e-Uxolo
Periodic Newsletter of the Quaker Peace Centre

 
Vol. 2, no. 2
November  2006

Dear Friend

The year 2006 has seen many exciting developments at the Centre.

The appointment of a new Board Chairperson, Celeste Santos, and the restructuring of the Quaker Peace Centre was followed by the appointment of Martin Struthmann as Manager of the Centre on the resignation of Derek Daniels.  With Martin and Celeste at the helm, our work in some of South Africa’s most needy communities continues at a steady pace.

We at the Centre are very sad to hear of the death of Roy Farrant.  Roy, with his wife Dorothy alongside him, was instrumental in raising the interest of Irish and British Friends in the plight of communities suffering under Apartheid. Roy and Dorothy were our principal fundraisers many years before handing this function over to Alan and Janet Quilley in 2003. Rommel Roberts (of the Eastern Cape Meeting and founding director of QPC) entitled his tribute to Roy ‘A Kindly Light’.   Referring to a term he coined called ‘Farranting’, Rommel uses it to describe Roy and Dorothy Farrant’s approach: “very simple yet extremely effective and sustainable method of supporting a cause”.  He lauded the Farrants’ considerable efforts over the last 20 years in playing a key role in the development and success of QPC. The full tribute may be read at www.quaker.org/capetown/tribute.htm.  Cape Western Monthly Meeting have decided to hold an annual collection for QPC in honour of Roy Farrant.  To be known as ‘Farranting Sunday’, this collection will take place on the second Sunday of December each year.

Our main focus remains with issues of non-violence, anti-racism and interventions in educational institutions.  An exciting new addition to our projects is that of the Young Women’s Forum.

We look forward to deepening relationships with our funders and supporters.  We wish you all a peaceful Christmas and a happy New Year.


Diversity

Our work with teachers and pupils at a primary school in Delft continues to have a positive effect on the next generation of leaders in our country.  We have recently added an exciting new aspect to our diversity project there where teachers participate in second language classes.  Xhosa- and Afrikaans-language teachers are mostly divided along race lines across which there is little social integration and the second-language programme is helping to break down these barriers.  The twice-weekly sessions are an exercise in embracing diversity with each Xhosa- speaking teacher being paired with an Afrikaans-speaking teacher.  The teachers have responded to the programme with high levels of enthusiasm, curiosity and warmth. The programme is being run in partnership with the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport (Western Cape) which promotes the use of indigenous languages in the Western Cape, particularly Afrikaans and Xhosa.  Xolisa Tshongolo, Chief Language Practitioner at the department, has particularly helped the project with development of materials.

The Centre participated in the Association for Educational Transformation (ASSET) winter school programme in June this year. We developed and facilitated fifteen different workshops on various aspects of diversity training with 94 pupils drawn from a range of schools in the Western Cape.  An exercise on the question ‘What is an African?’ generated much debate on the issues of difference and commonality that form the essence of diversity.  This debate brought the workshops to a close with participants’ realisation that differences are normal and that tolerance of difference is necessary to live happily in South Africa.


HIV/Aids and Nutrition

Eight two-day workshops were presented between May and August on Food Preservation and Processing.  A further six workshops on the Growing and Use of Herbs took place within the same time period.

The training workshops have had a very positive effect on the lives of women, men and unemployed youth in the areas of Mitchell’s Plain and Khayelitsha. Some participants in the project now make and sell their own products including jam, relish and chutney. Many of the women who participated in the training have reported that the remedies they learnt about have helped their families, neighbours and communities.

As a result of the workshops, a group of women in Khayelitsha have started a soup kitchen in one of the clinics in the area to provide soup for the Tuberculosis and HIV/Aids support groups when they come in for their treatment.  These patients usually stand in queues from 05h00 until the clinic opens and welcome some refreshment.


Youth at Risk

Our work with 130 youths from Delft continues.  A recent highlight of this programme was a weekend away where the children enjoyed being in touch with nature and far away from the problems of their community.  Following the success of the project, another group of students has been identified for a similar programme to be run early next year.

