Khanyisa Educational and Development Trust – Executive Summary

1.0 Background

Khanyisa was established in 1990, with the initial aim of working with disadvantaged communities in and around Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. Initially Khanyisa's  focus had been on educational support programmes. However its work has now been broadened to become integrated rural development with a focus on the farm areas and small townships around Port Elizabeth, mainly within the Sunday's River and Kouga District Municipalities. Khanyisa's work is now biased towards assisting rural communities, who include, farm workers and dwellers, women, youths and the unemployed and is accountable to the democratically elected structures of the communities serviced.

Khanyisa is part of the Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE) Collective which comprises 6 regional groupings in the Eastern and Western Cape and Limpopo Provinces. The collective seeks to become a national independent organisation representing the voice of the rural poor in South Africa. It aims to build a mass based national formation of poor rural peoples organisations with strong, democratic and accountable leadership that is able to organise, mobilise and co-ordinate the struggles of all sectors  of the rural and coastal poor, including women, small scale farmers, commodity groups, fishers, farm workers and youth, for control and ownership of natural resources. The six regional groupings are Khanyisa, Calusa, Itireleng, Masifunde, Masifundise, and Zingisa

1.1 Khanyisa’s vision

Khanyisa's vision is to see the  rural and farm  dweller communities it works with  engaged in various forms of: -

~ Land access, land rights, ownership and utilization

~ Economic empowerment through land use and related economic activities

~ Farm worker mobilization beyond immediate localities to understand and intersect with policy provided to help survive poverty, evictions and rights violations

~ Community campaigns for access to services and resources

as a means to empower themselves towards sustainable livelihoods in which socio-economic-political justice for all will to thrive

1.2 Mission

Khanyisa is committed to a people centered development  approach of engaging communities in a People’s Participatory Planning and Action (PPPA), adhering to the values of unity, equality and gender sensitive methods of development . Our work is about the promotion of access to resources for social and economic advancement. Khanyisa is biased towards assisting farm workers and dwellers, rural communities, women , youths and the unemployed and is accountable to the democratically elected structures of the communities serviced.

2.0 Areas of Focus and Program Activities

Khanyisa's work is focused towards the mobilization of rural communities to advocate for increased access to land and other natural resources (e.g. water) and towards their improved access to basic municipal services and Khanyisa has two main programme areas geared towards this. These are:

2.1 Land access and land use

Khanyisa has identified poverty as the biggest enemy  towards development in the various communities it services. Key to tackling this problem is land access and ownership. The work around this area therefore involves-

- Education and awareness raising on land access policies, processes and responsibilities of various players in government.

- Working with groups keen to access and utilize land to aid them in accessing land using the various channels available to them.

- The formation of farmer  and producer groups to become the building blocks for co-ordination of lobbying and advocacy processes through interaction with local governments and participation in public meetings.

- The documentation of land cases (i.e. Land Claims, Restitutions, etc) in the various areas Khanyisa is working in to present to the various local authorities

2.2 Local government

The second programme which Khanyisa focuses on is on Local Government. Khanyisa assists local community leadership and groups understand how their local municipalities work  and how they can participate especially in the Integrated Development Plans (idps) annual reviews. Our work in this area involves

- Use of learning groups to reflect on priorities within the idps to enhance the broad awareness and participation of communities

- Lobbying for increased accountability to local communities by municipal and district council officials

- Assisting communities in the various cases they lodge against local municipalities for better service delivery and land access.

 3.0 Principles and Core Values

Khanyisa adopts a bottom up strategy to carrying out its work. It works within local community development structures and identifies volunteers at the community level to engage in community organising. Khanyisa commits itself to the following principles and values to guide its work

• It strives to uphold the philosophy of the People’s Party

• It is apolitical

• It is non-sexist, i.e. it is gender sensitive.

• It holds itself accountable to the communities it serves

• It carries out its work in a transparent manner

• It is democratic and seeks to address the needs of the people. It seeks to adopt a bottom-up approach to its work with the communities guiding the flow of Khanyisa’s work.

• Unity in action

• Humanity and sharing of resources

• Respect and acceptance of varying views and opinions

• It is committed to working with the rural poor

• It is committed to self-organization to advance the developmental needs of the poor

• We approach development in a manner that respects and builds on existing indigenous knowledge and experience of the poor

Khanyisa's programmes are run through the following processes:

a. Building a Rural People’s Organisation

This involves the building up of an independent, mass based, non-political, gender sensitive, transparent and accountable, issues based organisation that will:

• Be the voice of the poor

• Lobbying as one united voice

• Be a partnership between the various communities Khanyisa works with

• Be independent

• Challenge government on its various programmes and policies which affect them

• Work in partnership with government departments to promote and support food security and job creation

• Gather information to disseminate to various communities

b. Awareness Raising, education and skills for livelihoods

This involves:

• The training of community leadership in aspects of leadership development, fundraising, management of activities, conflict management and resolution, organisation and advocacy, etc

• Improving communities understanding on government policies and legislation on and around land reform and local government

• Community mobilisation and organisation

• Increasing youth involvement in agriculture

• Research on youth interested in agriculture

• Study visits

• In partnership with other CSOs coming up with alternatives to existing policy and legislation

• Improve community understanding and involvement in IDP processes

• Improve community understanding of local government

c. Facilitating land access, use and management

This involves:

• Research and documentation of community initiatives and needs

• The engagement of the local municipalities around the land audit

• The use of natural resource to benefit local communities

• Organise communities to engage in campaigns for access to land for farming

• Building of strategic partnerships with other NGOs working in the same areas as Khanyisa to assist farm workers (i.e. to raise awareness on their rights)

• Building alliances with relevant organisations in the region

4.0 Areas of Operation

Khanyisa works with rural communities around Port Elizabeth in the following municipalities:

a. Sundays River Valley

- Addo

- Glen Conner, Woverfontien, Kleinpoort

- Enon Bersheba

- Dunbrody

- Kirkwood

b. Kouga

- Centerton

-Weston

- Rooidraai

• Patensie

Khanyisa is currently working with the following groups