Community development is enhancement of the less developed communities. A community can be a setting of people or the close proximity of people or a community can be the collection of people or individuals that share or have interest or tie. (Philips and Pittman, 2015: 1) states that “community development have many definitions and it has been practiced for a very long time”. Development is enhancement, an improvement that also provide sustainability of whatever asset that you have as an individual or a community.
Doing Community Development as module has made me or brought to me a realization that there is no need to wait for someone to being development, most of the time you as an individual you need to search within yourself of what skills, assets, you have other than focusing on what you do not have and bring about change in your lives. “Community Development has grown into a recognized discipline of interest to both practitioners and academicians community development is defined in many different ways; some think of community development as an outcome; social, physical, and economic improvement in a community while others people or change agents think of community development as a process; the ability of communities to act collectively in unity and enhancing the ability to do so” (Philips and Pittman, 2015: 1).
‘Community Based Organization, are non-profit agencies created by communities to address local needs, they are governed by volunteer governing bodies and staffed by volunteers and /or paid personnel, some CBOs are also supported by volunteers and most CBOs are receiving finding from a variety of sources including grants, donation, fees, and fundraising but government is the primary source of funding for most agencies” (Policy frame work on NPO law; 2012, 3). CBOs are often play an important role in our communities for instance providing public goods and also vital when addressing the community problems when all the formal institution are nowhere available to us as the community or the government is not responding or unable to provide the social services, especial in rural areas, these organizations their aim and common objective is to try close the gaps between the government and the communities and provide aid to the vulnerable people.
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“CBO is a non-profit organization that operates in communities and provides services or resources to a specific community area” (South Health Vitality Studies (SSHS), 2010). Take for example in my community in Port Shepstone in a place called Merlewood it is community of mixed cultures you have Indians, blacks, and the majority is the coloured people and some of the things we struggle with is unemployment, malnutrition, substance abuse and there are two community based organizations that actually help and try to resolve the hunger in the community.
To name these organization; Woman Living for a Cause which is a wing at United Family Worship Centre church founded. The WLC provides soup and bread for the people every Wednesday and Friday and the organization also gives uniforms to the needy pupils and parcels of food to the old people. And the second one is Genesis this one has got many branches of work within it, the hospital for very sick people, youth club, mentorship programs and food parcels both these organizations they try to close the gap between the government and the community and they are helping the vulnerable and bringing about change in the community.
The significant role of CBO in South Africa, they contribute towards the socio economic and also socio political development of the country and CBOs are able to provide particular needs and services where the government have failed to respond or help. “Based on these fundamental principles of the Bills of Rights, the current legal Framework on non-profit organisations serves mainly three purposes. Firstly, it allows organisations to form themselves as legal structures. Secondly, the frame work also regulates the way in which legal structures like these operate. Part of this includes the registration of an organisation with the Non-profit Organisations Directorate in the Department of Social Development. Thirdly, it provides tax and other incentives for the sector to financially and otherwise sustain itself. This compares fairly well with international best practices and accepted norms and standards for regulating the non-profit sector” (Policy Framework on Non-profit Organization Law, 2012; 7).
“The South African non-profit sector is characterized by a wide variety of organizations of different structure and sizes across the socio-political and economic spectra of society, these organizations range from faith based organization and community based organization, charities (welfare), to traditional organization like social and support clubs and a host of other development and social forms of organization working timelessly on the social fabric of society, the collective description of these types of organization is commonly referred as CSO, NGO, CBO, FBO and the diversity of the non-profit sector reflects the complexities of present day South African society” (South Health Vitality Studies (SSHS), 2010).
The non-profit organizations act, ‘‘The NPO Act was promulgated on the 3rd December 1997 and the first organisation under this Act was registered on the 1st September 1998. The objectives or the vision of the Act is to create an enabling environment or platform that would allow non-profit organisations to maintain adequate standards of governance, transparency and public accountability, while at the same time enjoying a wide degree of freedom and autonomy the NPO Act resulted from a lengthy process of policy and legislative reform negotiated between government and civil society organizations” (Policy Framework on Non-profit Organization Law, 2012; 7).
