Special Commendation — Drivers of Change Individual Award: Bishop Kevin Dowling
Moving close to the shack community around Rustenburg’s Plattenburg Mines in 1997 made Bishop Kevin Dowling realise the extent of the problems caused by extreme poverty.
After seeing many young women die of Aids, he called on the Catholic Church to consider lifting its ban on condoms. His hands-on approach to the pressing concerns around him has led the bishop to offer his church property several times for causes in which he believes.
He has made it available to landless people and lobbied extensively for basic infrastructure to be put in place to allow them to live a dignified life.
In the face of the HIV/Aids pandemic Dowling single-handedly took it upon himself to do something concrete. Again on church property, he built a hospice so that those with HIV/Aids could die with ‘real dignity and peace”.
‘One of the four programmes run by the Tapologo initiative is an orphan programme that gives food, makes sure children stay on antiretrovirals and provides counselling, while childcare workers try to find foster homes for them,” he says.
The programme started off with retired nurses, but now employs professional nurses and childcare workers who are paid a stipend.
‘I have experienced the suffering of vulnerable women, sitting in shacks with them, experiencing their despair. I wanted to make a difference to their lives and it has become a passion of mine,” says Dowling. It’s the spirit of care that is important for Dowling.
‘Years ago, after apartheid, while I was still in the truth and reconciliation process, I felt that we needed to reach out to other brothers and sisters in Africa caught in conflict, using the South Africa experience to help those in similar situations.”
His work focused on human rights, justice, reconciliation and the redevelopment of traumatised communities after war and torture.
The Denis Hurley Peace Institute, which nominated the bishop for a Drivers of Change award, has been inspired by the work he continues to do with very little resources.
‘People need heroes and prophets. We believe the bishop is already a hero and prophet in the eyes of many,” the institute said.
The Drivers of Change judges commended Dowling for his outspoken criticism of human rights abuses and abject poverty, not only in his local diocese of Rustenburg, but also throughout Africa, including Sudan, Zimbabwe and globally.
‘He has lobbied governments on service delivery and poverty, in particular, the campaign for a national basic income grant. He has actively added his voice to calls for improved delivery in the areas of healthcare, housing, education and welfare,” the judges said.
‘Bishop Dowling has risen to become one of South Africa’s foremost voices for social and economic justice from within the churches.”