Sunday, November 20, 2016

Year in Review


Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings after yet another month! It’s a good time to review the work we’ve been doing in South Africa, both to provide an update on projects and an overview of what our work entails. After ten months, we can better describe what “peace-work” is in this place and our role within it, although as always, it continues to evolve based on needs, resources, and how the work itself unfolds.  Our primary work is with SADRA (Southern African Development and Reconstruction Agency), founded and led by Pastor Oscar Siwali.

  • Peace Education/Peer Mediation: Besides supporting Oscar with Peace trainings for school admin and the Peer Mediation programs started before we arrived, we have helped develop a new initiative in Manenberg. Three high schools besieged with gang activity and neighbourhood instability are choosing students for us to train as peer mediators. We’ve met two of the three groups of students, and are working on the logistics for a week-long intensive training, planned for January but dependent on funding.
  • Leadership training: Dan assisted a large pastor’s forum from Khayelitsha, the oldest township in Western Cape, to reorganize themselves and help their leadership function. Oscar did some work with them, but they were struggling to own healthy processes of interaction as a group. Dan spent months working on their visioning, constitution and leadership roles. His being an outsider helps – he’s allowed them to make it their own process in a fresh way. Now other forums are starting to ask for similar facilitation.
Dan and Kathryn with several local pastors.  Oscar is next to Kathryn.
  • Cross-community dialogues: Kathryn has been more involved with the relationship-building and seed planting necessary to bring different community leaders together. One area has started dialogue meetings, and Kathryn has led the last two, with Dan’s help. Oscar says, “sometimes it helps to have our white faces at the table” and we enjoy this transformative work, seeing people who would normally never talk to each other learn to respect and interact constructively together.
  • Observing/Peace Witnesses: Our original involvement with elections now includes observing the current student protests – much in the vein of Christian Peacemaker Teams – believing that both protesters and police are better behaved when neutral outsiders are witnessing their behaviour. What in fact happens comes into question in volatile situations, and monitors are needed to help with truth-telling.
    Monitoring and Evaluation materials: Speaking of reporting, M&E is integral to this kind of work, and Kathryn is developing appropriate materials for SADRA to both corroborate and develop our training materials to be more effective. Are students using mediation skills at home? Are classroom conflicts less frequent? Has gang activity and membership changed since starting our program?  
  • Networking: We attend events, such as the Restitution Conference Kathryn is presenting a paper at in November, and representing SADRA, with its unique voice as a locally-based peace initiative to a wider audience. At these forums, we learn and build relationships with those doing similar work, and these connections become potential resources for SADRA. The stakeholders’ meetings we’ve hosted in Manenberg also come under this category – many people work in this troubled spot, but they have not coordinated well, foreign grants are short-lived or have not been transparent, and local people feel unheard. Nurturing learning from each other and filling in the gaps make all our respective programs more effective.
  • Fundraising and partnering:  This has included writing/editing proposals for funding, meeting with embassies and potential funders, and networking with other non-profits for the specific purpose of partnering. SADRA is small and young, and previous funding is not available. For example, an NGO is training classroom support volunteers in one of our schools – we can add conflict management to the training, reinforcing all our programs. It’s also time to find long-term local partners, much like you are to us. Kathryn has presented to several groups about our peace work, so new groups are learning about SADRA’s mission. The long-term stability of SADRA rests on finding regular support from several sectors.
    Capacity building/Institutional support: As we update our specific job descriptions, this might become a bigger part of what we do, along with fundraising. Oscar has run SADRA programming brilliantly and now needs help with social media, documenting projects, and generally getting the name of SADRA out to the wider community for support. Dan is applying his skills to things like making business cards, a brochure, website design, etc.
  • Other partners – ANISA, Bethany Bible School, Grace Community Churches: We have had some time with these other partners – Kathryn recently attended the intensive meetings with ANISA (Anabaptist Network in South Africa, a local initiative with intentional pacifist presence) and their new coordinator. Dan is speaking at the Bible school’s commencement ceremony this weekend, and planning for peace trainings next year. Recently, we helped co-facilitate a GCC pastoral couples’ retreat.
Kathryn with some of her new friends made after a week of learning and connecting - Lydia (Burundi), Zodwa (South Africa), Kathryn, KK (Lesotho), Naomih (Uganda), Amina (Sudan), and Comfort (Nigeria) in front. May there be peace in Africa!!
For us personally, October included some good family time. During the boys’ school break, we travelled to the Cederberg Mountains and saw rock paintings which are several thousand years old. Then we visited the city of Kimberley where many of SA’s diamonds have come from over the years. We had a fascinating tour there in the mine museum before going on to meet our new colleagues in Bloemfontein.

Each of us has been active in various artistic endeavours.  We are all involved in a choral Christmas Cantata (same church as the Easter concert). Besides all singing in the choir, Kathryn has been asked to conduct, and we will sing a quartet as a family. John-Clair has a good classical guitar teacher now at Stellenbosch University, and both boys performed in a school musical as well as a youth drama club show. Jacob is exploring dance school – trying contemporary dance. These times of enjoying artistic pursuits are precious and they give us a different platform to share about our work and invite others into new relationships. We are thankful we're able to get involved in these opportunities.

Thank you for your continued love, prayers and support.

No comments:

Post a Comment