Room 4 Suite 109
AA House
Rink Street
Port Elizabeth, 6001
South Africa.

Telephone: +27 (0)84 5809400
E-mail: info@hopefoundation.org.za.

   Registration No. 026-152 NPO

P O Box 12832
CENTRAHIL
South Africa
6006

The Zwide Craft Project. This project is an urban skills development programme which aims to develop craft skills amongst unemployed people in informal and poor settlements in the Nelson Mandela Metropole. Traditional beading craft, fabric painting, fabric printing, sewing and quilting skills are taught. We focus on designs with an African motive. Items made in our workshops are sold at local and overseas craft markets.

This year we are training women in Zwide 3 & 4. Currently 15 women earn a regular income through this project, as we sell jewellery made by our trainees to Africa React UK, which in turn market the beadwork in the United Kingdom and Europe.

We recommend that you visit the Africa React UK website, as it contains video clips of the Zwide women saying how the project has benefited them. The website address is www.africareactuk.org.

Adelle Potgieter and Mandisa Tsheleza with a Umicore delegation led by Managing Director, Mr Hans Kuehn, at the handover of the Wendy House Umicore donated to the Zwide Craft Project as a training venue, October 2007.

Purple Ribbon for Peace Campaign. This project was started by Ms Adelle Potgieter, who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 & 2006 as part of the 1000 Peacewomen Across the Globe initiative, and is currently administered by H.O.P.E. Foundation.

The project aims to involve community groups and schools by creating awareness around peace building. The notion is often that peace is the absence of war, but this is a far cry from reality. Peace includes such diverse issues as human rights, the rights of women and children, rights to basic services and healthcare, an end to violence & domestic violence, an end to crime, justice for all, an end to trafficking in human beings, conflict mediation and eradicating poverty, to name but a few.

This particular project also aims to provide life skills training (especially conflict management skills) to South Africans from all walks of life. The focus is currently on small groups in communities that have a high incidence of violence. The programme will be expanded to schools and youth offenders at St. Albans Correctional Facility in Port Elizabeth. Talks at schools in rural areas are aimed to change the mindset of poor South Africans from the current dependence on handouts to one of self-empowerment.

The programme for juvenile offenders (18 - 25 years old) has already commenced at the St. Albans Correctional Facility. The programme includes juveniles sentenced for offences such as house breaking as well as for violent crimes such as murder.
 

Past successes

• Gobindlovu School Project, 2005. We aided this rural junior school in Port St. Johns with fundraising, books and furniture for its Grade 1 and 2 classrooms, which benefits 80 of the 200 learners.

• Siphuthando Pre-School, 2004. This struggling community preschool in Missionavale, Port Elizabeth, was aided with furniture and toys for its 30 charges.

• Entrepreneurship Courses, 2006. We held entrepreneurship courses in Ngqongweni, Cwebeni and Barcelona. Participants learned how to start and run a small business. Most of the businesses that were formed were craft-based and included fabric printing, beading and cutlery wire art concerns, but also a bakery and craft shop.

• The Caguba Craft and Entrepreneurship Programme, 2002-2006. This rural skills training project has run since 2002 with regular craft and entrepreneurship workshops in Caguba near Port St. Johns.

• Community Building, 2006. We assisted the Cwebeni Horse Trail in Port St. Johns with much needed reference books and binoculars to enhance their service delivery.

• Christmas Party, 2006. Old Mutual Port Elizabeth held a Christmas Party for 100 underprivileged children in Zwide during December 2006.

• The Hope Project This was a craft and entrepreneurship programme for poor and unemployed women. During 2006, with a grant from the National Lotteries Distribution Trust Fund, we trained 80 from Barcelona, Stocksville Heights and Missionvale.

• Blanket Campaign 2007  100 blankets were distributed to 100 needy children in Missionvale, Port Elizabeth.  The blankets were donated from proceeds of the Umicore Charity Golf Day 2007.

Miss Adelle Potgieter is the Founder & Director. She holds a social sciences degree from UPE. For her role in public & community service she was nominated for the 2005 & 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. She is an experienced lifeskills, craft and entrepreneurship trainer.

Mrs Madeleine Goulding is the Chairman of the Foundation. She is a qualified nursing sister working the private sector.

Mrs Patricia Mzozoyane is the Vice Chairman of HOPE. She is a beader and beading trainer from Zwide, Port Elizabeth. She oversees the soup kitchen in Soweto-on-Sea.

Mr Michael Connolly is the Treasurer of HOPE. He works as a security system technician in the private sector.

Mrs Mandisa Tsheleza is an experienced pre-school teacher, beading trainer and seamstress. She is a volunteer for our Transkei-based projects.

Mrs Phumaphi Gobongwana is a seamstress and beadwork trainer. She is a craft trainer for our Transkei-based projects.
 

From the Director, Ms Adelle Y. Potgieter – what motivates me?

“I'm frequently asked why I chose to do the work I do, as many feel it is too dangerous to work in the communities I frequent. The answer is not a simple case of giving back for my many blessings or having the desire to make a difference in this world, although both of these play a role. As a former Police official, who was tasked with identifying the root causes of numerous faction fights in the former Transkei, some with death tolls and refugees numbering in the thousands, I became frustrated that as a Police official I was unable to help the poor with job creation programmes and life skills training that could prevent violent community conflict and improve the qualify of life of whole communities. It was a simple choice of switching from depressing body counts after the fact to life-enhancing hope-giving training that builds peace.

I have a soft spot for our rural communities. Nowhere else is pride, dignity, perseverance and a joy for life more evident than in the face of poverty. I've learnt that poverty is a relative term. For decades migrant labour has stripped rural communities of their ability to be self-sufficient by teaching people that to be employed enhances one's worth and therefore social status. Western lifestyle patterns are destroying the unique cultural identities of the various tribes. Even traditional dress has changed over the past sixty years! The whole reason for HOPE Foundation's being is to help these communities use the resources that are available to them to create a better quality of life. We want to teach people to take pride in their unique cultural identity and that being self-employed and self-sufficient is not only possible, but desirable.

The informal settlements around large cities in our country grow daily with people from the rural areas who seek employment. We want to teach people to use their initiative and create jobs in their neighbourhood instead. I've heard of a statistic stating that only one out of every five people are entrepreneurs. Those are good odds when you meet a family with 30 people, like I have. (For interest sake: it was a man with three wives and 26 children). Many rural communities have either farm land, a beautiful natural environment or both. These should be capitalised upon. That is why HOPE programmes are diverse. We present workshops in art & crafts, farming (vegetables and soon also beekeeping), entrepreneurship, and soon also in eco-tourism (guiding, managing community-based accommodation and horsemanship).

I simply love my work and I am still able to serve my country and fellow man in the process! It doesn't get better than that!”
 

National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund

Umicore Autocat SA (Pty) Ltd