We Care Mother Africa was incepted to assist impoverished South Africans in the context of anemic economic growth, stark unemployment levels and high consumer pricing. WCMA emphasises the importance of LONG-TERM, SUSTAINABLE partnerships between a corporate and its selected NGO/s for substantial community development. In other words, a corporate social investment should consider long-term projects over AD HOC or SHORT-TERM campaigns that are unable to sustain communities. Following this, WCMA chooses to distribute basic food and hygiene packs amongst impoverished communities per province for a minimum of one year. Such packs serve to alleviate the income crisis prevalent in impoverished households. This crisis is detrimental to the physical, psycho-social and economic wellbeing of millions of South Africans, and it undermines the ability of households to become socially and economically empowered. We will assess the impact of our work in each community and, with the support of our donors, we endeavor to expand our community reach. In this way, we strive to empower communities and contribute to economic growth.

The majority of South Africans endure hardships on a daily basis as a result of endemic social and economic challenges that perpetuate poverty and inequality. There is a prevailing context of anemic economic growth, stark unemployment levels and high consumer pricing. 25% percent of South Africans are extremely poor, whilst over half the population struggle to fulfil their basic food and non-food requirements—rent, transport, electricity, education, clothing, food, domestic and personal hygiene consumables (Stats SA, 2019).

High Consumer Pricing exacerbates Poverty

The expansion of the VAT-exempt basket of goods, to include sanitary pads, white bread and cake flour, is lauded but this basket has its limitations. Amongst multiple challenges, the poor have to contend with high consumer pricing.

The expansion of unconditional social grants (cash transfers) has prevented millions of South Africans from becoming destitute but this monthly stipend cannot secure sufficient basic goods for poor households, as is indicated by latest research. Following this, poor households are unable to secure an adequate basket of nutritious, basic foods on a monthly basis, whilst necessities such as sanitary and hygiene products are sacrificed to meet essential household expenses.

 

Our Objectives

  1. To provide a safety net for our beneficiaries via the provisioning of basic food and hygiene products, so that they are better positioned to attend school regularly; they are adequately nourished; they can focus on finding/creating employment, and ultimately, remove themselves from the trappings of poverty.
  2. To help our beneficiaries realise their constitutional right to live with dignity.  
  3. To document the psycho-social, health and economic outcomes of sustained social investments.
  4. To utilise an innovative NGO Portal in order to uphold the highest levels of transparency and accountability across all our processes.
  5. To motivate donors to partner with WCMA, and invest in a subset of communities, for a minimum of one year, to achieve tangible growth. Ad-hoc or short-term campaigns fail to empower communities to reach a stage of self-sufficiency.