By Tselane Moiloa
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BLOEMFONTEIN – Lack of funding and insufficient social workers in the province has made it difficult for government to fully dispatch services to rural areas, analysts have said.
As a result, non-governmental organisations have stepped in to help communities on the edges of better developed urban districts.
“We have witnessed many nonprofit organisations collapsing and many others teetering on the brink of collapse due to a combination of lack of financial support and inadequate funding to the sector from the traditional funding agencies, public sector and government. This situation is exacerbated by the lack of and the inability of the nonprofit sectors to financially sustain itself through generating its own income,” the national ministry said.
The Free State department of social development currently employs approximately 354 social workers, while subsiding 1443 Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) of the total 4400 in the province at a tune of R363 million, MEC Sisi Ntombela said.
These are the groups which bear the brunt, yet have said cannot reach more places due to budget constraints, which also led the NPOs asking to be part of policy and budget making processes in the future.
One of the organisations which have had flourished even though they have had problems is the Emelia Active Learning Centre in Batho location, Bloemfontein, which caters for children with disabilities. The centre provides day care to 20 children with disabilities, with a team of five skilled workers.
Services rendered include active learning programmes for children who cannot go to formal school during the day, different forms of therapy and fosters better social interaction between children with disabilities and their families.
“I must admit that we are not doing enough for the disabled people,” Ntombela admitted during the Free State leg of provincial dialogues between the ministry and the sector on Wednesday, July 4, in Bloemfontein.
The department made a commitment to improve these relations, which was welcomed by Ruth Blood, the regional manager of Autism South Africa in Free State and Northern Cape.
“I hope that the promises made today come into fruition because we really need a commitment from the department. I always tell people that early detection [of autism] is important, and there have been instances where they came back after their children’s condition is confirmed by doctors and ask for help but we cannot always offer it due to lack of resources,” she said.
However, funding problems deter the work of the groups, according to both the department of social development and NPOs.
Nonetheless, some smaller organisations littered around the province have tried to cope with limited funding.
In 2005, a few women in rural Reddersburg started an organisation to fight women and child abuse in the area.
Khala Garing of the Khatelopele Women Against Abuse organisation believes they have made strides in this regard, despite the challenges they have faced and the lack of cooperation from the men in the community.
“We can certainly say things have changed in Reddersburg regarding abuse, because the statistics used to be really bad,” Garing said.
The centre, situated in a small building in the township of Matoporong, offers counselling services to survivors of domestic violence and helps parents and guardians apply for children’s identity documents and birth certificates.
Besides the financial straits which many of the NPOs in the province face, Garing said men are not forthcoming with their problems and lead them to aggressive behaviour, which is based on the prejudice that they will not confide in women.
“The men in our area do not want to volunteer; some want the stipend first and some say that they will not bring their problems to a group of women and when that happens we refer them to social workers whom they are more comfortable with,” she said.
Ntombela and the deputy-minister for social development Maria Ntuli heard that stipends are a common problem among the groups.
The provincial dialogue saw numerous groups from the five districts in the province presenting their challenges and recommendations to government. One of the binding factors across the board was members who were questioning whether they would ever be employed in the department and that they wanted a salary not just a stipend.
The stipend currently ranges between R700 and R1300. Ntuli and Ntombela bemoaned this, saying that when people started their respective organisations, it was primarily out of love and the desire to help their communities.
“Some people here do not understand NPOs – you are not a business person, you are assisting the community. It is as though some people are only interested in the money and not changing lives,” she criticised.
However, Garing countered that they still need to survive; hence they were questioning employment initiatives and salaries.
“We started these organisations, but we also cannot be volunteers for the rest of our lives,” she said, echoing the views of many other representatives who were present.
Free State was the third pit-stop of the provincial dialogues which have already been to Limpopo and Western Cape. When all provinces are concluded, the ministry will host a summit in August where these issues will be further discussed and resolutions decided upon regarding things like subsidies, stipends and budgets.
“These dialogues have been a learning curve,” Ntuli said.
“For one, there are big differences between NGOs in town and those in townships – from the infrastructure to the training. We will focus on the funding, challenges, training and the integration of black and white NGOs,” she continued.
Ntuli also said while the concerns about emerging NGOs and similar organisations were noted, people also needed to realise that those which are doing well cannot just be dumped.
“The differences are there between the haves and the have-nots. But at this point, I cannot say we must leave those that are doing well to fend for themselves; we just have to strengthen and support the others,” Ntuli concluded.