Catholic NGO in the Northern Cape: People taking Action

Amid South Africa’s many social problems, a Catholic NGO is helping communities in the Northern Cape empower themselves, as Rosanne Shields explains.

Our country has more than its fair share of problems — serious problems which impact on people’s daily lives in a very real way. While these issues are sometimes overwhelming, we need to keep hope alive and look to those who have the courage to get up every morning, not to tell God how big these problems are but to tell these problems how big God is.

The Rural Development Support Program (RDSP) is a small, tightly-knit Church organisation that slots in under the Social Action Department of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference. In 2022 it celebrated 30 years of pioneering rural social development work.

RDSP has always punched above its weight and in 30 years the team, which I have had the honour of serving with for several years, has worked directly with over 30000 people living in rural parts of southern Africa — people who themselves are determined to change their rural realities of poverty, unemployment and neglect.

One aspect of RDSP’s work over the last three decades is in the field of gender-based violence (GBV). This is a rather sanitised phrase for the harsh reality of aggression, violence, abuse, and in many cases death, experienced by many women, children and some men at the hands of those who have forgotten their humanity. RDSP has become a reluctant expert in this field, in a most practical way, by working side by side with rural people who are experiencing this scourge and are trying to halt it. While RDSP does have a broader footprint, its work on GBV has been focused on the Northern Cape. This has grown to include the related field of substance abuse.

Fortunately, for every aggressor there is somebody else who cares deeply; for every person stripped of their dignity through the huge prevalence of alcohol and drug abuse, there is somebody waiting to help in rehabilitation.

RDSP’s story is one where these rural givers — the angels among us — are identified and supported in finding solutions to the myriad social challenges from which government has largely walked away.

The small town set-up

How does this work in practice? Drive past most dusty rural towns in the three Cape provinces and a few things may strike you. Firstly, the “better” end of town. Apart from the obligatory kerk, it often includes a bit of old colonial architecture, some 1950s bungalows, the local fuel station, most likely a Pep store and a (probably defunct) post office, a couple of bottle stores, and maybe a second-hand shop.

Secondly, there is the “location”, where those members of the community classified as coloureds were assigned a living space, kept on the outskirts, designated good enough to serve Karoo lamb at the local hotel every evening but not good enough to live in “town”.

Thirdly, there’s a sprawling “township” of poorly-built RDP matchbox houses and tin shacks, shimmering in summer and shivering in winter. In the absence of real employment, its people are almost entirely dependent on social welfare grants.

Many of us race past these towns, averting our eyes from the poverty. But if you’re a RDSP staff member, you stop, check in for the week and start listening, from one end of town to the other. Pretty soon people will emerge, fully informed of local challenges and what few resources there are, some with fully-fledged projects they have started and others with just a dream and desire for change.

Country of rape and violence

We live in a country where at least 150 cases of rape are reported to the police daily. We know that the crime of rape is dramatically under-reported and that the number of people being raped is most likely closer to ten times the official stats. That’s 1500 people per day, or one person every minute. Some experts in the field say the rate could be as high as one person every 30 seconds.

Globally, South Africa ranks among the countries with the highest rates of violence against women, girls and children. Statistics SA says one in five women has experienced physical violence by a partner. According to the SA Police Service, 558 children were killed in just six months last year, with another 294 attempted child murders.

Substance abuse among children and teenagers is rampant, with addicts as young as eight not uncommon. The neglect and abuse of children has reached epic proportions. We are failing to protect our most vulnerable.

Rural areas are not immune to this pandemic of violence. Indeed, they face it through the veil of police indifference, isolation and the fact that it is far more difficult to break free from abuse in a small town than it is to seek help in a city. In rural areas there is minimal access to formal psychosocial support and a general lack of resources to respond to the GBV and substance abuse problems. There are very few “safe spaces” where women and children can take shelter when abuse starts in the home, and with employment options so limited, for most women financial independence is a pipedream.

Move to action

RDSP director Brenda Snyders started working in this field when she joined RDSP almost 20 years ago. What she observed right away was a great willingness and desire on the part of small community organisations and church groups to tackle what was unfolding around them, but not always knowing where to even begin.

Brenda herself wished to know more, to understand the psychological and social causes of abuse, so as to find solutions within communities. She made the decision to accompany these women, and some men, at community level in a process of research, learning and experimenting. Her work has taken her from the tiny hamlet of Spoegrivier right through the Namaqualand and up to the villages around Kuruman.

Three major strategies have been implemented and they are having an impact. Firstly, men and women who are affected by GBV and/or substance abuse have formed community support groups. These groups choose their own focus, which could be how to deal with an abuser in the home or coping with children battling substance abuse. When and where they meet is up to them. The groups are flexible and the intention is that there is no judgment, just empathy and constructive help.

After attending many of these groups’ meetings, Brenda says: “I was really struck by the resilience of the women and how they support one another in spite of their own circumstances. It is always a very moving experience.”

Adding another strategy, RDSP then trained the community groups in how to give an information talk on GBV and substance abuse, for example at high schools and churches. They also introduced the use of hand puppets to educate younger children, with characters telling a story and teaching the morality of care for one another.

Thirdly, for those choosing to go a level further, RDSP also provides training in trauma debriefing. This intends to address the huge gap in social development services that should be provided by government and the current shortage of social workers, a red flag that is being waved not nearly enough.

Difference-makers

Two women in the heart of Namaqualand really stand out as RDSP local partners, having worked with Brenda from the start. One is Colleen Cloete, who runs Sprankie Hoop in Nababeep. Colleen is a dynamic community leader who uses her deep faith to inspire others. She says: “After RDSP’s training we founded a support group for women who have family members abusing substances. This led to more informed women who helped to change behaviour, with some family members going to rehab. RDSP took us to different rehab centres to learn how they work, which was a big eye opener.”

Elize Brandt runs the Bergsig Ondersteunings Groep, just outside Springbok, where she has a range of community support groups. In her quiet, determined way, she has changed many lives for the better. Elize embraced an opportunity RDSP provided to run a small bakery: “The Mama Mimi oven that we have received has really helped us when the funding was scarce, and we still use it to generate an income and keep our doors open.”

While RDSP has funding to provide training and mentoring services, including since inception from the great Catholic funding agency Misereor in Germany, the community-based groups and projects it serves are not as fortunate. A decision was made to launch the Mary Lack Community Grants Programme, which raises funds specifically for the GBV and substance abuse projects of the Northern Cape.

Grants are small, at R5000 each, but enable those who are now skilled in the field to work particularly with teenagers and children to inform, change attitudes and question the stereotypes that have made GBV acceptable in our society.

The fund is named after the well-known and much-loved Church activist and community worker Mary Lack, who came to South Africa from England in 1965. Mary could not tolerate injustice or poverty and believed that service to God was best achieved through serving the poor and the vulnerable.

She believed in long-term solutions to poverty and had a great affinity in particular for women caught up in painful situations. Venture up to Namaqualand in the Northern Cape and you will meet many people who knew and deeply respected Mary. As a volunteer and longtime board member of RDSP she carried out dozens of field trips there and to the Eastern Cape. Mary passed away in May 2021 and the fund is named in her honour.

We all ask ourselves how we might even start to address these mammoth problems faced by rural communities, where life itself seems to have no value and people’s dignity is so systematically degraded. Do we as ordinary people have a responsibility to engage with such distress? RDSP, Brenda, Colleen, Elize, Mary and many others always said yes.

To support RDSP’s work, visit www.rdsp.org.za or email .

Published in the October 2023 issue of The Southern Cross magazine