An exploration of the experiences of the leaders of mentored community-based organisations in the Eastern Cape

The potential of community-based organisations (CBOs) to provide lasting solutions in the field of Human Immune Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has long been recognised. As interest in the role of CBOs has increased, so have attempts to build their capacity and increase their stability and sustainability. Capacity-building initiatives which aim to strengthen CBOs as if they were identical to formal, more established organisations have often proved ineffective, and even at times destructive, because they have ignored the very differences that make CBOs potentially the most effective agents of development change at community level. This study is a qualitative exploration of a new mentoring-based approach to CBO capacity-building, which is currently being used extensively with CBOs in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The research is inductive, beginning with an exploratory, descriptive and contextual study of the personal experiences and perceptions of CBO leadership team members from four sample CBOs which have graduated from the Barnabas Trust mentoring programme. Data was collected using a combination of face-to-face unstructured interviews and focus group discussion, with the objective of exploring the subjects’ experiences and their perceptions of the impact of the Barnabas Trust mentoring programme on the sustainability of their organisations. The insights and findings arising from the research process are then applied as the basis for a series of recommendations for the adaptation of the Barnabas trust mentoring approach and materials. The findings of this study appear to show that the mentoring-based approach has been an effective strategy for capacity-building towards sustainability for the CBOs in the sample, bringing positive change at the individual, organisational and community level