Jared Rossouw
South Africa
Bertha believes that projects developed collaboratively with those on the ground are most impactful. Sometimes this can mean shifting directions. Jared Rossouw, Bertha Challenge Activist Fellow, shared his first-hand experiences of adapting to changing needs during his Fellowship year.
The Bertha Challenge is a “doing” Fellowship. It focuses on practical projects, developed collaboratively – differentiating it from other programs that support more independent and reflective work.
During the application period, prospective Fellows are invited to pitch a project to focus on should they be selected. These projects must first and foremost serve a wider movement or campaign, and all projects must culminate in a tangible product. For activist Fellows, these products are most often training tools, media projects or other learning and organizing resources.
At Bertha, we believe these products are most useful and impactful when they are developed collaboratively with the people who will ultimately use them. In some cases, a project can shift following feedback from partners or due to changing context. Housing rights advocate and Bertha Challenge Activist Fellow Jared Rossouw experienced this first-hand during his Bertha Challenge year. Jared says: “As activists we set out with firm intentions, but sometimes the ground shifts even as we walk. We have to be nimble, keeping our eye on the horizon, as we dance around trying to find firm ground again to move forward.”
Online guide developed by Jared Rossouw and fellow activists to support activist groups and independent candidates considering engaging in Cape Town local government elections in 2021. Image: incommon.org.za
Online guide developed by Jared Rossouw and fellow activists to support activist groups and independent candidates considering engaging in Cape Town local government elections in 2021. Image: incommon.org.za
In his original application, Jared pitched a project focused on stoking activism around housing policy in Cape Town – one of the most spatially segregated cities in the world. But as his Fellowship progressed, Jared and some of the activists he was working with realized that the scope of the project would need to be expanded – looking not just at housing policy but at electoral politics in the city as a whole.
“I saw that we couldn’t shift unequal access to land and housing with new tactics alone, but had to, at some point, challenge political power directly in order to bring democratic decision making down into the community and share it widely.”
Jared Rossouw, Bertha Challenge Activist Fellow
The Bertha Challenge team worked with Jared to adjust his project deliverables:
“Bertha Foundation recognized this and allowed me to change gears, but I had to work hard to make the case and that felt important, too. With flexibility comes responsibility, and I had to commit to new firm deliverables and work harder to get them done. You know your work is valued when people trust you on the direction you take but challenge you to do it better.” - Jared Rossouw, Bertha Challenge Activist Fellow
Ultimately, Jared used his Bertha Challenge year to bring together a diverse group of activists and community leaders interested in supporting independent candidates for city council seats in Cape Town’s 2021 municipal elections. The outcomes of these discussions were packaged into a popular educational handbook and website that will be officially launched at a public gathering of activists, and which will serve as a standard for civil society in elections to come.
CREDITS
Authors: The Bertha Challenge Team
Editorial Consultant: Karen Frances Eng
This story was originally published in the Bertha Fellows book and some of the information in this story may have changed since it was first published.
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