Page 6 - SCAT Rural Voice II - 35 Stories for 35 Years

Mpho ndebele First director oF scAt And trustee
FoREWoRD
What a joy to read - 35 years of SCAT’s existence symbolically expressed in clear and proud voices who tell stories of their lives and work on behalf of their rural communities. It’s been a long journey that began when Norwegian social action partners agreed with SCAT’s three South African founding members that an organisation should be formed that would act as a conduit for the funds the Norwegian Church Aid was committing to donate to support anti-apartheid work in South Africa. The founding trustees soon realised that most communities experiencing human rights abuses needed to organise themselves into advice offices run by these very communities and would be easily accessible to local people. This meant that they would have to be assisted to build their organisational capacity so that they could run their governing bodies democratically. This entailed drawing up constitutions, preparing budgets, maintaining financial records and reporting through audits. To serve and lead the local community, leadership training became a constant activity.
SCAT had made a major shift to fund only initiatives in rural communities, where the need was the greatest. At the time these communities did not have a single organisation serving local poor people. The partnership with rural initiatives meant SCAT stayed close to the ground, resilient enough to make the relevant adjustments as the field staff identified, together with the communities, the resources that were lacking. They would listen and share their experiences; listen and return to the office to conduct research and provide useful resources or link these communities with other resources.
It is interesting to observe that even though the Local Development Agencies (LDAs) have assisted their communities to start up several development projects, all these beautiful communities have yet to overcome human rights abuses. Today, they are still engaged in wage disputes, unfair dismissals, assaults by farm owners, and even age-old evictions.
The good news though, is that these wonderful stories give us hope for the future. Advice offices are now being easily approached for help by community members and paralegals are winning the respect of employers. The stories inform us that beyond having confronted the injustices of the past, their narrators now take on modern day challenges as well.
These are beautiful stories of endurance and triumph. It is a privilege to have been a staff member and a trustee of an organisation that is known for work that has been critical in transforming underserved communities towards greater well-being.
mpho ndebele
former Director and trustee of scat
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RuRal Voice ii: 35 stories for 35 years