The power of indigenous aid organisations was immediately evident when a series of devastating earthquakes hit Türkiye and Syria on 6 February 2023, displacing millions of people, says Isak Pretorius, CEO of Africa’s largest homegrown non-governmental organisation (NGO), ForAfrika.
“When a crisis hits, it is critical to respond immediately, as time of response directly affects the impact on lives. If we respond fast, we save more lives and reduce impact, if we don’t, we don’t,” Pretorius says ahead of World NGO Day, marked annually on 27 February.
“There are many factors involved in effecting rapid response. The fact that ForAfrika is on the ground, with local teams who come from the very communities we serve, is one of those critical factors that means not only can we respond immediately, but appropriately. This is why I believe our Africanness is our superpower,” he says.
In addition to being able to respond quickly, indigenous organisations are better able to retain access to communities struggling with political upheaval and even conflict than international entities, Pretorius says.
The importance of this has been demonstrated in Syria, where 12 years of civil war has hampered international organisations’ ability to enter the country to give aid to an estimated 5.5-million or more people who are homeless as a result of the earthquakes. In some areas of Syria, only Syrian aid organisations have been able to gain full access to communities.
Already the United Nations has estimated that 6.8-million people have been internally displaced by the war in the country, which has an estimated overall population of 18.6-million.
In Africa, ongoing emergencies caused by several factors including severe weather events or conflict, have seen ForAfrika respond by attending to immediate relief efforts and then staying put to ensure that communities affected are able to recover and restore their livelihoods and homes.
“We are currently responding to emergencies in Angola, Central African Republic, Mozambique, South Sudan and Uganda. We stay with our affected communities until they are settled or return home. Because we are local and many of our team live in the communities we serve, we don’t leave, we evolve our services to continue partnering with the community on their journey to thriving” says Pretorius.
ForAfrika has around 700 permanent African staff members across seven countries – South Sudan, Mozambique, Uganda, South Africa, Rwanda, Angola and the Central African Republic.
Emergency relief is only one of the services that ForAfrika offers the communities with which it works. The NGO focuses on collaborating with African communities to determine how it can help them achieve their goals. In 2022, ForAfrika provided services to 3.1-million people across the continent. The organisation’s goal is to empower 20-million Africans to sustainably provide for themselves by 2032.