makhafola is of the view that the shoes will go a long way in keeping the learners inside the classrooms even during winter. He further explained that many of the learners abandon classes during the winter season as they are unable to cope walking to school bare-footed in the extreme cold.

“This should not be the last time we see you,” he pleaded.

Meanwhile, the school provides two meals a day (breakfast and lunch) to the learners since many of them come from extreme poverty backgrounds and struggle to concentrate during the lessons, due to hunger.

In order to take its CSI programme to another level, the Foundation is also considering monthly ‘Help Desk’ sessions, where the community representatives will be able to consult a panel of experts from various fields, drawn from Transnet staff.  “In this way, we feel that we as South Africa’s freight carrier are not just focussing on our own core business, but on the communities within which we operate,” says Mgijima.

- Butjwana Seokoma is information coordinator at SANGONeT.

In December 2011, the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF UK) released the second edition of a world survey on giving and voluntarism. The ‘World Giving Index 2011’ shows that the United States of America is the most charitable country, while Ireland is ranked second and Australia third. This Index is the most globally inclusive study into altruistic behaviour, covering 153 countries.  The report shows that the world has become a more generous place over the last 12 months – with a two percent increase in the global population ‘helping a stranger’ and a one percent increase in people volunteering. However, the worldwide financial turmoil is almost certainly the reason that percent fewer people have given money to a nonprofit or charitable organisation in 2011.

South Africa is not favourably ranked in this study, as we are placed 108 out of the 153 countries surveyed. This ranking seems to contradict a 2005 national study on giving (the most recent in-depth national research available) which suggested that SA is a ‘Nation of Givers’, and that a potential 93 percent of respondents gave either money, time or in-kind contributions.

Giving behaviours are complex social phenomena, particularly in multicultural and increasingly inequitous SA, and therefore notoriously difficult to quantify accurately. For example, if we consider various estimates of the national rate of volunteering: the 2011 World Giving Index reports a South African volunteering rate of 14 percent, the ‘Nation of Givers’ study reported that 17 percent of South Africans volunteer, while the new Statistics SA volunteering survey calculates a volunteering rate of only 3.5 percent of the working age population.

The Stats SA study has been criticised for failing to survey the particular giving behaviours that take place within poor communities. In addition, the Stats SA study overlooked the substantial contributions made through employee community involvement – the corporate-sponsored contributions of working people.

Susan Wilkinson-Maphosa’s respected indigenous research into giving in SA and the region has revealed the rich and long-established traditions in philanthropy that exist.  (Susan Wilkinson-Maphosa ‘The Poor Philanthropist’)

Because the term ‘philanthropy’ is not universally popular with Africans, and does not capture the range of nuances of giving which exist, an emerging body of literature on philanthropy in Africa uses the terms ‘help, solidarity or philanthropy of community’. This refers to giving by many, particularly the marginalised or the poor, to other poor individuals of their community.

Among African communities in which there is a strong religious presence; Christianity, Islam, and Hindus, all subscribe to beliefs that prescribe helping individuals who are less fortunate. This has been recognised by some African states (for example Kenya in the 1960s) as a means of mobilising communities to pool resources for local development. It may be that South Africa could adopt this model to augment established local economic development initiatives. In addition to the potential increase in development resources, this model of community development should increase social cohesion and/or social capital. As a proven indicator of social cohesion, social capital is increasingly viewed (by socio-economic analysts) as one of the preconditions for democracy and development.

Another critical area of South African giving which would not be revealed through the Gallup Poll data, are the myriad independent foundations established by wealthy South Africans. In addition to foundations established by liberal white people under apartheid, since the 1994 democratic elections a growing number of newly-wealthy black Africans are practicing various forms of organised philanthropy. Much of this giving takes place privately, without publicity, and for the benefit of rural home communities.

In order to provide a current and reliable basis for national policy and planning it is imperative that we have new studies to quantify and understand South African giving behaviours. For example, recent Australian research revealed that over Aus$ 20 million (R160 million) per annum is contributed through payroll giving by 11 million employed Australians. Here in South Africa, we unfortunately do not have regular measuring of the scale and value of employee community involvement.  For example, according to Stats SA there are 13 million employed people in South Africa. This is a significant, largely untapped and definitely overlooked collective resource for development.  The latest edition of the prestigious CSI Handbook estimates that 76 percent of South African corporates support some form of employee involvement (up from 63 percent in 2008). But currently only an estimated 22 percent of companies support payroll giving - which at this stage has the most likely developmental potential. More work is necessary to establish payroll giving as an accepted aspect of corporate social responsibility and concomitant development resource.

CAF Southern Africa is currently fundraising to conduct a national study on individual giving and voluntarism, with a specific focus on employee contributions. Our study will be undertaken by well-regarded local researchers and will use innovative and culturally-sensitive instruments to measure and analyse the entire spectrum of uniquely South African practices of giving and volunteering. As a highly unequal developing economy, we need this information in order to influence the policy environment, promote giving behaviours, improve impact and link ‘philanthropic’ resources to processes of economic advancement and positive social change.

For more about the World Giving Index 2011, refer to www.cafsouthernafrica.org/resources-cafinternational.htm.

- Colleen du Toit is chief executive officer at CAF Southern Africa.