New World Foundation Building a new world of hope, justice and peace

Organisational profile

New World Foundation (NWF) was founded in 1980 on the Cape Flats township of Lavender Hill. At this time, the apartheid system caused a lot of hopelessness, injustice and war. NWF was thus established with the vision of “building a new world of hope, justice and peace”. The organisation was founded in affiliation with the United Reformed Church and it weathered the storms of intense political instability during the 1980’s.
NWF started with a crèche for 27 children in the Vrygrond informal settlement. During this time, it opposed apartheid and fought for the political and human rights of the people in Lavender Hill.

New World Foundation now operates from its own community centre covering an area comprising Lavender Hill, St. Montague Village, Hillview, Seawinds, Vrygrond/Capricorn (formal settlements) and Cuba Heights, Military Heights, Village Heights and Overcome Heights (informal settlements). The political situation has changed dramatically in South Africa since the first democratic elections in 1994.
However, after thirty years of existence, NWF is still fighting oppression. Through mobilization, training, networking and cooperation with partner organisations and decision makers, New World Foundation works, in partnership with the community, to build a new world of hope, justice and peace.

Lavender Hill

The flats in the Lavender Hill area were created by the Apartheid regime to pursue the objectives of the Group Areas Act (1950) to separate people according to their “races”. So called “coloured people” were evicted from areas such as District Six, Wynberg and many others, to live in Lavender Hill. Lavender Hill’s housing was constructed between 1972 and 1974. The standard of the flats and houses was very poor and deteriorated over time because of a lack of maintenance and people not being allowed to own their properties. The space of the two or three room flats was not sufficient for the families, which has resulted in overcrowding. Today, inhabitants are living in overcrowded flats, in the back yard of the flats or shacks in informal settlements, which have developed over the past years at the edges of Lavender Hill.

Approximately 100,000 people are living in Lavender Hill and the surrounding communities. The socio-economic problems they face are huge. Poverty, gang violence, substance abuse, domestic violence and HIV/Aids are part of everyday life. The unemployment rate is above 60%.

However, there is a lot of hope, courage and inpiration to be found in some of the remarkable people that inhabit Lavender Hill and the surrounding communties too. These people believe a better world is possible, and work hard on a daily basis to make this dream a reality.