We're Partnering with IKAMVA LABANTU in South Africa

Why Partner?

In order to ensure that Auntie is as efficient as possible, and that the funds we raise are invested as effectively as possible, we partner with several ‘non profit’ organisations in South Africa which run the  projects that benefit our children there. This means that we can concentrate on what we do best – raising money here in the UK and Ireland, supporting settings here, and initiating activities that involve children and parents here – leaving experts who ‘live and breathe’ in the heart of communities overseas, and who really understand the needs of communities that must adopt and ‘own’ development projects, to manage those projects.

One such organisation is IKAMVA LABANTU, which means “the future of our nation”.

IKAMVA traces its roots back to the days of apartheid, when Helen Lieberman started working with women in the poverty stricken townships around Cape Town. Today IKAMVA has grown into a large social development movement – an umbrella body with a network of over 1000 projects, working and assisting various sectors of the population….children, young people, families, seniors and the physically challenged.

These projects are all ‘owned’ by community representatives, ensuring the greatest likelihood that they will succeed in their aim of alleviating extreme poverty through building sustainable communities.

Auntie is partnering with IKAMVA in a number of ways – supporting the resourcing and running of its many crèches, and aiming to support the development of many more desperately needed childcare centres. Our first major fundraising initiative – ‘Share + Care this Christmas’ creates an opportunity for children in settings in the UK to give gifts and toys to the children in South Africa. We also aim to assist IKAMVA in training and supporting their ‘mamas’ – their practitioners – to raise the quality of childcare provided to the highest possible level.

Helen continues to support this work. She remains a volunteer (as she was at the outset) – overseeing and supporting IKAMVA. We’d like you to get to know her, and have made a series of short films in which Helen introduces Auntie supporters to IKAMVA, explains how she got started, some of the challenges she overcame, the issues faced by vulnerable children in South Africa’s townships, and the work undertaken by IKAMVA’s communities.

These videos will be available on Auntie very soon...