ANNUAL REPORT 2006/2007

QUAKER PEACE CENTRE

Contents

Chairperson's  Report

Projects
    Review
    Statistical Summary

    Positive Discipline
    Diversity
    Youth at Risk
    Young Women's Forum
    Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP)

Audited Financial Statements

Board Members 2006-2007

Staff members - year end

Funding partners

Press Clippings
 

Chairperson's  Report

This annual report is appearing well after the end of year under review and will present only the basic information.

In May 2007 the Board confirmed QPC’s aim as “to identify, resolve and treat the root causes of conflict that leads to violence” and  at the same time confirmed its own role as being “the final responsibility for everything.” It no longer is delegating to subcommittees or sheltering behind a paid Director.

Martin Struthmann, Manager of QPC, sits on the Board and is both accountable to it and a part of the decision-making process ensuing absolute transparency and good communication. Communication is further assisted by the presence of another staff representative.
 

STRATEGY
The Board has drawn up a set of criteria against which every QPC program (current and future) is assessed.

We recognize that QPC alone cannot bring about a mass change in the roots of South African conflict and violence. What it can do is look into (at least some of) the roots, develop helpful approaches to aspects of conflict and violence, test these in the field and then publicise them for others to pick up and spread. In this way we achieve sustainability.

The Board has worked with the QPC project leaders to obtain a good understanding of present ventures and assess how they address these criteria.  In general they do.

FINANCES
Thanks to the patience and support of our funders QPC is financially healthy.
Details are given in “Financials” and “Funding Partners.”

PEOPLE
The staff has gone through a difficult period  marked by gross imbalances of salary and workload with expectations inherited from past years. This very sensitive area of concern has been successfully addressed.

The Board was concerned that Martin was carrying the entire load of the administration
of QPC.  Two obvious disquiets were firstly, that Martin was being overburdened, and secondly that this would render the organisation vulnerable in the event of something happening to him.  Xoliswa Ntsabo has been employed to assist him. She has experience in NGO administration.

A new independent, auditor Ms Gina Nixon has been appointed. She has audited the last two years (2005-6 and 2006-7) – all now published.

Ms Glyn Lawrence has been employed as a contract bookkeeper.

One of our major challenges is to find and attract towards the Peace Centre, good Board people who are not already involved in a myriad of other commitments and projects and who are able to take an active interest in the projects, to maintain good governance and to keep the organisation relevant and transparent.

FRAUD
In 2003 it was discovered that Alan du Toit (the then bookkeeper)  had defrauded QPC of some R900,000  An amount of R194,846 was recovered on 31st of August 2006. The court case continues but it seems unlikely that he will honour any further amounts owed to QPC and we have written off the outstanding amount.

CONCLUSION
I want to extend a very special thanks to the 2006-2007 Board  who have been outstanding in their commitment. They have met (often on a weekly basis) over protracted periods of time. Their commitment and cheerfulness throughout it all need congratulation and profound thanks.

Martin Struthmann as manager has been a tower of strength often coming up with new and innovative ideas. The staff is doing good work, checks and balances are in place, and I feel happy that fiduciary obligations are being met and proper monitoring is being done.

The journey has been rewarding and although there is still work to be done I certainly feel much lighter  now than I did 18 months ago and it is with great relief (I must admit) that I now lay down my role as Chairperson and close this chapter in my life. I have confidence that the right people have been attracted to the Centre to guide and assist it through the next period of its work.

Celeste Santos
 

QPC Projects

QPC PROJECTS

QPC continues with five projects.  All have a focus on “youth” as we believe this is where the roots of violent responses are most readily approached. Most of the work is (as before) in Delft – one of Cape Town’s most deprived areas.  All are experiential i.e. no lecturing.

Positive Discipline
Trains teachers (and student teachers) how to manage their classes and schools without corporal punishment – which is now, though widespread, illegal.

Young Women’s Forum
Aims to equip young women (a very disadvantaged section of the community) with understanding of their rights and responsibilities and (even more important) the confidence to demand and obtain these within their communities.

Youth at Risk
By a mixture of sport, arts and crafts training and life skills this project shows a sample of difficult and disruptive children that they have value, places within their communities and that violence and crime is not the only option.

Diversity
South Africans suffer from distrust, incomprehension and uncertain relationships across colour and race boundaries. This project, having started with schoolchildren, now addresses the problem within school staffrooms which were providing the wrong example.

Alternatives to Violence
For the individual AVP provides affirmation, self confidence and communication skills empowering all their relationships. For victims of violence it provides powerful ways to overcome it.  For those considering the use of violence it provides more powerful, non violent methods of meeting their needs.
 

Statistical Summary

        STATISTICAL SUMMARY OF PROJECT ACTIVITY
 
Project
Workshop types
Number of workshops
Women
Men
Total participants
Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) Basic AVP
Advanced AVP		 6 53 37 90
Diversity Diversity
Xhos/Afrikaans as a 2nd language		 18 303 101 404
Positive Discipline Positive Discipline
Conflict Management
Anger Management		 32 809 282 1091
Young Women's Forum Needs assessment
HIV/Aids		 17 285 n/a 285
Youth at Risk Life Skills
Team building
Sports
Arts and Culture		 59 561 777 1338
Growing and Use of Herbs Growing and Use of Herbs
Food and Nutrition
 		 3 38 2 40
Food Processing HIV/Aids
Food and Nutrition		 3 41 0 41

Please Note: Individual workshop length varies considerably.  For instance, some workshops took place over three days while others were two hours in duration.
 

POSITIVE DISCIPLINE

Positive Discipline is QPC’s longest running project

Lectures at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology continued in 2007. Large numbers of students have been trained in positive discipline to date.

In February 2007, the focus of the project changed from work (mainly) in schools so that  with our  reduced  resources we could enhance our impact. While training at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) continued, submissions, both written and oral, were made to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Development for the removal of lawful corporal punishment clauses from the Children’s Amendment Bill.  This lobbying continues.

In April 2007, a paper "Positive about Discipline – a system that can work in South African Schools” was presented at an international conference on learner discipline at the North West University in Potchefstroom. It was well received. Various articles on positive discipline and violence in schools were published in the press and in periodicals. It is clear that QPC is a forerunner in the national quest to create non violent schools

In June 2007 preparations began for an Indaba on sharing good school practice. Future plans include public meetings and further Indabas with learners involved in problem solving strategies and think tanks in the process of building non violent schools.
 

YOUNG WOMEN’S FORUM

The underlying aim of the project is to encourage young women to lead in their communities and to engage with and participate with all the relevant structures and organizations e.g.  political parties, local councils, self help groups.

The project works to raise awareness of issues affecting women, their rights and their responsibilities. We worked at two high schools in the Delft area, which are attended by both African and Coloured learners.   22 Grade 10 learners (ages 15 -18) came from each school.  All are girls who have shown leadership qualities

The two most significant topics to emerge were HIV/Aids and teenage pregnancy
coupled with womens rights.

Additionally the project leader Nokuthula Mbete facilitated an interest group on the role of young women in peace building at the Quaker Peace Network consultation in Rwanda from 28 March to 3 April 2007.
 

YOUTH AT RISK

The main purpose for this project is to divert learners from a possible life of crime and violence and at the same time introduce and direct them to grab hold of the opportunities at their disposal.  The project does this primarily through arts and crafts and sports recreation building self esteem.  It also provides additional food as many arrive at school without breakfast.

The after-school project worked with two Delft primary schools - twelve boys from one with six girls and six boys from the other.  These learners were selected by the teachers and all came from difficult backgrounds that influenced their behaviour in negative ways.  In class they were disruptive and would often fight with and bully fellow learners when they were frustrated with school work.

During and after the intervention both groups showed a remarkable desire to channel their energies in the right direction making it clear that they wanted to change their behaviour. Their teachers confirmed that the project was working as hoped

During this phase a comprehensive model was developed for implementation and testing between June 2007 and June 2008 at similar schools.
 

DIVERSITY

The project starts with the hard truth that everyone growing up in South Africa inherits attitudes about the other cultural groups. It further accepts that what is not acknowledged cannot be changed and that there is no quick fix to racial prejudice.

Following a diversity weekend workshop held earlier in the year with teachers at Eindhoven No 2 Primary School in Delft we came to believe that the problem lay more with the teachers than the learners.  Relationships had reached the point where Coloured and African teachers even had separate staff rooms and took tea separately.

We decided to begin teaching Xhosa second language to the Afrikaans teachers and later to teach Afrikaans to the Xhosa teachers. These workshops began in August 2006 and have brought about significant change in the school.

In the first week of July 2006, daily workshops with adolescent learners and a diversity focus were conducted under the auspices of ASSET, at the Cape University of Technology.

In November 2006 a “Celebrating Language Diversity in Delft Day” was held at the school in cooperation with the Western Cape Department of Sport and Culture, in which teachers, parents and learners participated. It was also the occasion for renaming the school which became Kairos Primary school.

The Xhosa second language classes came to an end in April 2007 and it was decided to continue with trilingual language classes: Afrikaans, English and Xhosa.

A teambuilding exercise for Kairos teachers was conducted in May 2007 and  later that month diversity workshops began at Leiden Avenue Primary School in Delft.

Articles about our diversity project were published in the faith-based magazine, Challenge, the international peace magazine, New Routes, and a shorter version in the Southern African Quaker News.
 

ALTERNATIVES TO VIOLENCE PROJECT (AVP)

AVP workshops were run in five high schools - two in Delft and three in Nyanga. Learners from these five schools participated in our three levels of AVP, ie. Basic, Advanced and Training for Facilitators.

In the second (Advanced) level, participants were able to demonstrate their own experiential learning, in that they had to share, discuss and to role-play things that affect their own daily lives. We encouraged them to come up with their own topic/s using consensus as a process  to reach group agreement.  Examples of topics are: Gender, Racism, Teenage Pregnancy, Gangsterism, Substance Abuse, Domestic Violence.

In the third level (Training for Facilitators level), participants were exposed to planning, organising, facilitation and report-writing skills.

We now have a pool of 20–25 AVP facilitators in each of the five schools all of which have an AVP committee supported by teachers.  We continue to support them through visits, meetings and monitoring and we are presently establishing an AVP forum that will be comprised of five AVP committees members from each school.
 

Audited Financial Statements 2006-7
 

The complete audited financial statements are obtainable from the Quaker Peace Centre.
 

Board Members 2006-2007

Celeste Santos (Chair)               resigned at year end
Michael Williams (Vice Chair)
John Broom (Treasurer)
Julie Suberg (Secretary)
Karin Fry                                  resigned at year end
Thozama Gcememe                   resigned
Shanil Haricharan                      resigned
Bridget Nomonde Scoble          resigned at year end
Bill Sewell                                 resigned
Keith Vermeulen                       resigned
Michael Bagraim (advisor)        resigned

Athalie Crawford (staff rep)
Martin Struthmann – Manager  (ex officio)
 

Staff – at year end

Manager                                                    Martin Struthmann
Project Leader, Positive Discipline             Avril  Knott-Craig
Project Leader, Young Women’s Forum    Nokuthula Mbete
Project Leader, Youth at Risk                    Hirschel Heilbron
Project Leader, Diversity                           Athalie Crawford
Project Leader, AVP                                 Mlungiseleli Dywili
Office Administrator                                   Xoliswa Ntsabo
Cleaner                                                      Michelle Mdamoyi
 

Funding Partners

• FUNDERS:
EED made it clear some years ago that their funding would terminate by June 2007, However, QPC has not used all the money that was originally allocated to us, and EED has agreed to support us to the end.  . We thank them most sincerely for all the kind and helpful advice they offered us during this very challenging time.

• JOSEPH ROWNTREE Charitable Trust’s support for QPC has, sadly, been terminated, due to a strategic policy decision. We thank them for their many years of unwavering support, and will most certainly miss their kind and caring help.

• QUAKER MEETINGS UK: Alan and Janet Quilley have been working with great commitment raising funds for QPC. These amazing people have applied themselves to distributing information about QPC’s programs and outreach,   In our last financial year (ending June 2007) the total funds raised by Quakers in the UK amounted to R449,073.  Words do not adequately convey the gratitude and thanks that such commitment and loyalty elicit.

• EPER – Although there has also been an understanding from these funders that their focus and presence is being removed from the Cape area, we have received another donation previously approved, for our Young Women’s Forum project.

• There are also on-going smaller amounts coming in from other Quaker meetings, e.g. Swiss Quakers, Quaker-Hilfe, Quakerhulp in the Netherlands, and Quaker Service Aotearoa/ New Zealand thanks to Martin’s interaction and communication with them
 
 
Programme / Fund Funder
Diversity Quäker-Hilfe, Germany
Young Women's Forum Entraide Protestante Suisse (Swiss Interchurch Aid)
Youth at Risk City of Cape Town
Food Preservation National Development Agency – Western Cape Networking AIDS Community of South Africa
Growingh and Use of Herbs National Development Agency – Western Cape Networking AIDS Community of South Africa
General Grant Department of Social Services and Poverty Alleviation, Western Cape
Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst, Germany
Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, UK
Quaker Hulpfund, The Netherlands
Quaker Peace and Social Witness, Britain Yearly Meeting (Quakers)
Quaker Service Aotearoa / New Zealand
Wensleydale & Swaledale Monthly Meeting, UK [Committee for fundraising among British and Irish Quakers]

Press Clippings

General

Quaker monthly, July 2006, ‘Voices of South Africa’, by Evelyn M Shire.

The Friend, 15 June 2007, ‘Cape Town Peace centre on the up’.

Diversity

Challenge, January 2007, ‘Prejudice burns unseen until it comes to the boil’, by Athalie Crawford.

New Routes, 1/2007, ‘Language skills to overcome prejudice’, by Athalie Crawford.

Quäker-Hilfe Mitteilungen, September 2006, ‘Apartheid – heute noch ein Thema?’ by Dieter Müller-Nöhring.

Quaker monthly, February 2007, ‘No short cuts!’, by Athalie Crawford.

Southern Africa Quaker News, December 2006, ‘No short cuts!’, by Athalie Crawford.

Positive Discipline

Cape Argus, 14 February 2007, ‘NGOs urge ban on parents smacking kids’, by Philda Essop.

Cape Times, 12 June 2007, ‘Violence and violent attitudes are creating confused and angry children’, by Avril Knott-Craig.
 
 
Quaker Peace Centre
3 Rye Road
Mowbray
Cape Town 7700
South Africa

Phone: (021) 685 7800
Fax: (021) 686 8167
Email: qpc@qpc.org.za
Visit our website: http://www.quaker.org/capetown
 


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