HUMANSDORP-based non-profit organisation, Sakhe Family Care, hopes to attain a suitable building to effectively serve the community.
The NPO focuses on assisting the youth and families with social ills, such as broken families, unemployment and domestic violence in the area. According to the founding director of Sakhe Family Care, Thanduxolo Buka, the organisation (established in 2014) implemented community development initiatives, which focus on three pillars: psychosocial support, alleviating poverty and job creation.
Under the psychosocial support pillar, the organisation provided counselling to individuals and families, annual fatherhood educational workshops to influence men to be role models in society, awareness campaigns on gender-based violence and annual marriage enrichment workshops to strengthen marriages and preserve families.
In a bid to alleviate poverty in the community, the organisation established their Livelihood Support Project, which is a small-scale farming and sewing intervention project to equip and enhance the skills of the unemployed youth.
Another one of their projects is a development programme, which includes self-development, an aftercare programme, career guidance, leadership skills, learnerships and job creation through Expanded Public Works and Infrastructure Programmes.
“The objective of our various projects is to unite and preserve families, decrease poverty in the community and to create a space for the youth to unleash and discover their God-given talents and gifts,” says Buka.
He states that with hard work and dedication, the organisation had exceeded their targets within three years. Currently, the NPO has 55 volunteers implementing Covid-19 awareness programmes in clinics in the Kouga Municipality and 57 Gender-Based Violence volunteers raising awareness campaigns throughout Kouga.
As their organisation expands, they are hopeful that they will find a suitable centre to continue with their programmes. For the past three years, the multiple programmes were run in a small office in KwaNomzamo.
Buka says the roof of the office leaked when it rained, and they therefore felt it was important to find a well-built structure.
The NPO was fortunate enough to receive permission from Mziwamadoda Ntlokwana, the owner of Baracks in KwaNomzamo, to make use of the building to run their programmes.
The building, however, needed to be refurbished as it had not been utilised for over ten years, but instead was used as a smoking area for the unemployed youth who also hid stolen goods in the building.
According to Buka, the vandalised building needed door-frames, doors, windows, electrical cables, light switches and light bulbs.
The roof of the building also needed to be sealed and the toilets needed proper plumbing.
Buka says the walls of the building were quite strong, which made it suitable for a potential youth centre.
He further says that once the building is refurbished, they plan to use it for recreational programmes, provide a computer lab for the youth to be exposed to the digital space, and assist with job readiness workshops for unemployed youth.
“My hope is to source donations and funding to revamp the building and bring it back to life so that we can achieve the desired dream of having a community development centre for the KwaNomzamo community to access essential services,” says Buka.
“The centre will be used to inspire other community members to drive social change and to try to solve their own challenges.”
