Leaders from religious organizations in Cape Town gathered yesterday for a seminar hosted by the City of Cape Town Social Development and Early Childhood Development Directorate.Some of the highlights discussed at the event included progress of conversation between districts and the mandate of the City’s Religious Desk.

Mayoral committee member for Social Development and Early Childhood Development, councillor Suzette Little explains that this is a process that took place over a four year period.

She adds that the directorate began looking at what really impacts the community and what are the interests in communities, with the common factor that all communities share being religious organizations.

“The one thing that all communities have in common is that they believe that there is a God; someone that’s above all,” Little states.

She adds that people should submit themselves to certain rules and norms, adding that the Mayoral Committee used this framework to create awareness about the family foundation in a bid to promote positive social development, which is considered a major problem within communities.

Little notes that the turnout of attendance was beyond expectation.

“I was overwhelmed. I didn’t expect the turnout to be that big and on behalf of myself and my colleagues, I want to thank each and every one who attended,” she asserted.

She also adds that numerous organizations came forward offering their assistance, given the fact that the topics of conversation at the seminar  centred on education.

“We must keep our children in school and we have identified that a lot of children are not at school due to issues such as not being registered at birth,” Little claims.

Little says that at the seminar, organizations were informed of mechanisms through which they could assist individuals.

One of the main things the religious organization hoped to do is assist people living in abusive homes to deal with the problems they face.

“We want to help the victims, as well as the perpetrators because in most cases perpetrators has also been abused in their lives and have not properly dealt with the trauma,” Little adds.

Currently they are working on getting organizations together to assist with them with the religious desk. They also wish to assist the homeless in finding shelter as the main mission as a religious organization is to help those in need.

VOC