Portraying life

Humanitarian organisation Catholic Welfare & Development (CWD) is celebrating it's 40th anniversary next year and have therefore asked me to write 40 portraits of people involved with the organisation. Over the next few weeks, I will be interviewing people affiliated with CWD on various different levels - from Archbishops, to directors, board members, staff, counsellors, community workers, volunteers and beneficiaries. Travelling to interviews will bring me to different locations: poor townships like Delft, Athlone, Gugulethu, Elsies River on the one hand, and well-off suburbs like Constantia, Rondebosch and Riebeck Casteel on the other.

So far, a number of people have shared very personal and beautiful stories with me. There is a woman who was molested as a child and found strength again thanks to CWD counselling, a pastor who went on tour through the United States to gather donations for the poor during Apartheid and a Congolese refugee who managed to heal his trauma through CWD youth art classes. Those are just a few examples out of the many beautiful stories that have come out of the interviews. CWD does indeed have reason to celebrate.