NGO Week makes a welcome return!
NGO Week is back! After an absence of many years, NGO Week 2010 was hosted from 20-25 September 2010 by the Cape Town Society for the Blind and Community House in Salt River, Cape Town. Since its inception in 1997, NGO Week has been the highlight of the civil society development calendar. It provides a bi-annual platform which offers a unique opportunity for civil society organizations to come together, learn from each other, dialogue and debate, make input into government policies and programmes and ensure that NGOs continue to play a significant role in the fight against poverty and inequality.
According to the organizing team the aim of NGO Week 2010 was to “build on existing campaigns but also to create the space and opportunity for individual organizations to promote their own learning programmes.”
Participants to NGO Week 2010 were spoiled for choice in terms of a variety of activities consisting of dialogues and self-organized workshops that formed part of an interactive marketplace of learning. This was supplemented by sharing of case studies and regional dialogues to build solidarity across the Southern and East African region around common struggles. All this was interspersed with cultural events that took place during lunch times. The programme culminated in a cultural festival on the final day to commemorate Community House as a popular site of struggle.
Tony Ehrenreich, the general secretary of COSATU in the Western Cape, who opened NGO Week 2010 reiterated that more can be done to address poverty. According to him “changing people’s lives cannot be left to the government as they are not delivering on people’s basic needs and this is where NGOs can play a critical role.”
Some People First Foundation trustees also attended NGO Week 2010 with Peter Hendricks playing an active role on the organizing team. Frank Julie, Ricardo Wyngaard and Peter Hendricks also facilitated self-organized workshops dealing with professional fundraising and the implications of King III codes of corporate governance for the civil society sector respectively.
To find out more about SANGOCO Western Cape, feel free to contact them at:
The Secretariat
SANGOCO Western Cape
Tel: 021 447 5766
Fax: 021 447 7899
Email: sangocowesterncape@telkomsa.net
Website: sangocowc.org
According to the organizing team the aim of NGO Week 2010 was to “build on existing campaigns but also to create the space and opportunity for individual organizations to promote their own learning programmes.”
Participants to NGO Week 2010 were spoiled for choice in terms of a variety of activities consisting of dialogues and self-organized workshops that formed part of an interactive marketplace of learning. This was supplemented by sharing of case studies and regional dialogues to build solidarity across the Southern and East African region around common struggles. All this was interspersed with cultural events that took place during lunch times. The programme culminated in a cultural festival on the final day to commemorate Community House as a popular site of struggle.
Tony Ehrenreich, the general secretary of COSATU in the Western Cape, who opened NGO Week 2010 reiterated that more can be done to address poverty. According to him “changing people’s lives cannot be left to the government as they are not delivering on people’s basic needs and this is where NGOs can play a critical role.”
Some People First Foundation trustees also attended NGO Week 2010 with Peter Hendricks playing an active role on the organizing team. Frank Julie, Ricardo Wyngaard and Peter Hendricks also facilitated self-organized workshops dealing with professional fundraising and the implications of King III codes of corporate governance for the civil society sector respectively.
To find out more about SANGOCO Western Cape, feel free to contact them at:
The Secretariat
SANGOCO Western Cape
Tel: 021 447 5766
Fax: 021 447 7899
Email: sangocowesterncape@telkomsa.net
Website: sangocowc.org
