HOPE Cape Town has grown substantially and with it its portfolios. This warranted a new webpage design to allow all the work being presented appropriately. Being holistic means at times also confusing people with the variety of scopes of work.
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:
People can be confused when dealing with HOPE Cape Town. It seems to be one organisation, but there are different additions to “HOPE Cape Town”: either Trust or Association. “What’s the difference?” they ask often.
When HOPE Cape Town was founded in 2001, an Association was created and named: HOPE (hiv outreach program & education) Cape Town Association. In the years to follow, the Association grew from a 1 employee organisation with a small board into a more sizable entity.
In 2006 the Board decided after long and intense discussions: There is a need for oversight. The HOPE Cape Town Association should in future be functioning as the working horse. The HOPE Cape Town Trust was founded as an oversight entity, looking after the financials and overseeing the marketing/fundraising part of the organisation. The trustees generally don’t get involved in operational questions, but assist from time to time in a very limited and clearly defined role.
The HOPE Cape Town Trust also became the face of the organisations for all marketing/fundraising related activities.
Once a year, the HOPE Cape Town Association presents the budget to the Board of Trustees, which in turn exams and gives approval to the projected spending.
Both entities, Trust and Association, are each a NPO and a PBO in their own right with all the necessary credentials in South Africa. Both entities have a board – the Association’s board is called the “Board of Expertise”, being exactly this: experts in the various fields of work. The chairperson of the Association is ‘ex officio’ part of the Board of Trustees with voting rights and vice verse.
While the Board of Trustees meets formally twice a year, the Board of Expertise meets quarterly to conduct business.
Promoting and deepening sustainability is certainly a priority after experiencing the lockdown during Covid-19 and now the ongoing war in Ukraine with all the consequences felt worldwide. In the beginning of the lockdown we felt it: 42 staff members and their jobs, but also necessary programmes, were suddenly at risk.
Being not for gain or profit – it meant no support from government, but more expenses not budgeted for.
HOPE Cape Town has always been well managed and has taken care of every penny. This meant we came out of the crisis in pretty good shape. We had great support to provide children and families in Blikkiesdorp with food. But we also lost donors; companies ceased to exist, and many sponsors quite understandably wanted to wait and see before spending on charity or development.
The question remains: How do we secure the future of our organisation in the long run? How do we guarantee the quality of the work and create reliability? We have discussed this intensively in the Finance Committee and the Executive Committee of the South African HOPE Cape Town Trust. I would like to take you, the reader, with me on this journey in the coming posts and share thoughts and ideas with you.
Perhaps we can enter into a dialogue, and the blog is not a one-way street. I look forward to feedback, ideas, and dialogue. Your input is of great value for us as an organisation.
Mandela Day is an annual global celebration that takes place on 18 July to honour the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela. This day is a call to action for individuals, communities, and organisations to take time to reflect on Mandela’s values and principles and to make a positive impact in their own communities.
I am always amazed to see and read afterwards how NGO’s, politicians and ordinary people are coming together – and even trying to set world records in how much food they have given out and how much soup was distributed.
I see the pictures of smiling kids paraded in front of pots and food and toys …
And I feel uneasy – year after year more – asking myself whether “to reflect on Mandela’s values and principles and to make a positive impact in their own communities” are really translate in hand outs for 67 minutes year after year.
Making a positive impact in a community – is that not more than hand-outs? Does the feel-good-hand-out time with certainly all the good intentions really make a difference in the lives of those who benefit, or is it not a quick pass by of receiving but really not changing the lives of people?
Impact should mean change for the long run – so how can we transform a charity event into a contribution to real development – impact which means real change in the lives of people and communities…
God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE 