News
Khayelitsha dialogue rejects violence on Mandela Day
July 20, 2009 – On the first Mandela Day, July 18, 2009, the community of Khayelitsha in Cape Town convened its second community conversation on social cohesion. About 25 people attended the event.They honoured the meaning of Mandela Day by discussing important social issues such as xenophobia and trying to come up with solutions
Social cohesion in the spotlight
July 17, 2009 – Media stereotypes about migrants and the need for government to condemn violence more strongly were discussed at the first meeting of the Social Cohesion Reference Group at the Nelson Mandela Foundation yesterday.
Healing starts with understanding history
June 26, 2009 – The need for healing to overcome the divisions of the past emerged as the central concern at a community conversation in Atteridgeville, near Pretoria, on June 20.
Organised by the Nelson Mandela Foundation in partnership with the Sonke Gender Justice Network, the Jesuit Refugee Services, the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, the National Children’s and Violence Trust, and the Somali Association of South Africa, the community conversation in Atteridgeville was the first of a series of community dialogues in Gauteng province to promote social cohesion in communities affected by violence and xenophobia.
Community conversations teams refine their techniques
May 22, 2009 – Community conversation teams gathered from around the country, on the outskirts of Johannesburg, to continue their training in the Community Capacity Enhancement (CCE) methodology (link to downloadable PDF).
The six-day workshop, from Tuesday, May 19, to Sunday, May 24, looked to gather feedback from the teams on the facilitation of the community conversations to date, and to review the theory and application of the CCE methods and tools used in the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s community conversations programmes.
Residents map out a way to live together in harmony
May 6, 2009– “If a person belongs to a different tribe or party, or if they express a different opinion, it doesn’t mean that they are your enemy. We need to understand one another,” said one of the participants at a community conversations workshop in Yeoville, Johannesburg today.
This conversation was the second held in Yeoville, a multicultural suburb where many immigrants live. It forms part of a series of conversations about social cohesion that will be convened around South Africa by the Nelson Mandela Foundation. The facilitators and community members took up issues that were raised at the previous conversation and explored them further.
New community conversations series to begin
Jan 16, 2009 – The Nelson Mandela Foundation’s Dialogue Programme will spend the next two years with communities in South Africa using conversation to promote peaceful co-existence.
Thirty community conversations will take place in five provinces in 2009 and 2010, in areas where South Africans and migrants from other countries live together.
