IDEX Program Officers, Kat and Vini recently went on field visits in South Africa to research groups IDEX could support through our catalyst grants program. This blog post comes from Kat, who visited Angus Gillis Foundation at the end of April.

This morning I flew into Port Elizabeth, a coastal city in the Eastern Cape province. But as usual Port Elizabeth was not my final destination. I was visiting Grahamstown another hour and a half away. This is where the Angus Gillis Foundation (AGF) is located. This organization was founded in 2002 by an independent charitable trust initiated by the owners of the Kwande Private Game Reserve.

All too frequently when new game reserves have been established, the owners have evicted people from their homes and villages within the reserves. The owners of Kwande wanted to support the villages within the perimeters of the new game reserve. As a result the Angus Gillis Foundation was formed and named after the Scottish grandfather of one co-owner of the Kwande, who lived a lift of compassion and philanthropy.

Since 2002 AGF has helped established 39 self-help groups (SHGs) in 12 villages reaching 520 unemployed people. Most SHG members are women: only 4 members are men. Each group has 8 and 20 members and meets once a week. As part of this meeting they collect savings from members up to R2 (22 cents) per week.

But in addition to acting as a savings tool, the weekly meetings encourage members to share their problems, and in turn this builds a powerful support system that nurtures enduring trust among members. And as their savings grow the group can initiate loans to the group members. Once the group achieved a certain level of savings, AGF will offer assistance to help develop small businesses.

Today, Diana Hornby, the director of AGF, is introducing me to several business initiatives. First I meet the Unopopana Doll Cooperative, a 6 women-member cooperative in the KwaPontak village within the Kwande Private Game Reserve. The coordinator of this cooperative is Jennifer, who is clearly a natural community leader. Another program run by AGF is their annual leadership program, which trains local leaders on how to build capacity and become more effective within their communities in improving livelihoods.

I also met Novulo Sideba, another community leader in the same village. She started a baby and toddler program, which in turn inspired the construction of a community center, using recycled materials, to house this program.

Both Novulo and Jennifer sit on a Steering Committee, which represents two villages, KwaPontak and KwaDoli, and 700 community members. The committee meets monthly to discuss urgent issues to address the needs of their communities.

The Steering Committee is leading the development of a Pro-poor Tourism Community Center. This will provide an education program for the community members and at the same time host unique cultural experiences for tourists. The Center is still being constructed but the education program is already up and running and the doll-making cooperative has relocated their doll production there.

After the Kwande Private Game Reserve, Diana took me to visit Glenmore Township. Glenmore was settled after black people were evicted from Colchester, a white-dominant area between Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown. Here, I attended a cluster group meeting. According to the self-help model that AGF follows, when 10 SHGs have been established in one village, then a cluster is formed. Two representatives from each of the 10 SHG come together in a cluster, to share experiences, provide support, and discusses how they can mutually access government resources to address their local challenges.

I was able to ask a few of them what they saw different in their lives since joining the cluster groups. One of them said to me, “I used to be so shy and not feel confident to speak in a group. But now, with the self-help group, I feel confident to speak up and not only that, I’m able to save money as well.”

Labels: Angus Gillis Foundation, SHG, South Africa

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