HOPE Cape Town, a development organization founded 2001 and based in Delft, is seeking a passionate
HOPE Liaison Officer
(m/f/d) for our new campus, just 30 minutes from Cape Town and near the airport.
Our campus is the headquarters of our NGO. It is not only a place of encounter but also a symbol of hope, where guests, visitors, sponsors, and interested individuals from around the world can come together to support our mission. Visitors are invited to be part of our inspiring community, they can experience the other South Africa and learn about the impact HOPE Cape Town has been able to make to the lives of so many.
Your Responsibilities
– Organization and coordination of visits and tours. – Liaison with tour operators, tour guides, relevant companies, and organizations. – Promoting the campus in terms of rentals for workshops, trainings, and guest experiences.
– Overseeing the bookings and maintaining contact with the organizers.
– Identifying and implementing income-generating activities on the campus. – Building and maintaining relationships with stakeholders and supporters
– Ensuring an efficient process for all guest enquiries and concerns
– Developing creative ideas to enhance the guest experience
– Planning and implementing team-building activities
– Warmly welcoming and assisting guests, visitors, sponsors, and interested individuals.
Your Profile
– Enthusiastic with strong communication skills
– Experience in Guest Relations or Event Management
– Organizational talent and the ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously
– Creative and innovative
– Ability to develop and implement concepts
– Willingness to work flexible hours, including some weekends and evenings
– Proficiency in English for written and oral communication as well as another South African language
What We Offer
– The opportunity to be part of an international organization with a crucial mission
– A dynamic and inspiring team and work environment on our brand-new campus
– The chance to build relationships with guests, visitors, and sponsors from around the world
– Training opportunities and room for personal development
– Competitive salary
If you enjoy inspiring people, building relationships, developing creative ideas to enhance visitor experience, and feel you can actively shape our vision, we look forward to receiving your application.
Please send your resume and a compelling cover letter to:
Reading newspapers, social media or watching news on TV or stream in the first days of the New Year confirms what those say, who never celebrate New Year: “Nothing will change except the date!”
And indeed nothing seems to have changed, even the opposite rules supreme: more bombs in Ukraine and Gaza, more killing, more suffering. The political and social drama in the USA does create rather fear than optimism, and I could now list here a litany of what’s wrong in this world.
And still I believe that the New Year is meant to be a reminder, that nothing has to stay the same, that there is always the chance to change for the better. A chance which is so often forgotten when we are battling our daily life and challenges.
And this applies not only in the private sphere — it applies to those running companies or carrying responsibility social or politically — and looking at the world, the social and economic challenges, the complexity of the world; they need this reminder.
To be able to change and to assist the change in society or economy, it is important to be able to think and see outside the box. It is essential to have time to look far ahead and plot a way forward. And it is critical to have friends and colleagues who are not nodding ‘yes’ at everything you think is right.
Running an NGO is like running a company. There is a business plan, a strategic plan, a financial plan. There are employees counting on receiving their salary at the end of the month and boards to satisfy. And those who “invest” in development to reassure, to report back to and to gain new friends, partners, and supporters. Last, but not least, not to forget those we work with. They are more than “customers’, they are people we walk with for a while to explore possibilities, to strengthen their resolve and to allow for hope translated into real life action.
So what are our steps into and our vision for 2024 as HOPE Cape Town?
Hopefully for most of our employees to still have a great time off work – with family and friends together charging their batteries and to come back to work relaxed and with joy in their heart.
We have had big dreams in the last years, and we still do with the extension of the garden project. The “Bettina Benzoni-Ruffert Community Garden — Environmental Training Centre” will grow in 2024. Training, education and environmental questions are the guiding forces behind this addition.
We will sharpen our fundraising. Living only from donations if and when they come in is difficult when you have reached adulthood as a foundation. We would like to connect with people who understand that social investments and letting money work for years or decades to come is an investment into the next generation in a connected world.
Our strategy plan for the next 5 years is on the homestretch. We hope to impact meaningful social and economically and to connect even more with those who do similar. After some years on the new campus we learnt lessons now implemented and further explored.
