The church initiated the following non-profit companies to assist our communities and we see ourselves playing an educative, mobilising and coordinative role to addressing the challenges faced by our communities.

For our role as a church is to serve God and love our neighbours, thus our approach will be non-pugilistic, non-political, reconciliatory and peace keeping.

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God." Matthew 5:9.

The Alkebulan Family Sanctuary NPC

Domestic Violence

As a Church we are serious about reducing incidents of Domestic Violence in our Communities

• As a Church we have registered this NPC to offer support to victims of domestic violence.
• If you or your child are victims of abuse or you know of any Woman or child abuse incidents, please contact us, your anonymity is guaranteed.
• We will refer your matter to relevant stakeholder/partners for assistance and the necessary moral support that you may need.
• Where possible we will mediate between conflicting married couples to restore marital stability.
• You are welcome to assistance us to create saver families for our Women and Children by involving us in any program or activity that may advance safety for Women and Children in our Communities.

Services for children

There is a growing number of children bagging on our streets and they are most visible at traffic intersections and at malls:

We are aware that the Department of Social Services is over-worked and overwhelmed by the growing numbers of children on our streets and there can only be a reduction of these growing numbers if we as communities stand together to address the challenges, which at their root can primarily be attributed to poverty and secondly to the high levels of unemployment related to the Covid19 pandemic.

Our objective is to mobilise individuals and community structures and Governments structures to find alternate ways to address the challenge children on our streets are faced with.

The Alkebulan Community Wellbeing Initiatives NPC

Community wellbeing is defined as "the combination of social, economic, environmental cultural, and political conditions identified by individuals and their communities as essential for them to flourish and fulfil their potential"  this definition by (Wiseman and Brasher, 2002:358) can be accessed on the  website "whatworkswellbeing.org/blog/what-is-community-wellbeing," this website provides further information on what community well-being is.

The concept of community well-being shares a likeness with the South African concept of Community Safety Forums (CSF) though not in totality, the CSF concept emanated from the National Crime Prevention Strategy of 1996 and the 1998 White Paper on Safety and Security. In terms of both these documents the CSF was envisaged to be an opportunity for integrated approaches to crime prevention and increment of law enforcement efficiency. Its main focus would be on the Government Departments that constitute the Criminal Justice System by increasing co-operation and interaction to improve the functioning and deliberations within the local criminal justice system and the delivery of crime prevention projects. For more information on the CSF and its policy document visit the South African Civilian Secretariat for the Police at www.policesecretariat.gov.za/downloads/policies/community_policing.pdf

The CSF approach would limit itself to issues of crime prevention, for instance the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development as one of the departments that form part of the criminal justice cluster departments would have been part of the departments that constitute the CSF and their engagement in the CSF would be limited to issues of crime prevention only and to the exclusion of their other mandates such issues affecting the civil rights of individuals and communities  such as the right to access to justice. 

The Community well-being approach casts a wider net which is inclusive of all the mandates of the Government Sector Departments as can be seen from the above definition of Wiseman and Brasher. What differentiates it from the CSF approach is the fact that  individuals and their communities identify the conditions which are essential for them to be able to flourish and fulfill their potential.

With the CSF the opportunities for integrated crime prevention and the increment of law enforcement efficiency would remain initiatives of the respective Criminal Justice cluster Departments of Government. 

When reading through the introductory part of CSF policy document, its failure to take off is partly attributed to a lack of articulation on methodology and structural arrangements for its implementation. 

An ideal structure for community wellbeing

The ideal situation with community wellbeing would be to allow individual community members or collective community members to take charge of their wellbeing initiatives or take charge through the existing NGO, CBO, NPC and other vehicles to drive the community wellbeing agenda.

Programmes Community Wellbeing Initiatives 

The website of the University of Minnesota (www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/what-community-wellbeing) sites three attributes in relation to the definition of Wiseman and Brasher, which play a large role in community wellbeing and these are: Connectedness, Livability and Equity.

According to the website these three attributes entail the following:

Connectedness:

Connectedness is fostered by a communities social networks that:

• Offer social support
• Enhance social trust
• Support members living harmoniously together
• Foster civic engagement

Encourage all members to take part in community and democracy

Livability:

a livable community is supported by the infrastructure, including:

• Housing
• Transportation
• Education
• Parks and recreation
• Human Services
• Public Safety
• Access to culture and arts

Equity:

An equitable community is supported by values of diversity, social justice, and individual empowerment, where:

• All members are treated with fairness and justice
• The basic needs of all are met (adequate access to health services, decent housing, food, personal security)
• There is equal opportunity for education, employment, and meeting individual potential.

Alkebulan Community Wellbeing Initiatives

Future initiatives

We planned the following future Initiatives for young people, for which we are in the process of securing sponsorships for:

• Free Practical Digital Music Production Skills Course.
• Free Practical Welding Skills Course.
• Free Practical Coffin and Casket Manufacturing Skills Course.
• Free Ministry/Pastoral Course.

These are unregistered/unaccredited courses which are meant assist young people to learn a skill that will take them off the streets or enable them to start a small survivalist business venture. 

We urge all community members who have skills which they can practically share with our youth to join us in our effort impart skills to the youth.

We also urge everyone, business and organisations that are able to sponsor our future initiatives to contact us to make these practical courses a reality.