OUDTSHOORN NEWS - The Oudtshoorn Municipality signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Community Chest, a Cape Town based non-profit company, to offer services to and share social capital in the greater Oudtshoorn.
The MOU was signed last Wednesday 4 April by Executive Mayor, Colan Sylvester. on behalf of the Municipality and Lorenzo Davids, the Chief Executive Officer for the Community Chest. The focus areas for the memorandum are education, health, community development and income generation.
According to Ntobeko Mangqwengqwe, Communications Officer of the Oudtshoorn Municipality, this is a five-year partnership that stretches from 2018 to 2023. "This partnership is aimed at achieving the objectives of the municipality in respect of community upliftment. When our community bleeds, we all bleed; an old saying that an injury to one is an injury to all is still relevant, as people tend to go to the municipality when things go wrong in their communities," said Sylvester.
He added that "Community Chest will be the social partner of the municipality in community development projects and mobilise corporate support in cash and in-kind for identified municipal community development projects and campaigns.
The deputy, Cllr. Noluthando Mwati commended Community Chest for the work they have done in Oudtshoorn even in the absence of an MOU. "The time now has come for the municipality to acknowledge the contribution Community Chest has been doing recently one of which was the donation of sanitary towels to local schools."
Davis said his organisation is honoured to partner with the municipality to make a difference in the community of the Greater Oudtshoorn. The two parties agreed that Community Chest will conduct targeted fundraising for projects specified in the agreed annual Project Plan that will entail details of the following deliverables:
Community Chest will:
- Take the responsibility to manage the implementation of the projects.
- Provide Capacity Building programs to grantees and other non-profit organisations in the Oudtshoorn Municipality to remedy deficiencies identified in the due diligence process and other identified capacity needs;
- Provide ongoing online and face-to-face mentoring and coaching support to non-profit organisations in the municipality to embed competency and capability in governance, financial accountability and leadership to enable non-profits to position themselves as credible, reliable partners in social development in the municipality.
- Provide donations-in-kind to non-profit organisations and schools in the municipal area where and when this is possible to improve the functioning of organisations and institutions. This includes the supply of sanitary towels to girl learners requiring the same and tracking improvements in school attendance over a period of 12 months.
Other stakeholders that attended the signing of the MOU were Department of Social Development (Oudtshoorn office), Meals on Wheels, Klein Karoo Early Childhood Development Forum and Southern Youth Film Festival (SUFF).
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