FUNDRAISING
What we really need is a thousand people who each donate R 20 a month.
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We
now have Section 18A status
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We develop relationships with people who have funds. But in the
Western Cape we have a problem in terms of the fact that there are
not many head offices that can allocate money to NGO's based here.
We do get a subsidy from the state but it only covers approximately 17% of our running costs. The remainder of the funds we need to find by ourselves. We charge our clients a fee for their treatment but about currently 79% of our clients don't have an income. Another reason why we charge our clients is because they need to take responsibility for their treatment.
Money is the main obstacle. That's what we worry about at the end of every single month. How are we going to keep surviving? People have a very negative attitude towards addiction and giving money for this problem.
There is a slight shift happening though. People are realising that it could happen to them or to their families. We've started to see the shift but its still very difficult.
The other source of income we have, is the training department. We have a few new programmes this year, which are marketed to the corporate sector.
However, we are developing some nice partnerships with people. We're trying to break the centre down into different projects and programmes. You see, some companies will focus on the youth, others on education... this allows people to take financial responsibility for different parts of the centre.
Substance abuse is not only a problem in itself. It also impacts on other social ills including crime, unemployment, domestic violence and the transmission of HIV/AIDS.
I don't think any company can afford to have a closed mind about drugs. Drugs are a real problem. People refer to Cape Town as the drug capital of South Africa. We're in a very beautiful city and we've got to keep it that way.
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DONORS
Greg Gibbs ABSA
I wanted to be a lawyer, then my father died and my mother was working as
a Social Worker and she said that it was a wonderful profession, so I
wanted to study Social Work. But, then, the day I qualified my professor
said, "you will never make a Social Workers back side" and I took it
seriously. I didn't got involved in social work, I got involved in
personnel and human resources. Somewhere between, the lines blurred and I
got involved in communities and here I am.
I was amazed to see out of this little place (Cape Town Drug Counselling
Centre), and I'm not putting them down, the amount of work that gets done.
I have not personally been involved with drugs, but I grew up on the Cape
Flats, so I know about dagga and the kinds of things that drugs do to
lives. Drugs destroy lives; they destroy families and obviously have
impacts on communities and inevitably it is in the economy's of certain
communities. They have detrimental effects and push crime up.
And it is still about jobs and creating jobs, because drugs take jobs
away. So it is great going there and meeting people that are doing
something about the problem and getting on with doing something about the
problem. And the kind of interventions that they are doing, getting
involved in schools, trying to break the cycle before it begins. I think
its so important; equipping ordinary people, doing a particular job and
have not being trained with the drug thing. And here they get the
opportunity come in and learn about a problem so they can meet the problem
firsthand with their own resources.
I don't think any company can have a closed mind about drugs, drugs are
real. People refer to Cape Town as the drug capital of South Africa. We
sit in a very beautiful city and we've got to keep it beautiful and we
have got to help to deal with those people who don't feel so beautiful
about things.
I think it's a problem and we have to face and deal with it head on. Its a
real problem, we are all part of the economy, we are all part of the Cape
commerce.
I'm the fixer, I go out and fix things, developing relationships between
people without funds who need money and people with funds to form a
dynamic to change the things that need to change, and in this case its
drugs. I got
in this position by accident, honestly.
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