New World Foundation

“The truth is that development is the development of people. Roads, buildings, the increase of crop output and other things of this nature are not development; they are only tools of development. Development brings freedom, provided it is the development of people. But people cannot be developed, they can only develop themselves. There is only one way in which you can cause people to undertake their own development – that is through education and leadership.”
Julius Nyerere

Organisational profile
New World Foundation (NWF) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) and was founded in 1980 on the Cape Flats township of Lavender Hill. At this time, the apartheid system caused a lot of hopelessness, injustice and war. NWF was thus established with the vision of “building a new world of hope, justice and peace”. The organisation was founded in affiliation with the United Reformed Church and it weathered the storms of intense political instability during the 1980’s.NWF started with a crèche for 27 children in the Vrygrond informal settlement. During this time, it opposed apartheid and fought for the political and human rights of the people in Lavender Hill.

New World Foundation operates from its own community centre covering an area comprising Lavender Hill, St. Montague Village, Hillview, Seawinds, Vrygrond/Capricorn (formal settlements) and Cuba Heights, Military Heights, Village Heights and Overcome Heights (informal settlements). The political situation has changed dramatically in South Africa since the first democratic elections in 1994.However, after thirty years of existence, NWF is still fighting oppression. Through mobilization, training, networking and cooperation with partner organisations and decision makers, New World Foundation works, in partnership with the community, to build a new world of hope, justice and peace.

Lavender Hill
The flats in the Lavender Hill area were created by the Apartheid regime to pursue the objectives of the Group Areas Act (1950) to separate people according to their “races”. So called “coloured people” were evicted from areas such as District Six, Wynberg and many others, to live in Lavender Hill. Lavender Hill’s housing was constructed between 1972 and 1974. The standard of the flats and houses was very poor and deteriorated over time because of a lack of maintenance and people not being allowed to own their properties. The space of the two or three room flats was not sufficient for the families, which has resulted in overcrowding. Today, inhabitants are living in overcrowded flats, in the back yard of the flats or shacks in informal settlements, which have developed over the past years at the edges of Lavender Hill.

Approximately 100,000 people are living in Lavender Hill and the surrounding communities. The socio-economic problems they face are huge. Poverty, gang violence, substance abuse, domestic violence and HIV/Aids are part of everyday life. The unemployment rate is above 60%.

However, there is a lot of hope, courage and inpiration to be found in some of the remarkable people that inhabit Lavender Hill and the surrounding communties too. These people believe a better world is possible, and work hard on a daily basis to make this dream a reality.

Objectives
New World Foundation's organisational objectives are:

• to equip people with skills and knowledge so that they develop alternatives to their existing socio-economic conditions out of their own strenght and in their own responsibility;
• to provide space and time where people can be heard and composed, have their self-esteem restored and referred for healing advice and support;
• to share and work closely with specialized institutions, churches, schools, etc. so that we collectively address the prevailing socio-economic conditions in our community;
• to develop children and youth holistically so that they reach their full potential as leaders and change agents in their community;
• to hold public and private institutions accountable for service delivery and their mandate to ensure a quality life for all.

In its practice, New World Foundation will:

• consistently expose the link between the social injustices that negatively impact on people, and the underlying causes that create these conditions;
• support people to find alternatives to their existing conditions;
• draw on external expertise to provide the specialist skills needed by the people in the communities we work with.

Strategies
Our work is organised in eleven strategies:

1. Children development and early childhood development
2. Youth development
3. Women work & mobilization
4. Men work & the “absent male role model” work
5. Broad life education/life skills training
6. Employment and local economic development
7. Partnerships and networking
8. Responsible ecological living
9. Physical changes Lavender Hill
10. Civic engagement, human rights and legal advice
11. Training and development of staff