Arniston Village

In small fishing villages such as Arniston and Lamberts Bay, changing times have deprived local people of their traditional livelihood.

The fishing industry has been taken over by large commercial organisations with the monopoly on government fishing quotas – forcing individuals to either work for them for low wages or leave the industry. However, they have no other skills with which to earn a living, resulting in extreme poverty and unemployment.

After conducting feasibility studies among the villagers, it was decided that tourism offered the greatest opportunity for those living in this picturesque village. HOPE Africa provided training in bricklaying and plumbing, which has resulted in the community building a small guest house and conference centre on land belonging to the church.

Some of the trainees are now employed by a local builder, while others have received training in business management and tourism. A craft centre has also been established in a disused cottage, providing an outlet for a variety of hand-sewn items, paintings, pottery and other crafts popular with tourists

Visit Arniston

Visit Abalone Village.

Back to Eden

Like most women in KwaMzizi, Filela lives the traditional way in a small mud hut. Her days are spent gathering wood for the fire and fetching water for washing and cooking.

But she wanted something better for her child: and education and the chance to make something of his life. So she joined Back to Eden – a community market farming project to encourage rural women to turn to the lands to earn the money they need to support their families.

Back to Eden is just one of several food gardening projects we support by providing seeds, fertilizer and tools to enable women from poor communities to grow their own vegetables – firstly to provide better nutrition for themselves and their families, and secondly, to provide a small income, selling the surplus to their neighbours.

Child Care projects

Informal, church-run child care centres at Paarl, Rusthof, St Mary Magdalene, Ilitha and other places provide a vital service - giving working parents a safe place to leave their little ones.

These places run on a shoe-string with volunteer teachers, and any help – whether it's food supplies for the children's lunch, educational toys, books and crayons, playground equipment or furniture – is always gratefully received.

Aids project/health care workers

Ilinge and Machibini are two desolate townships in the middle of nowhere, peopled by the victims of 'forced removals' during the apartheid era.

Transport is haphazard and resources such as clinics, schools, running water and electricity are few and far between. HIV/Aids is rife, and those in the final stages of the disease rely on the compassion of neighbours and volunteer health workers to ease their suffering.

HOPE Africa helps provide basic health equipment – antiseptic, soap and towels, cotton wool, latex gloves, ointment and dressings – to make their patients more comfortable

A similar programme operates at Rooidakke in the Grabouw district, where bedpans, walkers and even wheelchairs have been donated thanks to generous support from our overseas friends.

Skills training

If we are to effectively tackle poverty in our land, we have to give people the skills they need to earn a living.

HOPE Africa has numerous training projects, including computer literacy schools, training in micro business enterprise, quilting, sewing, gardening, beading and other handcrafts, as well as training that enables local people to enter the profitable tourism industry.

We are extremely grateful for the financial help we receive towards these programmes, creating lasting solutions to the problem of poverty, unemployment and hunger.

Hawston Hospice

Life is hard in Hawston. Poverty-stricken, ignored by tourists, this ancient fishing village is plagued by unemployment and lack of facilities.

Medical care is woefully inadequate. If you're sick or injured, you queue at the clinic and hope the overworked nursing sister can see you before the end of the day. The nearest hospital is 20 kilometres away.

As parish priest, Rev Pamela Parenzee visits the sick to bring spiritual comfort. But she desperately wanted to give practical help too. So, with help from HOPE Africa, she started a small hospice in a derelict house next door to the church.

Now, four trained caregivers provide round-the-clock physical and spiritual support, while a government social worker helps patients and their families process grants, organise funeral policies and search for missing relatives.

Mozambique Malaria project

Close on 70 000 people die of malaria every year in Mozambique - most of them children under the age of five.

As our work extends to cover the entire Church of the Province of Southern Africa region, HOPE Africa has become active in the fight against malaria.

We now have 14 field workers and the first consignment of insecticide-treated mosquito nets, funded by overseas supporters, was recently handed out in Boane Mozambique.

Soup kitchens/nutrition

Food security remains the greatest challenge for many poverty-stricken people living in the sprawling shacklands of the Western Cape and elsewhere.

Although our focus is on development – on giving a hand up rather than a hand out – in situations where children, especially, are in danger of suffering lasting damage from malnutrition, we operate soup kitchens.

In partnership with other faith organisations and government departments, we help fund food kitchens in Genadendal, Grabouw, Robertson, Zwelethemba and Ceres, which feed around 5 000 people daily, most of them children.