The traffic intersections of our major cities have two permanent fixtures: there are the intrepid, streetwise vendors, who, ducking cars, can persuade you that the cheap sunglasses, cellphone chargers and many other wares they sell are the genuine articles. Less combative, but an equally insistent presence, are the beggars, sometimes blind or disabled and increasingly from other Southern African countries, who operate as individuals or as teams.
Many drivers have, at one time or another, donated a few coins to these souls on the sides of the road. But when beggars are found at every major intersection, our capacity for generosity is tested, with dire consequences for those who rely on others for survival.
It is with people like these in mind, and the 40% of the region’s citizens who live in poverty, that the Southern Africa Trust, in partnership with the Mail & Guardian and the Mail & Guardian Online, has launched an ambitious project to raise funds during the holiday period. The campaign, dubbed “Change a life forever this festive season” is aimed at the newspaper and website’s core readership. Readers will be asked to donate via the secure giving website www.change4ever.org
Based in Midrand, the trust is an independent, non-profit agency registered in South Africa. In its second year in operation, it has given more than 100 grants, totalling more than $8-million, to about 75 organisations working to overcome hunger and improve the way in which water, land, minerals and other natural resources are used. Other projects ensure that women have more power to overcome poverty and give the poor a voice in the mass media.
“At this time of the year many of us give to the less fortunate. We want to help, but we also want our support to be long-lasting,” says Sheelagh Antrobus, a sustainability expert with the trust. The “Change a Life Forever” campaign is aimed at those who want to make a real, lasting difference to the lives of people living in poverty.
“This is a unique opportunity for South Africans to reach out to those who cannot look forward to a joyous festive time,” she says. “Just one click of the mouse can — and will — change a life.”
Executive director Neville Gabriel says the online campaign will support work that promotes the eradication of poverty across the region. For instance, Gabriel says, the trust works with the African Wildlife Foundation to ensure the sustainable use of fishing resources on the Zambezi River for Zambian, Zimbabwean and Mozambican communities that depend on the river for their livelihood.
This is in line with the Southern African Development Community plan to ensure that this resource is not depleted.
The trust’s work does not focus on handouts. “We don’t provide food — we work on why there is food insecurity to ensure that people won’t go hungry in the first place,” Gabriel says, adding that most of the regional programmes aimed at overcoming poverty don’t work because there are no links between the specific poverty frameworks of individual countries and those that are agreed on at regional level. “These need to be integrated,” he says.
The trust supports the food, agriculture and natural resources policy analysis network, which worked with research partners at the universities of Michigan State, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe to develop the Household Vulnerability Index (HVI), a statistical tool that measures the vulnerability of families as a result of HIV/Aids.
The project ran for 10 months — from May last year — in Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. Several governments, World Vision and other organisations are interested in using the tool in their food distribution and other social protection programmes to ensure that the support they give reaches those who need it most.
The trust, in partnership with several research organisations, intends to investigate the impact of climate change and increased biofuel production on the region’s food security needs.
“The whole point is to address poverty in a way that creates lasting solutions by looking closely at the policy environment,” Gabriel says.
If you want to make a lasting change in the lives of the poor this festive season, visit www.change4ever.org