We will see all our challenges as opportunities and therefore overcome them. We are looking forward to continuing making our campus “The Nex – Indawo Yethu” and all satellites welcoming locations and places of learning and mutual understanding.
If you want to have a quick view of our work – please check this 3-minute video here; subscribe to the channel to be always the first to know…
If you want to be part of this inspiring journey in any form or shape, please let me know.
“Why Africa?” is a phrase I often hear when I present the work of HOPE Cape Town. Two weeks ago in Bitburg at the Secondary School I was discussing the question of why young people in Bitburg / a little town in Germany, should be interested in what is happening at the very bottom of the African continent.
“We have our own problems: the war in Ukraine, the many refugees, the economic situation, the climate” – and those, they tell me, “are more important to us than South Africa at the moment.”
The sentiment is right – and Corona and the experience of powerlessness during the pandemic, as well as the government measures that were often perceived as excessive during this time, have massively increased the anxiety and insecurity of many people. Many people’s sense for security has been eroded in times of Covid-19; this has long-term consequences.
But feelings are not always the whole reality – and it seems difficult to understand the complexity of life and interdependencies far beyond borders and distances.
Take the refugee issue in Germany: 2015 was a year Germany felt the influx of refugees in a very special way. But long before 2015, it was clear to anyone who wanted to know that Europe would have a problem that would be massively exacerbated by the climate issue. War, hunger, but also the simple human impulse for more security, prosperity and that children should have a better life are pushing people to flee or embark on the – often supposed – journey to a better future. This has also become a highly attractive business that promises massive profits for human traffickers as well as security companies. And it has become a political pawn between European countries and interests – see Hungary or Turkey, for example – and a bargaining chip for decision-making in the EU and beyond.
People stay at home when it is peaceful and there is a chance to live safely. Nobody sets off on an uncertain journey just for fun or because it’s funny. Sheer economic hardship is also a serious reason for people.
I don’t have the impression that much has really changed on this issue in Germany since 2015. Development policy has not really changed fundamentally. And the political landscape that increasingly consists of professional politicians. They are often distanced from the realities of ordinary people as a result – and their focus is often limited to the next election – they often fail terribly to see the bigger picture, which also includes the far-reaching complexity of matters in our days. Perhaps we also need to think about how politics should be structured differently in such a rapidly changing and evolving world. And whether it should be entrusted to professional politicians; some of whom who never have learned or practised a profession or trade, is another important question.
But back to the question of why people in Bitburg, or let’s say in Germany, should take an interest in what is happening in Africa and do something about it?
The mass exodus of people will not be stopped if money flows through the governments in Africa, which take their “cut” and whose corrupt actions are known and almost factored in.
The problem of refugees will not be solved as long as the economy is mostly seen to benefit Europe and adding value does not take place on the African continent.
Africa will have the youngest population in 2050 – and therefore consumption and work will take place on this continent. We are facing massive upheavals not only in terms of the climate, but also in terms of the future of the world’s population, the future of work distribution, which people in Europe need to take into account now. We should avoid that in 30 years’ time the old saga repeats again that nobody saw this coming. The run by European politicians for green hydrogen from Africa shows where the journey is heading. The economic stagnation of many African countries is now becoming an advantage when it comes to renewable energies.
For this reason alone, Africa is important. And also South Africa, which is still a major player in African politics and is often used economically as a gateway to Africa. It should be mentioned in passing that South Africa has taken its share of refugees from Somalia to Zimbabwe. Anyone who looks at the numbers of internally displaced persons in Africa knows how critical the situation is and how few refugees actually arrive in Europe.
We are facing tectonic shifts as humanity, as societies. Europe not really looking beyond their own backyard, thinking only nationally or Eurocentric – even if that is currently “in” – is simply short-sighted and will exacerbate the problems in Europe even more. No one is an island, no one can do it alone: climate, hunger, war, demography in a country and so much more require global solutions.
