Taking hands to help community

Hennie Pauw

THABAZIMBI – The Thabazimbi NPO (Non Profit Organization) Forum was established in May this year to enable private organizations involved in social development to deliver a better co-ordinated welfare service in the Thabazimbi municipal district.
Amongst other things the newly established Thabazimbi NPO Forum hopes to establish a much stronger working relationship between the member organizations and government departments such as Health and Welfare (Social Services) and SASSA (SA Social Security Agency) responsible for paying grants.
The forum will present a platform to all involved to promote common interests and goals, achieve better service delivery en achieve better co-operation with government departments.
The forum hopes to be able to share and jointly address their problems, share knowledge, acquire funds, co-ordinate tasks and address issues with one voice.
It seems that problems, such as acquiring funds for NPO’s or getting grants approved, prevents these charity organizations from fulfilling their roles in the community.
The Department of Social Services seems unable to reach all of its clients in the field, for a variety of reasons, one of which is that it is understaffed. For example, there is only one social worker to serve the communities of Smashblock and Northam. And this one person is not in possession of a driver’s licence. Unconfirmed rumours have it that there are more social workers within the department without driver’s licences and there is also a shortage of transport.
Another problem which occurs monthly is submitting financial statements of NGO’s (non government organizations) to the region and province in time in order for them to qualify for financial support and funding. It seems that a bottle neck occurs locally which prevents these requests from being processed in time. The result is private welfare organizations being unable to do work in the community because of a lack of funds.
Another complaint lodged by private individuals and charities is the unavailability of staff at Social Service’s local office. Whenever the offices are visited for papers to be authorized for social grants and other legal procedures, often nobody is available to assist. In other instances the relevant persons cannot be reached telephonically or do not attend meetings.
It has also been known that projects which should be run by Social Services do not materialize.
The organizations currently represented on the Thabazimbi NPO Forum are Thabang Children’s Project (Smashblock), Legae la Bona (Makoppa), Bopanang Home Based Caring (Northam), Sivukile Education and Training Trust (Northam), Thabazimbi Community Based Organization (Regorogile), Tshepong Children’s Project (Koedoeskop) and Diakonia Orphans and Vulnerable Children (Regorogile).
A committee for the Thabazimbi NPO Forum has recently been established. The chairman is Ramajwe Mosea (Sivukile), the deputy chairperson is Tessa White, the secretary is Julia Mathlodi (Legae La Bona), the deputy secretary is Rorisang Modungwa (Sivukile) and the treasurer is Joy Dlakavu (Tshepong).
Any organization interested in joining can contact Ramajwe Mosea at 072 117 3085, Tessa White at 014 772 1268 or 083 296 6940 or Julia Mathlodi at 078 284 2858.