Published 10 January 2015
Ubuntu Community Development is an NGO that was formed to provide care, knowledge and support to the Bayview community members struck by poverty and suffering as a result of drug trafficking and substance abuse which also contribute to Gender Based Violence (GBV). The NGO has a team of volunteers who have experience in GBV and related offences. Its core mission is to reduce GBV, to get people to speak about their experiences on GBV and to help the community to identify and cope with challenges of life.
Ubuntu Community Development (UCD) was initiated and is supported by community members. “In 2000 I attended a peace and anti-racism educational training course and I learnt about the concept of Ubuntu, meaning a person is a person through people. While seating in the training and sharing ideas, I had the idea that I want to open an NGO called Ubuntu Centre and that is where I started planning my things; I was transformed. I took the community workers to the same training so that they can understand the meaning behind the Ubuntu Centre idea. We brought the spirit of Ubuntu back to the community which has resulted in people caring and sharing about each other’s challenges”, said Brandon from Ubuntu Community Development.
Bayview already had an association working towards improving the community but Brandon saw a need to broaden of the community development concept so he shared the idea of Ubuntu Centre with the community workers and they loved it; but when they went to register the name Ubuntu Centre was already taken so they chose Ubuntu Community Development. The NGO has been operating for 14 years and through the years they have had cases that challenged them beyond the scope of their knowledge.
An example of such cases was the HIV case presented by Shirley, one of the volunteers. In this case, A man had infected his wife and children with HIV and he didn’t know how to tell them. He kept his status a secret until the day his wife conceived another child. A day after the child was born, he was not doing well. The husband eventually told the wife and seeing that the child is weak, the mother didn’t know how to react; she went to UCD panicking and explained her situation. “This case had thrown us in the deep end and because none one of us had experience in the HIV/AIDS field, I searched and came across the child welfare HIV training based on home care and requested training for UCD and it was a success because we managed to help the family and the child, she is 8 years old now”, shared Brandon.
Such cases have set UCD on a learning streak; they have identified the need to broaden their knowledge to be compatible to deal with different cases that gets presented to them without procrastination.
UCD has received GBV from FPD and they have also adopted FPD’s Gender Based Violence- knock on door campaign. “The knock on door campaign is very effective here, there is a couple living together but they both have extra-marital affairs. Whenever they fight we would just go there to try and help and usually they take it in a bad way and we always have things thrown at us and kicked out. After learning out the knock on door campaign, I was eager to put the theory to test so when I heard them fighting again, I went to the house, knocked on the door firmly and ran away. I stood further away and looking back at the house I could see that he was distracted and was now aware of his surroundings; aware that people are listening he looked out the window trying to see who was there. It looked like his mindset had changed,” said Dino, a member of Ubuntu Community Development.
Foundation for Professional Development in partnership with Ubuntu Community Development work together to successfully implement the Gender Based Violence – knock on door campaign into poverty struck communities with the aim to build the community and help them heal.