A story of Collective Impact

Forward to the @DoMore4Hammarsdale initiative by Warren Farrer

We have been able to #DoMore in Hammarsdale and this makes me extremely proud. We did it in a collaborative way and we worked closely with community representatives in doing so. We didn’t take the easy route – we committed to listening and engaging despite the difficulties this presented. The result is a thriving project in Hammarsdale that is helping build community through small business enterprises that bring home more to the families, to the community members, and most importantly, to the young child.

When I reflect on the journey in Hammarsdale, the most memorable moment for me was the first meeting where we, with our implementing partner, LIMA Rural Development Foundation, presented the findings of the study we had commissioned LIMA to conduct in Hammarsdale. I am passionate about young children and I am a strong proponent of the belief that if you impact a child, you impact the entire family and thus the community. So, for me it’s a no-brainer that our work should centre on the child. This has always been RCL FOODS’ CSI imperative.

We had put forward this view, but the local ward councillors and community came back strongly with different urgencies – they said the community of Hammarsdale needed food security and jobs; the imperative was to deal with extreme poverty, unemployment and hunger. I had to bite back my concerns because I realised that this was the process we had agreed to, and it was our duty to abide by this.

So again, I am extremely proud that we have been able to genuinely #DoMore4Hammarsdale. We have done more for young people; we have done more for families; we have done more for the community, and we are continuing to DO MORE for young children.

This booklet is the story of our journey – all of us who were involved in the initiative: the DO MORE team, RCL FOODS (our founder), our industry partners, the councillors within the wards with whom worked, and the hardworking people of Hammarsdale with whom we walked alongside in building sustainable enterprises that could support themselves and their loved ones.

We learned so much along the way. We built beautiful relationships. We hurt, we grew, we had tough times and we experienced countless joy.

I am grateful to our industry partners for believing in our vision and joining it; thankful that we have worked together towards a common goal and purpose. A few of these partners are mentioned in this booklet, but they are a representation of the many strong and immensely valuable and innovative partnerships we have built in this process.

Sustainability is not just a buzzword for us at DO MORE. We believe wholeheartedly in working with projects towards long-term sustainability. Otherwise, what is the point? If we do not, are we not then simply creating more dependency and creating false hope?

The proof of sustainability in #DoMore4Hammarsdale lies in the fact that we, as DO MORE, the backbone partner, the initiator and coordinator, are now directly funding much less of the #DoMore4Hammarsdale initiative. We facilitate and make connections, and it is our partners who continue to give and share and sustain the projects through their commitment, constancy and generous donations. They are as happy to see their offerings go towards something worthwhile, sustainable and impactful, in the same way as we are to enjoy their trust and their contributions to put to good use, whatever they might be, to support the progress of the Greater Hammarsdale community.

This story of our journey in Hammarsdale is one of people and commitment; it’s about how working together in a coordinated fashion can bring about long-term change and transformation. It is a story of collective impact. We are proud of it and will continue to DO MORE.

Executive summary

RCL FOODS has a long history in Hammarsdale, dating back to the 1960s when it was known as Rainbow Chicken. At that time its focus was mainly on ECD (early childhood development). In 2012 RCL FOODS began funding the Star Schools programme through which school-going children (grades 10, 11 and 12) received tutoring and academic support.

In 2015 they knew they had to take a more streamlined and focused approach to doing CSI work with local communities, and so RCL FOODS’ Warren Farrer approached LIMA Rural Development Foundation to help with implementing a more focused CSI strategy. LIMA first undertook intensive research in Hammarsdale over a period of close to a year to determine the needs of the community.

Through the process, a local forum was created on which all stakeholders would sit in order that collective decisions could be made for the community of Hammarsdale. Stakeholders from local municipality, government departments, big businesses, ward councillors and community leaders were all part of this forum. It was here that the needs to address unemployment, hunger and poverty were brought to the fore.

The first interventions involved establishing homestead gardens alongside offering immediate relief through food parcel distribution. The idea was to address the current issue of hunger while looking towards a long-term and empowering solution of home gardens. These homestead gardens grew to become community gardens and eventually a registered farmer association was registered as a business, taking care of the interests of all the communal gardens.

In 2017 the CSI division transitioned to the DO MORE FOUNDATION and was established as a separate not-for-profit organisation. The organisation had a clear vision and ethos of collaborative investment involving all stakeholders and was geared towards the needs of the community.

We have continued in the agriculture space, but focused on bringing better nutrition into ECD centres. We have established over 100 ECD centres’ food gardens since 2018, ensuring fresh produce is used in school meals. Our DO MORE Hub is also home to vertical growing gardens as well as a massive agri-hub growing vegetables for donation to ECD centres that do not have capacity to grow their own garden. The gardens also serve as a site for demonstration to teach ECD centres best practice in growing methods. We recently established our very own seedling nursery, a first for the community of Hammarsdale. It is now possible for good quality seedlings to be sourced and purchased at an affordable price in the community rather than community members travelling as far as Pietermaritzburg to purchase them.

One of the biggest concerns resulting from the community research conducted was the issue of youth unemployment. The Economic Linkages Programme was established to address this, which involved linking young people with employment and offering them the support needed to prepare for this employment. Later on, and based on feedback from young people, the Street Business School was piloted where they were invited to learn a range of business skills including sewing, baking, beadwork, and hair and nail care, while others were supported with the skills to run the small businesses they had established.

Today, our support of youth has grown into our very own enterprise development programme, called “The Township Economy Programme” which was rolled out by our implementing partner Niya Consulting and houses a number of nascent social enterprises who, despite setbacks faced through COVID-19 in 2020 and the KZN rioting in July 2021, continue to grow. These businesses include Owethu Umqhele, a sewing group; Ikwezi Bakery, and most recently HomeTech Décor, a woodwork company who supports the DO MORE Play initiative involving the use of waste timber to create early learning wooden toys with cognitive development outcomes for young children. Most recently, we launched “Clothes for Purpose”, a social enterprise that sources and secures aged or discontinued, good condition retail stock from big retailers to allow local unemployed mothers to sell these in the community to make a living to support their families.

Further to this we offer free basic sewing training to local unemployed women of Hammarsdale and even assist with job placements at local textile factories. We also offer a free Business Management Training Programme to help local ECD owners to operate their ECD centres as safe, efficient, profit-making social enterprises, as well as a Computer Literacy Programme for ECD practitioners to be capacitated in IT, allowing them access to early learning resources.

All these DO MORE-supported enterprises are housed under one roof at the DO MORE Business Hub, which is in partnership with the eThekweni USE-IT Waste Beneficiation Site in Hammarsdale. We are proud to have an MOU with USE-IT, which is an NPO of the local municipality. Also on site is our implementing partner, Niya Consulting , which has resulted in our access to hands-on and ongoing support and mentoring.

Fundamental to DO MORE’s work has been inviting and collaborating with other industry partners. These partners have supported the work of DO MORE and reciprocally, the DO MORE initiative allows them an avenue through which to do the work they wish to do in order to have an impact in the community.

DO MORE’s intentional approach can be summed up in a theory of change termed “collective impact”, following the principles of: a shared vision of change and a commitment to solve a problem by coordinating work; monitoring the work in order to learn and to hold each other accountable; a “backbone” or a steering committee that represents all the participants; mutually reinforcing activities that ensure alignment; resources to keep it functioning and consistent and open communication between all the participants.

Over the course of seven years, the DO MORE team and all those involved have learned a lot and will no doubt continue to do so. It is hoped that DO MORE’s journey will be an inspiration to others and that some of the most salient lessons will provide a benchmark for others hoping to undertake a similar one.