To break it down and put it simply: we as humanity, as a society, must ensure that wealth, added value, security and future prospects are available in every country (in Africa there are 54 countries covering 30 million square meters). We can only achieve this by working together and with an honesty and willingness to cooperate that can certainly be improved at present. Far-sightedness is required, and solidarity that ultimately also serves those who exercise it. Africa is a continent of the future, and Europe should align its policies accordingly. And NGOs are important points of contact here because they work at a level that enables decision-makers to see and understand realities. They often do very local but crucial groundwork on which society and politics can then build. Supporting NGOs in Africa is far more than charity; it serves the future security and peace of all, especially in Europe.
Working in the NGO field in South Africa, one often meets a sort of demand for handouts and charity to attract people or fill programs with participants. Also, local politicians are tempted to have give-aways at hand – it seems to be the culture of work in the townships of South Africa.
The argument is frequently that people are too poor to pay – or that indeed as mentioned you don’t get people to come if there is nothing for free or to gain. And not even seldom, those invited to join programs ask for what goodies to expect when joining a program. Not to tell about competition within the NGO sector who is able to hand out more.
I get it – indeed, people are poor and times are tough. And yes, it is easier to attract people with food, gifts, and takeaways. But I doubt that this vouches for respect, dignity and development.
Free handouts make people dependent; handouts are charity and needed in absolute emergency situation to stabilize people and to giving them a perspective.
But to change the situation of people, and to foster a non-dependence relationship; to sustain a path to a better life, NGO’s need to walk with people in a giving / contributing relationship. And this does not always have to do with the exchange of lots of money. Small contributions chipped in. Offering talents and time as a contribution. The results:
The acknowledgement of self-worth and the value of what is being offered or jointly worked on. The feeling of being partners on eye-level and respectful towards each other. And the learning curve resulting from all of these aspects: more dignity, more self-respect and the knowledge: I can do it – we can do it together.
All this needs a shift in mindset in all sectors of engagement. It requires the courage to walk the talk of real development; a walk which can be rough and at times scary. But it is the only way to better the lives of people sustainably and to make everybody a real participant and less a dependent waiting for the next handout.
The Human Rights Day in South Africa is historically linked with the 21st March 1960 and celebrated as a Public Holiday in the new democratic South Africa. And why the 21st March 1960, those not living in South Africa, will ask.
Sharpeville is the answer: On that day, 69 people died and 180 were wounded when police fired on a peaceful crowd that had gathered in protest against the unjust pass laws.
Today we commemorate on those events, and those laws are gone, and we live in a free and democratic society, so we say. But looking more closely, we have to admit, that changing to one person one vote has not brought us to the point where human rights are respected in South Africa.
The last weeks we experienced how a political party can call on infringements of human rights and threatened violence with their “national shutdown”. It was in most parts prevented by a coordinated effort of police and security services, as well as court decisions. Alone that Members of the National Parliament are able to use intimidation and threats tells a story.
But looking at the living conditions of many of South Africans, it triggers the question about human rights and the ability to enjoy them in current times.
Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education and the list is longer.
At the end, it is the right to have a decent life in safety and security and sheltered in an adequate human way.
Looking at my working place in a township, I am not sure, I witness human rights making it to the front. Violence, gender-based-violence, poverty, lack of education and work opportunities, just to name some, prevent people from enjoying their human rights. It is not particular one place – many townships and locations don’t provide for the living conditions needed to enjoy the real meaning of human rights and human dignity.
I honestly often take my hat off seeing and experiencing the dignity and good will of people who are deprived of the chances and who still try to make the best out of it.
With all those people of goodwill, there is so much more to do to make our Human Right Day in South Africa a celebratory day. For now, it is a day of reflection and commemoration, but also a day of awareness and a reminder, what all has still to be done.
As the world is currently in general in a bad space or in a transition time, it is even more difficult for an emerging democracy to get it right and to give its citizens what they rightfully are entitled to.
Human Rights Day 2023 – a day of commemoration, reminder, and order and not political Sunday sermons.
God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE 