Page 8 - SCAT Rural Voice II - 35 Stories for 35 Years

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STOPPING THE INEQUALITY TIME BOMB
By Lorenzo Wakefield
The effects of world climate change are becoming visible locally. Injustices such as poverty and chronic unemployment faced by communities in South Africa remain alarmingly high. They are a ticking timebomb waiting to explode and reverse gains achieved during the early years of our democracy. In the light of these challenges, the role of community-driven local development remains critically important. SCAT, through its grantmaking and special programmes, makes a valuable contribution in this area. As Trustees, we will continue to make sure that our strategy addresses the underlying causes of poverty and inequality in South Africa.
KEEPING POWER BALANCES IN CHECK
By Deena Bosch
My relationship with SCAT started in the mid-1980s with the Bellville Community Health Project (BCHP). I joined SCAT as a staff member in the 1990s. The greatest lesson that we carried all these years has been how NoT To FoRCE power relations over SCAT- funded community organisations, while insisting on transparency and accountability in interactions with all stakeholders.
As a Trustee, this learning stayed and had to be exercised from a distance. Luckily distance offers room for weighing up the responsibilities and deliverables of SCAT, while seeking to meet the needs of communities we support. I’d say over these 35 years SCAT has lived by this practice.
SCAT’S ROLE IN BUYING BELL HOUSE FOR CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS IN STELLENBOSCH
By Jeremy chennells
During 1988, Stellenbosch was a bastion of Apartheid, and many civil society organisations struggled to find premises to operate in a harsh and hostile environment. Barry Streek, then director of SCAT, donated R300 000.00 towards the cost of purchasing the current Bell House building. It was a massive amount at that time.
For many years up to and after the advent of democracy, Bell House continued to provide a base to a network of civil society organisations. Now, Bell House has assumed a new primary tenant which effectively continues to further the mandate of the Trust, namely to serve the local youth in need.
Bell House is home to the Youth outreach organisation, and permanently houses about 24 street children. Youth outreach also feeds, clothes and educates daily up to a hundred needy children in Stellenbosch. That is also a remarkable continuinty of 35 years of SCAT.
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RuRal Voice ii: 35 stories for 35 years