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Coaching for a Cause: Turning the Tide of Political Violence Against Innocent People in South Africa
Project Gateway, a social outreach of churches formed to meet the needs of and empower the disadvantaged, was recently included in ActionCOACH’s Coaching for a Cause pro bono coaching program by Patrick Greenway.
November 10, 2009
The violent political scenario of the late 80’s in South Africa resulted in a whole generation of underprivileged, destitute people. Rampant crimes primarily perpetrated by political groups set innocent people in the line of fire.
Born as a response to this hostility, Project Gateway, a church-based organization, began various programs to bring relief to the victims of these crimes.
“Project Gateway began as a reaction to the violence in the area where innocent people were caught in the crossfire of political unrest and many fled their homes,” General Manager, Empowerment Programs and Head of the Donor Marketing and Public Relations Department, Di Milford said. “At this point, the local churches began questioning, ‘how they should be helping those whose lives were affected.’”
The group began its program in the late 1980’s but the Non-Profit Organizations Constitution was signed in 1992. Based out of Pietermaritzburg in South Africa, Project Gateway is currently running ten projects –all aimed at meeting the needs of the poor and empowering the disadvantaged.
The turning point for the organization came when Di Milford connected with Business Coach Patrick Greenaway at the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Commerce. The timing was perfect as the ActionCOACH business coaching franchise had recently announced Coaching for a Cause, its first global pro bono coaching program to help the non-profit and charitable sector of the economy. As part of the program, top Business Coaches pledged to donate coaching hours to this sector –a value of $1.8 Million. The overall goal of the program is to have an additional 2.5 million in charitable donations from October 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010.
Greenaway, who is also the Chairperson of the Europe/Africa Coaching for a Cause Regional Board has enlisted Project Gateway into this six-month system, where the results of the coaching will be dynamically displayed on the Coaching for a Cause website, alongside hundreds of non-profits from around the world.
Di Milford is grateful for the time Greenaway spends with the organization and provides testimony to the fact that ActionCOACH’s systems work.
“We in turn spend time with 20 staff members who are encouraged to implement the lessons learnt through this coaching process; the results have been powerful,” she said. “One staff member wrote an e-mail to senior management saying he was employed to do marketing but after going through the first two lessons of ActionCOACH business coaching realized he was spending 75% of his time on administration and only 15% of his time on marketing. We have since allocated him an administrator. So, we have been able to see first-hand the amazing results created through sound business coaching.”
Owing to her previous experience with using the systems established by ActionCOACH, Di Milford is confident they will be able to overcome road blocks through this coaching relationship with Greenaway.
“Finances are always a problem in South Africa as the need of the poor is so great. We have embarked on a sustainability program to try and help us with this issue,” Di Milford said. “Through this coaching process, we would like to be able to build sustainable businesses that will fund our organization.”
Project Gateway is governed by a set of core values and a statement of faith developed by the co-working churches.
“These values are intrinsic to the structure of the organization and define how it is managed and governed on a day-to-day basis,” Di Milford said. “We currently run programs to develop people and assist them better the quality of their lives through care ministries, education and empowerment programs.”
According to Di Milford, the vision for Project Gateway is currently far from the norm in South Africa.
“Our vision is to see poverty eradicated and have every household able to sustain themselves with the basic necessities of life such as food, clothing and shelter and to give people the opportunity to study and follow an education path that will enable them to start sustainable businesses to support themselves and their families,” she said.
Coaching for a Cause is an innovative, new program from ActionCOACH, the world’s number one business and executive coaching firm that makes pro-bono coaching available to charities and non-profits worldwide. To learn more, go to coachingforacause.org or subscribe to RSS news feeds at news.actioncoach.com.
