SINCE 2018, SANZAF through its concept of Amal, or #GIVEHOPE, has positioned itself to help us understand the goal of welfare, which is actively transforming people’s lives through development and relief. It is a much-misunderstood concept in this day and age of social media, quick-fix solutions and instant gratification.
Effective social responsibility, or relief work, has moved on from blindly throwing money at problems, or “poverty porn” to induce guilty donations, to a more responsible and sustainable model of action – which involves the donor as much as the agency in terms of accountability.
SANZAF’s track record in this regard reflects targeted interventions – in other words, sustainable projects with set objectives, which offer dignity and hope.
For example, last year SANZAF’s Education Empowerment and Development Programme (SEED) invested over R20 million to help Early Childhood Development institutions and to enable tertiary level students to complete their studies.
SANZAF’s on the ground impact is also measured by the fact that on average 100 welfare cases are dealt with nationwide on a daily basis. This provides much-needed relief to the most vulnerable in our society, acting as a bulwark against poverty.
By working hard, SANZAF’s capacity to deal with immediate emergencies, such as COVID-19, has already seen over R4 million in aid rolled out to the less fortunate, the elderly and the sick through co-ordinated efforts with local organisations and municipalities. This work will continue during the crisis.
Having used #GIVEHOPE as its central motif for the past two years, SANZAF has decided to take this central theme one step further. This is because hope, the lifting of the human spirit, is brought into fruition by action.
According to SANZAF CEO, Yasmina Francke, the next critical point of action is impact – the focus on the delivery of goals and objectives, and how effectively one does it.
“We ask ourselves what transformations we engineer in terms of our challenges. We ask how impactful social interventions can make a difference. It is impact that flows from hope. It is impact that creates confidence something is going to happen,” she said.
“For this reason, we have decided, after much discussion and consultation, that IMPACT will be our SANZAF slogan going forward. Hope is a call to action and we have discovered that the word ‘impact’ conveniently contains the words ‘I act’ within it.
“Therefore, we have coined the term, ‘I Act to Make an Impact’, something which is critical to the process of delivery.”
Francke also said that ‘I Act to Make an Impact’ was targeted at engendering a healthy climate of activism and volunteerism, especially for young people, the agents of social transformation. She said that SANZAF was hoping to mobilise the youth to take up the baton of ‘I Act to Make an Impact’ nationwide, and that it wold be identifiable on the website, posters and social media with its green backgrounds and distinctive font.
She also made an appeal for all Muslims to support SANZAF during the upcoming holy month of Ramadan. “Last year we fed over 100,000 people, and with the current challenges we are facing, we would love to be able to make an even greater impact than last year,” she said.