A sports tournament took place in honour of Youth Day on June 16.  Forty 11- and 12-year old girls and fifty boys of the same age participated in the programme.  Six soccer teams and six netball teams competed in two separate round robin tournaments.  A prize-giving ceremony brought the day to a glorious conclusion with the presentation of team and individual trophies.


Positive Discipline

We conducted Positive Discipline workshops with a very large number of schools in the Western Cape this year.  We are most proud that 2006 is the fifth year that the Positive Discipline course is being run as a compulsory module of the Professional studies course at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.  The University has also included a Positive Discipline module in the Advanced Curriculum of Education course, a post-graduate course for professional teachers. A number of workshops were conducted at a conference in Cape Town and the positive discipline model was presented at a seminar on ‘Protecting children from corporal punishment and other forms of humiliating and degrading punishment’ at the University of the Western Cape.  Such widespread approbation of our positive discipline model and workshops is most encouraging to us at the Centre.

An interesting example of the need for our training in positive discipline skills is presented by a primary school in central Cape Town.  A number of the teachers at this school are still in favour of corporal punishment as a form of discipline, despite it’s being against the law.  Five workshops have taken place at the school over the last two months in which the participating staff members were tasked with creating their own systems of non-violent discipline.


Alternatives to Violence Project

Facilitators from the Centre ran a Basic Alternatives to Violence (AVP) course for pupils from a high school and an Advanced AVP course at another high school in Delft.  We are particularly promoting the use of AVP in schools at this time.

The Ninth International  Alternatives to Violence Project Gathering took place at the Hartbeespoort Dam in Tshwane where skills, knowledge and best practices were shared between AVP facilitators from all over the world. Two staff members from the Centre, Nokuthula Mbete and Mlu Dywili, participated in the five-day gathering.  The presence of one of the founding members of AVP, Steve Angell, added something special to the gathering.


Young Women's Forum

The Young Women’s Forum is one of our new projects.  Its focus is on the raising of awareness on issues that affect young women and their rights. The project facilitates dialogue between young women and will provide a platform on which issues can be raised and lobbied. The Forum aims to provide young women with opportunities to network and to form qualitative partnerships with other organisations.  It focuses on issues of HIV/Aids, sexuality, violence against women and the socialisation of women.  The project was launched in two schools in  Delft.  A needs analysis is currently being conducted with a group of 22 pupils aged between 15 and 18 who were identified by teachers as having leadership potential.  From early in 2007, our Young Women’s Forum will be working in cooperation with two departments of the University of the Western Cape: Women and Gender Studies and the Gender Equity Unit.


South South Exchange Programme

The Quaker Peace Centre met with the Friends Peace House (of Rwanda) and the Ministry For Peace And Reconciliation Under The Cross (of Burundi) to discuss an exciting exchange programme to be funded by Fredkorpset. These three organisations are involved in peace building and reconciliation processes within their own countries and the exchange will provide a reciprocal exchange between the organisations.  It was agreed by the above network that the Quaker Peace Centre will be the primary network partner.  Our duties include communication between partners, the administration of funds and reporting to Fredkorpset.  We are very excited about the exchange as well as possible areas of future collaboration between the organisations.


Other Activities

16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence

The Quaker Peace Centre strongly supports the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence from 25 November (The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) to 10 December (International Human Rights Day).  We will join the march against violence that is taking place in central Cape Town at 11h00 on Saturday, 25 November.  We would also like people of all faiths to heed Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndugane’s request to promote the programme ‘Building the Peace: A Kairos on Violent Crime’ during the weekend of 8-10 December 2006.  The full Kairos document can be accessed at www.quaker.org/capetown/kairos.htm.

Give now

You may use your credit card to give to the work of the Quaker Peace Centre. Go to www.cafonline.org and type Cape Town Quaker into the search field 'Keyword(s) or phrase' under 'Find a charity and donate' which will bring you to the Cape Town Quaker Peace Centre Committee.


More about the Quaker Peace Centre

Please visit our website www.quaker.org/capetown

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Please e-mail Martin Struthmann at martin@qpc.org.za if you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter.