Who does not want to leave a legacy and be remembered for being a force for good? How fascinating will it be if your deeds are bearing fruit still in a hundred years time. Seeing the bigger picture and being a hero driven by hope and the imagination, how the world could be; and not only imagining it but putting your money where your mouth is….
We invite you to do exactly this – walk with us while scrolling down…
Thank you for walking with us until this point. You have certainly done the first steps. The question, which remains, and only you can answer: Do you want to go one step further and become a hope hero in-deed?
If you do, please feel free to contact trust@hopecapetown.org
It is a ringfenced email address and all correspondence remains confidential.
Tax receipts can be issued by HOPE Cape Town in Germany, Austria, South Africa and the USA if the donation to capital is received in the respective local HOPE Cape Town related bank account.
Township Tours are in demand when it comes to the tourism industry in South Africa – but obviously there are also voices against the township tourism equalling it with a zoo visit and feeling ashamed of the unhinged curiosity some tourists display while being on such a visit.
HOPE Cape Town has always understood that visitors are part of the mission statement. We are not only walking with people in South Africa, but we are also trying to bridge the gap in allowing tourists and visitors to walk with us for some hours. In doing so, we believe we can add value to the experience on both sides – allowing an encounter which enriches all participating.
We don’t have a kiddie’s choir, nor there are flowers to hand over. There are stories to tell, people to meet and to witness a world, often so far apart from the place visitors are coming from. There are days with lots of activities and days when the path is slow and unexciting. Whatever it is – that’s the reality we have to offer.
In a world, which especially in Europe thrives on fortifying borders and seeing migrants as a threat, it is essential to create understanding for realities and the real picture often lost in transition in the news. We have therefore to create spaces of social impact, social encounters and social understanding. We have to create spaces for humanity, but also allowing to witness developments in environmental questions which will shape the future of the world. A melting pot of experiences of different kinds – a bridging facility – a point of reference reminding us of the most important things in life.
HOPE Cape Town wants to shape this aspect of work in the near future – watch the space to learn more about ‘bringing worlds together’.
Travelling in Europe and the USA trying to tell the story of hope to the respective attentive audiences and to introduce our work, I am very often confronted with the word “Charity work”.
People, especially in the religious or humanitarian context, see HOPE Cape Town and its work in the context of “charity”. We collect money to help poor people – to say it in simple word. And obviously as a religious or humanitarian person, you give a contribution via the organisation to assist those in need.
“Those in need” – indeed this is charity when you help those who are in dire need, who are in a direct and life-threatening emergency. Charity means to feel with those who are in situations turning their lives upside down. And yes, HOPE Cape Town has in some segments of work also this charity aspect: giving out meals, handing out cloth is charity work.
But HOPE Cape Town does not define itself with “charity”alone – we pride ourselves of being a development agency. That sounds big and almost governmental – most people think of the respective government departments spending money on big projects via the foreign government entities; often in the knowledge that it is triggered rather by political interests than real needs. And obviously being aware that often not all money is reaching the goalposts set for the specific project.
Development, as we understand it, means indeed walking with the people we encounter. It means to sit and listen first to what the needs are instead of what we think is needed. It means to discuss matters, include all considerations and to make at the end joined decisions. Furthermore, it means to take people seriously, to discover the wisdom of people with different thinking – and sometimes it also means to run against a wall and to knock your head before being successful.
This development work is in our understanding the only way to sustain changes, to allow growing in personal lives, but also communities and to strive for a better world.
And “the better world” means that development does not end there. To really change the world on all levels there must be a clear understanding, that the impact is not alone – in our case – in South Africa – but that there is a two-way road back to Europe and the so-called developed countries.
The world is currently changing massively and only if we allow for encounter, for touching each other’s life and mindset, we develop an understanding for each other which is an added fertilizer for tomorrow’s better world. And those encounters have to be on eye-level. Some people say, the West has the money, the South the humanity and wisdom – whatever it is: only if we want to develop jointly we have a chance to create a world where the next generations will be delighted to live in. We owe it to them.
So development as we see it at HOPE Cape Town, it is like a bridge bringing worlds together to walk together and to reflect together to make sense of the colourful diversity and to show that nobody is an island any more. We need each other to overcome all the challenges be it social, economic or environmental.
Next to HOPE Cape Town Association, HOPE Cape Town Trust and HOPE Kapstadt Stiftung there is another sister NGO called HOPE Cape Town USA.
During the Word Aids Conference in Washington / DC many years ago it became clear, that the HIV prevalence rates in Washington or Dallas within the non-white communities were comparable with those horrific numbers in South Africa.
Same problems, but certainly different situations and different ways to tackle the existing challenges. Rev Fr Stefan Hippler, who attended the conference, brought the stats and situation analysis with back to South Africa. Meetings with the then Head of Social Services in a New Jersey county Mr Joe Kunzmann and a lawyer from Dallas, Mrs Stacie McNulty Greskowiak led to the formation of HOPE Cape Town USA.
The entity was meant to explore synergies between the work in the fields of HIV/AIDS in both countries. Connections were established to local NGO’s and HOPE Cape Town via HOPE Cape Town USA and promising leads developed. The pandemic destroyed most of the plans and HOPE Cape Town is slowly finding its feet again.
In November 2023 the first fund-raiser was held in Ann Arbor / Michigan, where one of the 4 directors now resides. Further steps of local engagement as well as fundraising efforts are in planing.
HOPE Cape Town USA is a recognized NGO in the USA with the ability to issue tax-deductible receipts and the directors are currently:
Chair: Joseph E Kunzmann (Somerville / New Jersey) Treasurer: Somerville / Shirley Kunzmann (New Jersey) Secretary: Stacie McNulty Greskowiak (Michigan) and the two members Auntjuan Wiley aka Mr Community” (Dallas / Texas) and Stefan Hippler (representing HOPE Cape Town Trust South Africa)
Focusing on marketing and fundraising for the organisation HOPE Cape Town in South Africa, I had the pleasure – if it is a pleasure – to travel between three continents this year again, trying to find, reach and convince people in the USA, South Africa and European countries to support our holistic approach.
It is generally not an easy task, but the world is currently so much up-side-down, that the challenges seem to grow every day. It becomes a minefield, not only, because of money being diverted for current affairs but also as ideology, insecurity and anxiety are more than ever factors of life.
Gaza and Israel, it seems that you have to put every word on the golden scale to not offend but toe the line to stand on the right side – whatever that may be. Looking at the human factor without politics, as NGO’s do, is a difficult option as you’re directly under general suspicion of supporting terror.
The war in Ukraine means fundraising for people in a country, in which the leadership without any shame stands with the aggressor and pretends to be neutral.
South Africa’s grey listing and constant corruption on the highest levels are often points of debates with funders. They believe that South Africa has enough resources if and when the elite stops stealing money.
The USA is currently in an epic battle when it comes to democracy and a hotbed for the attempt to mix white superior religion, clearly visible in proclaiming a certain candidate a Godsend. Not to forget, a leader of the House who has direct conversations with God and is not the new Moses. In some states, history is rewritten and books are banned again. Not really an ideal environment to discuss support for people in South Africa.
Generally, Covid and the restrictions seem to have a profound effect on people, who felt that the security and safety their life was build on, was gone in seconds. It shows still today in actions, reactions and behaviour.
Business people in Germany, but generally in Europe, are more than worried about the current economic situation in the country and the direction, they are taken by those politically in charge.
All this impacts the world of fundraising a great deal, it makes it perfectly clear, that depending on donations alone is not sufficient for the long run. NGO’s like companies have to build up and maintain a reserve like any other companies if they want to survive long term and meaningfully.
It also makes it necessary to speak with people face to face – not FaceTime, not zoom or teams. Those can be interim measures to keep contact, but the person encounter is in times like ours the most essential part of fundraising.
The need to navigate between the world of possible funders and the reality of the recipients becomes more tricky as sensitivities and anxieties looking at the future reign high.
All this makes the work of NGOs like HOPE Cape Town even more important, because the victims of all the political, social and economic turbulence are those anyhow at the bottom of society. Those who lost out by birth are loosing again. NGOs are the lifeline to survive and even to grow under these circumstances.
We as NGOs need, besides the normal donation also people who want their support working for years to come. We need people investing in the future of others long-term, and so becoming role models for the next generation they helped to form and sustain.
Not only that, but we need this support to be able to stand firm in our support for human dignity and human rights declared for everybody. There are shifts of proportion happening now when it comes to demography, political influence, economic powers. NGOs are essential in those times, balancing what often is overlooked in daily struggles on the world stage. A reason more to support, sustain and to invest in the non-governmental sphere of society.
God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE 