Gauteng Together to help address Covid-19 food and social insecurity

Gauteng Together, an initiative calling for the establishment of Community Action Networks (CAN) across Gauteng to address the social impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, was launched on 16 April.

The project was initiated by The Angel Network, the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation and CONECKT, and is supported by a range of organisations, individuals and local community volunteers.

The initiative, which was pioneered by Cape Town Together, is being adopted in Gauteng in response to growing concerns over food insecurity, hunger and other social challenges impacting negatively on the lives of people due to the lockdown.

Diricilla Naidoo, serving on the Gauteng Together team, said that the “Initiative not only taps into the goodwill of ordinary people during this period, but importantly, develops activism at a grassroots level for neighbourhoods to work together in addressing these challenges”.

Gauteng Together will mobilise ordinary people to initiate Community Action Networks (CAN) in their neighbourhoods; to identify community needs, and to work towards addressing them through co-ordinated, localised action.

According to Nhlanhla Lucky Nkosi from Gauteng Together, the network acknowledges that there are religious and charitable institutions already doing phenomenal aid work on the ground. CANs are not meant to replace them or duplicate the work.

Nkosi emphasised that the project will map out what aid and humanitarian work is happening in the province, both through CANs and existing NGOs, and point out where there are gaps.

Neeshan Balton, a committee member of Gauteng Together, explained that CANs are not funded by Gauteng Together. This should be done through partnering with local businesses or pairing up with better resourced CANs, philanthropists, existing NGOs and residents in neighbourhoods.

Speaking about the work CANs could do, Naidoo said, “It will differ from community to community depending on the needs. For many, food security may be the primary issue. However, individual CANs should look beyond packaging food hampers. It’s also about ensuring that those who are self-isolating have groceries bought on their behalf, or in communities where there are communal taps, that water is taken to households under quarantine – and all of this done within stringent safety regulations.”

Naidoo emphasised that gender-based violence and the abuse of children should also be given serious attention during the lockdown.

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Balton said that “at its core, the CAN initiative is about developing a heightened sense of social solidarity during a very difficult time, not only here in South Africa, but globally as well.”

Follow these steps to start a CAN:

1. Identify a core set of volunteers in your community or your organisation.
2. Designate one volunteer to be the administrator, who will be a point of contact for the CAN with the Gauteng Together committee.
3. If you are an individual volunteer, without any co-volunteers, you can follow the same instructions outlined below. You can choose whether you want to be an administrator and begin the formation of a CAN, or just volunteer and be put in touch with an existing CAN.
4. All volunteers identified, including the administrator, must log onto www.gautengtogether.org and click ‘get started’ to fill in the ‘sign up’ form.
5. Every volunteer will be asked whether they want to start a CAN – the administrator of the CAN should say ‘yes’ and the rest of the volunteers should say ‘no’.
6. Wait for a response.  The administrator will be contacted via email with information about whether a CAN already exists within their locality and who to get in touch with if this is the case. If no CAN has already been established in the area, the administrator will be emailed with a ‘starter pack’ outlining the next steps for registering the CAN.
7. All other volunteers will be allocated to CANs in their area and be contacted with further details.

For more information, visit the Gauteng Together Facebook page.