respond
Never underestimate a man and his truck, or a community and its heart.
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disasters
Ubuntu Army has successfully responded to crisis and disaster in Kwa-Zulu Natal, and South Africa, over the past three years, supporting the vulnerable, and newly vulnerable under exceptionally challenging circumstances. UA shepherded hundreds of thousands of Africans, throughout South Africa, to safety, through the hunger and starvation that resulted from the collapse of the informal sector during the Covid lockdown era, through the loss of life, property and livelihood that the devastating riots and violence in KZN and Gauteng caused in July 2021, and through the April 2022 floods that caused widespread loss of property, resource and life in KZN.
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covid
riot
flood
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lessons learnt
We have learnt so much. We have learnt that individuals alone, and together, can make a real difference in crisis situations. We have learnt that compassion, connection and community are at the core of everything good, and that all too often, ego, money and politics, underpin all that fails. We have learnt that disaster relief should often not be left solely to the “professionals” or the NGOs. This we have learnt many times over. We have learnt that disaster response is not a short term undertaking. In fact, the real work in disaster relief only happens months after the initial crisis has passed, when the true nature of the humanitarian crisis reveals itself.
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inanda
The success and commitment of the Ubuntu Army response to disaster is best I​illustrated by a brief case study of our response to the floods that destroyed Inanda in April 2022. UA arrived in the mud, amongst those most affected by loss in the Inanda Valley, 8 hours after the floods hit Kwa-Zulu Natal. We left 8 months later. In those 8 months, we built a map of loss. We spent those 8 months on the ground, in the mud, creating that map. We knew where everyone who had been effected by loss, was living. It was the only map of its sort in Inanda. With that map, we gathered appropriate resource, established appropriate logistics and spent the next 8 months supporting the vulnerable, the homeless, the traumatised, the hungry. We managed to reach everyone, and we worked until the job was done.
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publicity
Most NGOs and corporates did not work until the job was done. A great deal of well publicised relief work was packed-up within 2 weeks of the rains, as the cameras and the news cycle left Inanda. Most relief agencies, corporates and celebrities popped-up in the days following the disaster, and then dissolved into the ether as quickly as they arrived, hot on the heels of the cameras. ​It would appear that the work doesn't count if it isn’t publicised. Ubuntu Army remained long after the cameras and press had left. Long after the relief agencies and NGOs had left. Or in some cases, even arrived. Ubuntu Army did an incredible job. This sentence is the extent of our publicity.
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the charity industry
It turns out that suffering is a hot-commodity. The non-profit sector, is an industry, like any-other. We've seen it. Repeatedly. Most non-profits are corporations. They make money from their efforts, while signalling to the public that they are finding real solutions to the suffering. This is damaging and disempowering. This creates a false sense of security in the. ind of the public. This is a virtue signal. In truth, non-profits are businesses, working to establish revenue streams to pay for their overheads and salaries, working to expand as an organisation, in size and importance, working to massage personal egos, and working, essentially, to prosper. Ego and profit, over heart.
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heart
If the vulnerable are to be supported, then it is necessary to break the spell that the non-profit industrialists enjoy. Their relief work is big business, their virtue signals, marketing materials. If charity is to regain its dignity, then those in the charity industry need to be held accountable by the public. Do not give them your money, your mandate, your permission or your power to help on your behalf, unless they are fully transparent, on the ground, in the mud, working from heart, and they convert the vast majority of your contributions into discernible work and results. Those working in charity need to connect in-person and on the ground with those suffering, in order to rediscover their heart, rediscover their organisation's legitimacy and to rediscover their collective WHY.
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it's personal
​Ubuntu Army’s response to crisis is personal. You and I, and the rest of Ubuntu Army, step in, behind the ordinary people on the ground, who are standing-up for the members of their community who have become vulnerable as a result of a disaster or crisis. Ubuntu Army adds the weight of our experience, network and resource to the individuals marshalling the local, on-the-ground response to crisis, anywhere on the planet. A local-global-grassroots response to crisis and disaster, harnessing the power of the ordinary people, both-on-the-ground and around-the-world, to support the newly vulnerable. At the core of Ubuntu Army's response to crisis, is community and compassion. Global Ubuntu. It is not about money, publicity, or recognition. It's personal, and this makes the Ubuntu Army response lethal.
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accountability
At the core of a transparent and sustained response to crisis, Is on-the-ground accountability in the distribution of money and resource. It is not possible to manage resource or response remotely. To this end, an Ubuntu Army trustee will travel to the disaster area to manage the distribution of global contributions, and to offer support and guidance to the local responders, in developing a plan of response, and in identifying the local network of people and logistics available to help. Ideally, an on-site-point-local-person will emerge as the crisis unfolds. If this fails to happen organically, the UA trustee will develop an on-site leader, who is directly unaffected by the crisis, and who is able to take control of the local community response once our trustee leaves.
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recovery
The Ubuntu Army trustee will remain in place until the vulnerable are self-sustaining and safe, and have a discernible path to recovering their lives. The trustee leaves once a time-table for response-withdrawal has been committed to. The connections and community created during the response, between previously separated and anonymous members of a community, town or city, form the basis of long term recovery, as responders take personal responsibility for the vulnerable. These connections remain long after the crisis has resolved, as a testament to the power of the ordinary, everyday people taking personal responsibility for their community. These Ubuntu Links are the cornerstone of connection and community, and will end structural and temporal poverty and vulnerability.
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