Alumni Voice – Mapping the Mosaic of Community Assets During and After COVID-19 (South Africa)

Looking through the lens of possibilities, opportunities, and co-creation

By Bernie Dolley and Sarah Hugow

Humans are hard-wired to focus on threats and problems. It’s an evolutionary survival mechanism that has served us well for thousands of years. When faced with a crisis, we usually react in one of three ways – fight, flight, or freeze. When faced with the unprecedented and existential threat of the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s unsurprising that our threat-response mechanisms have gone into overdrive. 

We may watch the news about this extreme public health emergency and our leaders’ inadequate or ill-advised strategies to it and a) shout angrily at the television, b) switch it off and do our best to ignore it, or c) get overwhelmed and feel depressed and apathetic. Similarly, when we learn about the hunger crisis facing many households in South Africa as a result of the lockdown measures, we may a) leap into action and start organising food drives and donations, b) try to ignore the suffering we are witnessing (usually unsuccessfully), or c) get depressed about the state of the world and moan about it to anyone who’ll listen (without actually doing anything). 

As community grantmaker and development practitioners for the past 20-odd years, our tendency is indeed to leap into action, and we have done so, checking in with our grantees and partners and ensuring that we are available to offer financial, emotional, and material support to weather this crisis. You may be surprised to learn that in most cases, the answers we received were along the lines of “Ya, we’re good, Asset Based Community Development has prepared us” or “I have a contact for mealie meal, and I know this guy who has a bakkie, so we are organising, but could you send some airtime so we can finalise the arrangements?” People were concerned, but not overwhelmed, and were already hatching response actions before we called them. Community networks were activated, opportunities to help were identified, and plans were made. 

How did this come about? The difference in our approach as a community grantmaker is that we start from the point of recognising and valuing what our community partners are already doing, and seek to augment and strengthen this, rather than rushing in as ‘experts’ with preconceived notions of what is needed. So rather than announcing “I’m arriving with a bakkie load of bread tomorrow morning!” our approach has been to ask “What are you guys doing? Where, specifically, can we help”? It may be that airtime or taxi fare is more useful to our community partners right now; or they need access to information on hygiene measures (how to build a tippy-tap from a cooldrink bottle). It may be the case that organisation A has a useful connection or practice or resource that could be of use for organisation B – so we put them in contact with each other. 

For the past 20 years we have worked with our grantee partners from an appreciative mindset – how can we recognise, value, appreciate, and support what communities are already doing with the resources they have? In our view, development always starts with individuals and informal networks and organisations that tap into social, natural, and material assets at a local level to tackle some of their most difficult challenges. Our role as the ‘outsider’ is to bring to awareness the value that this volunteer labour, social trust, and reciprocity has, and to support the community on their development trajectory ‘’from the inside out”, by working alongside them, and linking them up with appropriately scaled support and other forms of assistance (connections, materials, ideas, information forums, decision-makers).

The coronavirus catastrophe has starkly revealed our collective unpreparedness for a global crisis of this magnitude. It has laid bare the inequality and social injustices that were always there, but which most of us chose to ignore. It has forced us to face the uncomfortable truth that money alone is of little use if the social fabric in communities is weak and fragile. What will get us through this crisis is our collective social capital – the relationships, associations, networks, and friends that will make sure help gets to where it is needed.

Emergency relief is absolutely necessary at this time. However, it is temporary and unsustainable over the longer term. What happens when we all go back to ‘work’ and resume our daily lives?  Joblessness, hunger, and despair existed before the onslaught of Covid-19. What will happen when the next emergency or disaster strikes? It is a sad truth that any natural disaster or public-health emergency always takes an increased toll on those groups who were marginalised or excluded before the emergency. They simply do not have the resources to buffer themselves from the severe social and economic consequences.

This is why, as concerned citizens, grantmakers, or development practitioners, we must start to recognise that the individuals and communities we work with have so much to offer – aside from financial resources, every community has a range of different assets that are inherent in the human family. Poor communities survive what to us would seem insurmountable odds because of this mutual self-help and reciprocity, and because of leaders and networks and trust (social capital), as well as personal grit and determination that they draw on to solve problems and create opportunities. Because we have not paid sufficient attention to these assets, we have made people feel helpless and dependent on others to rescue them from their situation. We must return decision-making power to the local actors who know best what is needed for their own communities and are always the first-line responders in any crisis. If we can build regional, national and global networks of connection, trust, information, local knowledge, and agility, our response to future disasters will look very different.

Scientists have recently discovered the power of the mycelium, an infinite, complex biological network of fungi beneath the soil that connects trees in ancient forests to each other and allows them to cooperate and communicate. Otherwise known as the ‘Wood Wide Web’, this dense microbial network is the real foundation of the forest, allowing trees to exchange nutrients and resources, creating a thriving, resilient, and harmonious community. Trees can even use the fungal network to send information (chemical signals) to each other about threats and use this information to raise defences. This miraculous network is invisible, but essential. We can think of our human social networks as an invisible social mycelium, connecting us to each other as an interdependent human family.

The post pandemic world will also look different. We can expect to see a steep climb in unemployment, worsening material conditions, and an increase in the associated pathologies of poverty (depression, addiction, domestic violence etc…). We believe our best chance at tackling this new reality is to move out of ‘saviour’ mode and begin to work more intentionally and deliberately with communities from the inside out. We must focus our and their attention on their inherent resilience and ingenuity and amplify these. Demand will always outstrip supply if we continue to fill needs rather than encourage co-creation of solutions.

We have a unique opportunity to #buildbackbetter. Let us advance co-operation, co-creation and collaboration, and tap into the wealth of time, talent, gifts, and skills of everyone for a more united and caring humanity and a healthier planet.