In order to receive a financial grant from the Department of Health and Social Development, shelters for abused women, like Mercy House, are required to have a community outreach programme. Mercy House opened its doors eleven years ago and during this time the staff has been involved in development work in various areas around Pretoria – Soshanguve, Nelmapius, Mamelodi and Vergenoeg (Far Enough) – with varying degrees of success and heartache.

For the past few years, we have been working with a small community – an informal settlement west of Attridgeville – a township attached to Pretoria. The women in the area wanted to set up a community vegetable garden. The land and water were available and Mercy House managed to donate fencing, hoses, tools and seeds. Overalls and boots were also bought. For a year there was great enthusiasm and excellent crops of vegetables were harvested. Then suddenly the wheels came off and we realised just how difficult community work is, especially when political parties start to interfere. One of the women changed the lock on the gate, hid the tools and gave the overalls to her friends. After many frustrating, time-consuming meetings we decided to leave the project in the hands of the local councillor and a community worker from the DHSD. We had gone “far enough”.

Early this year we identified a community in Erasmus, 30 km northwest of Pretoria. Here there is poverty, a lack of services (a mobile clinic arrives once a week with Dispirin!), HIV and AIDS, and unemployment, but this is a community that has an identity, is well organised and is hopeful about its future. The people made sure that their two schools were cleaned a week before school opened at the beginning of the year and teaching began on the first day.

Members of the Erasmus community returning from work in the gardens

The people have owned the land for over eighty years and the tribal officials work hard to develop the community. During 2011, the Department of Co-Operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) signed an agreement with the people to support the service delivery of the community.  Both men and women work in the community to improve the area and are paid a small stipend to do so by CoGTA. CoGTA has also given the people all the tools they need, a brick making machine and materials. The community itself decides on how they want to develop and in what projects they will work.

The recycling project in Erasmus

Some of the people were sent for skills training and are now passing those skills on to others. Vegetable gardens have been set up in twenty-two of the plots, but a large community garden is being planned. So, many of the people work in the gardens, while others work on the roads and on building a bridge leading to the community garden. Other activities include craft making, recycling and home based care. The young people decided that the youth group did not need to be entertained all the time and are involved in building offices and a computer room. They will offer computer courses in the near future.

Young learners in Erasmus  

The staff of Mercy House will organise awareness campaigns in the schools and in the wider community, as well as giving support in the area of home based care and the gardens. We will also assist the leaders of the various projects to have them registered as NPOs.

Building the bridge that will link the community to the new community farm

Hopefully, this programme will be more successful than some of our other efforts.

Colleen Wilkinson rsm
South African Province