The Aganang Community Centre is a beacon of hope for thousands of informal settlement dwellers in Zwartkop, north-west of Johannesburg.
The modest office boasts the barest necessities — a few desks, chairs and a telephone, but a stone’s throw away is a prefab structure housing a thriving basket-weaving project and a creche.
Hope Nkambule says the community centre has become a central one-stop venue for a range of community services.
“What I like most about Aganang is that for the first time the community has a platform to interact with one another meaningfully. In the past we were just a disorganised lot, scattered all over and unable to address issues of common interest as a community.”
The food garden project stands for improving the standard of living in the area. “Many families here are starving and the idea of teaching them to produce their own food is marvellous indeed,” says Nkambule.
For Linda Khumalo, a mother of three, Aganang helps combat the HIV/ Aids scourge. She says the organisation’s greatest challenge is to educate the community about the disease and what can be done to prevent it.
“Most people are ignorant[about Aids] and some just don’t care. I believe once everybody knows about it, it would be better to prevent its spread.”
Khumalo welcomes the creche as a vital means of building a solid foundation for the children.
Aganang’s achievements have attracted the attention of the government and of donor organisations. The centre was one of the recipients of R1-million distributed by the Gauteng Department of Social Services and Population Development last July. The amount was dedicated to fund projects that cater for the elderly, the illiterate and the physically challenged.
Zwartkop wallows in poverty. Most of its people are illiterate and unemployed. But they are surrounded by affluence, epitomised by the holiday retreats and conference centres that dot the area.
Molefi Selibo, Aganang’s project manager, says his priority is to tackle the spread of HIV/Aids in the area.
He says the R250 000 received from the provincial government will be paid in three tranches over three years. The first R50 000 has been deposited into the project’s account, R125 000 will follow next year and the remaining R75 000 will be paid in 2004.
Selibo says the money will be used to train volunteer HIV/Aids counsellors and help affected families. The organisation has already sent 15 volunteers for training at a local hospice. After their training they will provide home-based care to HIV/Aids patients.
“People are in the dark about the disease,” he says “and those who think they know something about it harbour serious prejudices against HIV/ Aids sufferers, to such an extent some [sufferers] choose to hide instead of declaring their status.”
The counsellors will need a vehicle to transport them to the different sections of the settlement.
Selibo says the food gardens are supported by the Mogale City Development Foundation, which trains residents in basic farming methods and provides gardening tools and seedlings. The gardens cultivate crops such as spinach, beans, pumpkins and cabbages. Participating families share the harvest, but plans are being made to sell surplus produce to nearby markets.