Zusakhe means "to build". It is a non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental, organization which operates in the Dunoon semi-urban area of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa. Dunoon is a reconstruction and development programme housing establishment for the poor near the Table View area. The majority of this community is poverty stricken, illiterate and un-employed. It is about 18km from the city centre and is situated along the N7.
Zusakhe is Registered as a Non-Profit Organization. Certificate can be viewed here.
“This is the kind of fast day I’m after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I’m interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once.”
Isaiah 58:6,7
As Ruth Forssman (the organiser) said: ‘It was a wonderful way of paying tribute to the donors; reminding the fortunate of the needs of the less fortunate out there’.
This mentoring programme was established between unrelated adults and youth.
There is nothing as heartwarming, comprehensible and reassuring as an adult befriending and supporting youths. Zusakhe are excited about this initiative. In an era when society has little confidence in social interventions, mentoring can provide solid outcomes for adolescents with regards to: substance abuse, violent behaviour, school performance and family relationships which is as equal in importance as its intuitive appeal. Mentoring is an undiluted social intervention connecting two strangers of different age groups, supporting and monitoring their relationships through the Big Brothers Big Sisters South Africa distilled-from-experience set of operational guidelines and clearly defined match procedures.
Mentoring at Big Brothers Big Sisters is both a discrete programme and a broader idea that individual change and progress is fundamentally about having other individuals care, support, tend to and, most importantly, guide on a one-to-one basis. There is no substitute.
Big Brothers Big Sisters International distinguishes itself from other mentoring programmes in that it has rigorous standards of programme implementation and programme management, which all Big Brothers Big Sisters International agencies have to be compliant with for the country’s programme to be accredited.
Update 29 July 2009: BBBS is progressing well! All forms for the volunteers have been completed, they have now been interviewed and 'approved'. So all is well on track!
To reach out to those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in the communities of Doornbach and Dunoon by networking with other organizations.
Patricia has overall management of the centre and is responsible for all that happens here. She has an indefatigable spirit and a wonderful support team that help her at the centre.
They are being trained and will receive bicycles to help them get around faster to their patients. Each carer will be able to look after twenty patients a month.That is four per day each day of the week. They visit each paient to bathe feed and check on them each week .
They then make sure they are taking their medication (ARV) as compliance is essential or they become drug resistant. They will see what grants need applying for and if kids go to school or not. If they need créche or aftercare they come to our facilty. Click here to see them up close.