A group of researchers are hoping their work in Overcome Heights will bring about positive change.
The group spent months working with the community of Overcome Heights last year to try to understand some of the hardships residents face daily.
The action research, which was released this year, entitled “Survival and Crisis in a diverse informal settlement” was done through diary studies.
It was done by Shari Thanjan, Nanna Schneiderman, Derrick Naidoo and Steffen Jensen, from Denmark, and the Community Healing Network in collaboration with community leaders and residents.
The research aimed to understand how different groups in Overcome Heights survived crises-filled everyday life and how these struggles relate to historical and social structures of oppression and marginalisation.
The research was designed as a collaborative project, with community workers and residents being given a journal in which they could pen entries twice a week about the problems they faced.
The findings were presented to the community but they weren’t anything new and the issues included hunger and poverty, physical and psychological distress, invisibility and lack of recognition, ongoing crises, violence, youth and drugs.
Community worker Karen Mentoor said the research through diaries revealed much-needed information that residents often kept to themselves.
“Many families went to sleep hungry, there was domestic violence, gangsterism and people don’t speak about it very often. It was an honour to be part of the research because now I have a deeper understanding of what the communities needs are. It was also clear that people prefer to solve problems themselves because they feel they are neglected by the various government departments and organisations,” she said.
Community worker Colin Adams said they were now looking to start a committee to help address the issues raised.
“This research was a form of healing; we will take this information and try and bring more services to the people of Overcome Heights and beyond,” he said.
Ms Thanjan said each of these findings should be met with appropriate strategies and interventions from social services, the education system, housing authorities and the police.
“These strategies must be based on a committed partnerships with and in support of local organisations, residents and families. Such partnerships were developed but this needs to be deepened. The aim of this report was to enable such partnerships in a more equal way,” she said.
“Solutions cannot happen without the voice of the people and this report has given voice to the invisible, often overlooked or seen as a problem by developers. We have provided research based knowledge about the community to the community, making visible and giving voice to the challenges of survival in the Cape Flats,” she added.
Another aspect of the research included how people dealt with violence and crises in different ways depending on their language groups, which included Afrikaans, Xhosa and non-South African languages. Residents in Overcome Heights share similar life conditions of poverty, marginalisation and violence that affect all, regardless of race. Hence, while there are differences between social groups, there are as many shared problems and expressions of solidarity across the groups.
The team will be hosting weekly meetings.
“We urge members affected by these problems as well as organisations to join us. We meet at the community civic hall in Seawinds on Saturdays.