Page 93 - SCAT Rural Voice II - 35 Stories for 35 Years

Without realising it, my activism was developing as I was growing up. I never wanted to live under crowded conditions as an adult and I knew from what I had experienced that there were many problems associated with not having security of tenure. even the people my grandmother took care of never knew if they would have a roof over their head in the future if anything should happen to her.
While driving with my colleague naomi Betana who had run the previous Advice Office in the community but had taken a break from this work to try a new direction with her career, we discussed the possibility of setting up an organisation that would serve the needs of women in the community. Out of that conversation the Witzenberg rural development Centre was born. Ceres is in the Witzenberg Municipality and is surrounded by fruit farms. Although these farms are a source of employment for many in the district, there are also many labour problems and evictions from farms which keep us busy. Our office is full of people seeking help on a daily basis. In addition to the Advice Office we run two educare centres and provide food for people and the children from food gardens we have established with the help of funding from SCAT.
After dreaming the dream of setting up an office in Witzenberg, we had to secure funding, and organisations such as Western Cape department of Social development, MAGI, Foundation for Human rights and SCAT have provided the resources to make sure that the doors of the office are open and we are able to serve the most vulnerable in our community. We have focussed on service delivery issues related to the installation of water meters in the community, eviction of women from farms especially when the father or their husband is no longer employed.
One of the projects that is very important to me is our project to ensure housing for women who are backyard dwellers in Ceres. Having grown up in a crowded home with no personal privacy I was struck by the women who came to our office complaining of the exploitation they experienced as backyard dwellers. rentals are high, they often cover the costs of services and they have no security of tenure. There is limited privacy and with many backyard dwellers in one yard women are often subjected to sexual harassment. In order to address this, we assisted a group of women to move to a piece of land owned by the municipality. We have helped these women to build their own homes and we are now fighting to ensure that there are proper services. The women are so pleased to have space around them to raise their children free from the problems associated with overcrowding.
I am proud of the work that we have done as an organisation that is led by women. We have had training from SCAT which has focused on developing our leadership skills and we have the support of a programme officer Colleen Alexander Julies who is a strong woman and is our guide. We have also learnt about running an effective organisation. Although we struggle with meeting the requirements of donors to report on time because we are so busy dealing with many battles in the community, we have learnt through SCAT that we have to take care of the organisation in order to take care of the people we serve.
Gender
RuRal Voice ii: 35 stories for 35 years
91