Know Your Local Organisation: AbafaziPhambili NPC

Know Your Local NGOs is an initiative of Express that attempts to bridge the gap that might exist between the community, corporates and local organisations.

ALSO READ: The Fight for Good Foundation helps GBV victims

The aim is to make local organisations that continuously make a difference in the community known to the public.
These organisations include NPOs, NGOs and NPCs.

This week, we feature AbafaziPhambili that was born in 2014 as a community-based organisation driven by activism in addressing socio-economic change and gender-based violence (GBV) injustices on the ground.
It was formally registered as an NPC in October 2020.

“Our vision is based on advocating gender equality to the most abandoned, neglected and underprivileged women who are only remembered during the country’s electoral elections, and aimed at driving socio-economic change,” said the founder, Sis’ Mantoa Selepe.

“Therefore, we focus on social justice by basing our mission on economic empowerment, social orientation and political education. In order to address gender inequalities, we are guided by our espoused values of equality, diversity, justice, respect, peace and love.”

What does the organisation do?
“We focus on empowering GBV survivors and underprivileged women with essential adequate skills to enable them to start their own businesses, consequently minimising poverty, unemployment and GBV femicide.

“In achieving the above, we have collaborated with Cobra Lixil Africa to assist us with plumbing skills training to enable the women to start their businesses and escape abusive toxic relationships.

“We further conduct business workshop skills, mentorship and assist women with information on how to set up businesses, as well as access to other governmental institutions where they may be assisted with funding.

ALSO READ: Thembisa community march against GBV

“We have collaborated with Judith Moisi, businesswomen and the founder of the Black Diamond, who voluntary conduct business mentorship workshops.

“We also have our employment specialist, Sis’ Noxolo Bosman, who assists the women with drafting and typing CVs and she further knocks at several employment agencies in striving to find jobs for the women, mainly from Vusimuzi and Winnie Mandela informal settlements in Thembisa.

“We also collaborated with Saint Lifick College, operated by Dr Gugu Ncube, in the agreement of enrolling two women per annum free of charge for the level four early childhood development to enable the women to start their own crèches.”

Selepe said they also offer emotional support to GBV survivors and to women who are in distress and experiencing personal hardships.

ALSO READ: Men march against GBV

“This is conducted by our psychologist and board member Sis’ Thung-Thung Moswane. We further assist GBV victims by providing avenues or organisations where they might feel safe in times of domestic violence.

“We conduct community events and campaigns to raise GBVF awareness by reaching out to young men in sensitising them to gender equality in order to break the stereotypical mindset that subsequently causes GBVF.”
She said AbafaziPhambili believes that this different approach of reaching out to young men will assist in achieving gender equality, consequently lessening GBV.

“We believe that young men should be sensitised at an early age to breed a normal society.”

She highlighted how underprivileged women are politically exploited and often used for political gain where voting is concerned without being well informed.

“We, therefore, empower women with education to enable them to vote having been well informed by teaching them the different political systems of South Africa.

“We advocate political injustice cases for women on the ground through our collaboration with Thuma Foundation (Thuli Madonsela Foundation). “The foundation continuously provides us with legal support, especially the constitutional matters due to injustices and unfairness where women are not in visible spheres. Due to continuous political injustices and minimal support from the government, we strive for equal justice for the women on the ground.”

Where is it based?
Kempton Park.

Who is the organisation targeted to and who does it aim to help?
“Our target is GVB survivors and underprivileged women living in the Vusimuzi and Winnie Mandela informal settlements in Thembisa. We also welcome career women to support and uplift others. Anyone who wants to be a member of AbafaziPhambili is welcome to join.”

What are some of your ongoing operations/campaigns/outreach programmes?
“Our plan for the upcoming 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children is to reach out to young and older men in sensitising them about feminism and GBV in order to lessen the high rate of femicide and domestic violence.

“We will focus on self-love talks and dig deep into what men want within the society and their role in advancing human rights. We feel that at times, society fails to acknowledge their feelings and we are here to register them.

“We are also running a Christmas drive initiative that our member Sis’ Emily is leading. The goodies will be donated to an old-age home, where the elders are abandoned by their families. We are striving to give them a special festive feeling.

“We conduct skills training with the assistance of organisations. We host monthly events themed ‘Conversations with Sis’ Mantoa’. We provide a space for women to raise their issues concerning their lives within the system of inequalities. We take the conversations and find the relevant institutions that may assist them.”

She said they also educate women about their rights and social orientation with regards to parenting. 

“We also assist in high profile cases of GBV.

“We also support disability communities by referring our disabled members to various radio stations to educate citizens about disabilities and the inequalities and challenges these people face. We also provide legal support to women.”

What are some of the prominent challenges faced by the organisation?
“Funding is one of our biggest challenges and the lack of private office space to allow walk-ins. We are also struggling to find a legal firm willing to undertake pro-bono cases for women who experience GBV-related cases.

At the moment, our partner (Thuma Foundation) is only focusing on supporting us on constitutional matters in line with the Constitutional Court.”

What are the organisation’s needs?
“We need more companies/businesses willing to provide skills training to our members. We need funding to secure an office building that will also enable us to conduct our training as at times we battle to find a venue due to the Covid-19 restrictions. We also need contacts and partnerships with places of safety (survivor shelters) around Kempton Park and Thembisa for easy referral for women.”

How has Covid-19, regulations, restrictions and lockdown impacted the organisation?
“We couldn’t host skills training due to the hard lockdown. Our 2020 November training faced many challenges as we had to cut down the number of women in training, which was indeed heart-breaking for us.

“We were unable to host the monthly events, which in turn severely affected the emotional well-being of women, as our events are the only source of outings and motivation for them. The political injustice cases were dragging due to the hard lockdown. We were unable to reach the relevant people in government to assist the women.”

Contact details:
Mantoa Selepe 061 429 4353, Thung-Thung Moswane 071 332 1169, Email address: abafaziphambili@outlook.com. Instagram: @abafaziphambili, Twitter: @abafaziphambili, Facebook: AbafaziPhambili, Linkedin: Sis’Mantoa Selepe.

Also follow us on: