WOW! - Women of Wentworth do wonders

The Wentworth Organisation of Women (WOW) is a non-profit CBO formed in 1993 to assist the disadvantaged people of Austerville-Wentworth in KZN province.?

One of the group?s main aims is to provide early childhood development for the children of unemployed mothers who could not afford to send them to nursery school. Patricia Dove, a co-founder of the WOW group, and her colleagues held the classes in the open environment of a park, until a steel container was donated to them, in which the morning nursery school and afternoon care centre could operate.?

The WOW volunteers soon began to observe and understand much wider social problems in the community, which led them to offer HIV/AIDS counselling and other family-focused services; in 1998 the Department of Health awarded them R30 000 to run Austerville?s first AIDS awareness programme.? They were joined by a group of Social Work students from what was then the University of Natal, who trained co-ordinators to run the project professionally.? The students helped the women to write their own organisational Constitution document, and how to conduct meetings.?

WOW used its single steel container and some members? houses to run skills-development programmes such as sewing and embroidery,
vegetable gardening and beadwork, as well as services such as trauma counselling to victims of rape, violence and other human rights abuses.? For those in the community infected and affected by HIV and AIDS, the trained WOW volunteers provide counselling, home-based care, social grants access assistance, and distribute of food and clothing as and when they can.? They work closely with the Highway Hospice and other referral agencies in the area.?

In 2002, Mrs Dove and a colleague attended a seminar, hosted by the City of Durban?s Integrated Development Plan, on community ownership and using vacant residential space for social upliftment.? She had her eye on a dumpsite opposite the Methodist Church in Austerville with the idea of turning it into a multi-purpose family centre.? After a lengthy struggle to acquire the site, the local Ward Councillor helped the process along and WOW now legally owns the property.

The WOW operation is growing as beautifully as the children and plants they have tended over the years: some men have joined WOW?s volunteer ranks, and through active fundraising directed towards corporate companies based in the surrounding area, the WOW site has had a fully-equipped container-bakery donated to it by SAPREF.? Recently, WOW introduced tunnel farming to its projects to help people grow good quality crops in a sustainable way.

The Embassy of Japan has given WOW just under R550 000 towards the building of the planned Family Resource Centre, which will cost about R700 000 in total.? PROJECT BUILD, a local charitable trust that works with communities and the private sector to build school-related facilities, is helping WOW to obtain this funding shortfall by sending proposals to their own sponsors and donors.

The spirit of WOW is voiced by its volunteers:

• ?I?ve helped several victims of domestic and public violence,? says Malcolm Scholtz, a keen handyman and gardener. ?This is the duty of the police, but they often arrive at a crime scene too late, if they arrive at all.?
  
  
• Louise Apelgren is a qualified nurse to conducts all the home-based care and HIV/AIDS-related illness management in the area.
  
  
• Maureen Ngubane has volunteered with WOW for three years, and gained skills for herself in the process: ?I now have a small vegetable garden which helps me to keep my own family going; the WOW staff have also taught me a good command of the English language.?
  
  
• Magdalene Turner runs the Jae Dance Academy, offering classes and championship opportunities to children and teenagers in contemporary and traditional Indian dance, Zulu dancing and classical moves: ?The young people also have an opportunity to focus on their schoolwork and have group tutoring discussions.? We teach them self-discipline and self-worth so that they can lead a fulfilled life.?

The journey of these ?women of Wentworth? has not been an easy one, and WOW itself has faced many setbacks and disappointments since its beginnings.? Mrs Dove says that they have achieved success through networking with many organisations, and knocking on every door they can find for assistance.? WOW is a longstanding, living example of the power of ?coming closer?, standing together and believing that being poor should not be allowed to destroy family values and social structures.
Viva, Women of Wentworth, Viva!

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