Chelsea's Reflections on Black Sash

I suppose it is in the nature of an African NGO to be understaffed, overworked, and underfunded. But the turbulent political season and the pressures of a faltering global economy have only exacerbated the frenzied atmosphere at the Black Sash National Advocacy Office. The three staff members in the National Advocacy Department work in a large, shared room in the corner of the organization’s fourth floor office. At one time the room served as a conference area, but now it is partitioned by cluttered desks and mismatched chairs. Colourful African prints hang between the windows and behind the desks, while overfilled bookcases and bulletin boards line the rest of the pale yellow walls. On the inside wall sits a large white-board that is perpetually filled with columns and diagrams and red-marker scrawl, layered so thick it’s hard to imagine the board was ever truly white. The visual chaos on that board seems to be a constant reflection of the activity in the office. Some days the staff gathers around the make-shift conference table for hours, throwing ideas back and forth and scribbling on the board with hours and underlines. Lately, the staff has been caught up in preparing for the national programme meeting, but in the last two months, the focus was largely on the major political events taking place in the country.

Black Sash Office

Following any act or declaration by a political entity (usually Parliament), the Black Sash scrutinizes the message to determine its relevance and the stance of the organization towards new policies or changes. It is common for the Black Sash to release a public statement either commending or admonishing the government action, speaking on behalf of the disenfranchised people whom the organization aims to support. Many of the weekly or biweekly meetings held in front of that white board revolve around press statements and national programme improvements, as provincial staff travel to Cape Town to discuss the impact of certain policies and services at the local level.

2009 is already shaping up to be a big travel year within the organization. It is hard to remember a day when our three advocacy staff members were all present for a full day at the office. They frequently inform us that they’ll be flying out to a conference in this city or that province the following morning and won’t be back until the next week. Other times, they must rush off for an interview or appearance at a national forum outside of Cape Town. The national advocacy staff are always poised and prepared for the perfect press blurb when they appear in public or on television, so it is often a surprise to see them shuffling through piles of papers and scrambling to put reports together behind the scenes. The final product – a well-received statement, a programme drawing due accolades – often seems like one produced by a well-oiled, corporate machine, or at least a well-staffed, well-paid media establishment. The considerable difference, however, is that the Black Sash is constantly in tune with the needs of the people it represents, and the team behind the organization’s PR are the very faces and names you see quoted in the daily paper. The organization is authentic; its efforts to “make human rights real” are genuine.

Nothing could exemplify these facts better than the bits of office life that we, as interns, witness from the corner of the national office three days a week. Over the tops of our laptop screens we watch our co-workers engage one another in current events discussions. We hear them giving telephone interviews in English, Afrikaans, and Xhosa. A few weeks ago we provided feedback on three radio public service announcements that the organization put together to encourage applicants for the Child Support Grant. Our involvement – however peripheral in the grand scheme of the organization’s work – serves to provide the background research for nationally circulated reports and statements. Sometimes we simply run relevant newspaper articles through the fax machine or collect and summarize the organization’s previous statements on particular issues. 

But most of the time we are knee-deep in policy research, preparing reports that will help to provide the framework for advocacy work on the national level. Recently, we even came on board a project to compile a comprehensive history of social security plans in South Africa.

Though we often leave the office at the end of the day without any concrete product to symbolize the work we’ve done, the frequent thanks and appreciation of the office staff are more than enough to show us that our contributions to the organization and its admirable human rights objectives are valuable.