By: Zethu Gweva
In a mission to curb crime and better communities, founder of a non-profit organization called ‘Sizaminguqu’ Buyelwa Gcadana gathers and disseminates helpful information to those seeking to improve their lives.
The organisation was established in July 2017 and was registered as an NPO at Social Development in October 2017. They received a certificate which proved that NPO is registered in November 2017 and started operating in January 2018.
According to Gcadana, Sizaminguqu is a Crime Prevention Programme which was established to address the social and economic conditions that contribute to crime.
“During the discussions and presentations we invite stakeholders such as the SAPS to give a clear view on the negative effects that crime has in communities and how to stop it,” said Gcadana.
In addition Gcadana conveyed that the main reasons of criminal activities is being uninformed, unemployed and rejected.
“Children lose their parents and when they plead for help they get rejected and decide to turn to drugs which later leads them to committing crime. Instead of helping them we judge them,” she said.
More than 25 communities in King Williams Town are part of this NPO. Gcadana added that although their main focus was communities around King Williams, they have managed to cover almost the whole of Buffalo City Metro and hope to expand to the whole of Eastern Cape.
“We have Dimbaza, Zwelitsha and many more communities in KWT but we want to spread all over South Africa, recruiting people in need of information regarding job opportunities and learnerships,” she said.
After observing people’s CVs, where people were applying at a factory near Berlin, Gcadana saw how the CVs were incorrectly written and decided to invite the American Embassy from Cape Town to conduct a workshop on the format of CVs.
In addition, after the workshop, a CSI programme which was an opportunity to study in the United States of America was presented to the attendees. The programme required those interested to apply online.
One of the members of Sizaminguqu who attended the Workshop held at Steve Biko Centre in KWT, Nomzi Sam, 34, from Qoboqobo applied for the learnership and was accepted to study Public Safety for ten months at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston, Massachusetts, in the USA.
Speaking to BCM News Sam said she is the only person out of the 20 going to America from the Eastern Cape. After going through telephone interviews and tests she will finally be travelling to the USA in July to start with her studies in August.
For more information on Sizaminguqu Community Prevention Crime Prevention contact 0826757280. If interested in studying in the USA email kingaak@state.gov