ABOUT US
Community Projects Organization in Africa (CPOA) was co-established in 2008 by a group of dynamic youth whose main aim is to facilitate Sustainable Development Skills through Community Projects in Africa. We run projects mainly in Energy and Farming while focusing on imparting skills to people with disability and women in rural areas. The organization has been under the name Ubuntu Organization for more than ten years before changing the name. CPOA is a Non-Profit Organization, registered under the Department of Social Development in South Africa with NPO Number 175-514. We implement Social Transformational and Educational programmes such as Tolerance, LGBTQAI+, Substance Abuse, HIV/Aids, Gender Based Violence [GBV], Sexuality, Career Guidance, Mentorship, [CPOA Everyday Life Talk-show] FREE Counselling, and Motivational Talks. CPOA has a programme on education established on the integrity of a premise that we are all equal, by this assertion, we advocate for policies that protect the rights of minority groups, women in farming and energy, and people in rural areas marginalized to the periphery of market economies.
Our NPO renders School Projects to make meaningful changes to learners while they are at their youngest stage and most susceptible to positive reinforcement. Further motivation for the establishment of the organization is the passion the founders have for education and Skills Development and the dire need to capacitate scholars and young adults in the immediate community the Organization operates in, as well as within the educational spectrum. Africa remain a continent with highly unequal societies with economic disparity where too many people live in poverty and too few are working class. According to the United Nations and National Development Plan 2030, the quality of school education for most black learners is poor and a large proportion of young people feel that the odds are stacked against them. CPOA notes that an intervention such as improved education will undoubtedly lead to higher employment and earnings, while more rapid economic growth will broaden opportunities for all and generate the resources required to improve education. CPOA ultimately understands and appreciates its role as a beacon that addresses the social impediments plaguing the country which was identified by the Government as the triple threat: Poverty, Inequality and Unemployment. CPOA has also joined in the fight against these threats, through various educational programmes and projects. To promote sustainable livelihoods, it is important that individuals or families, irrespective of income level have access to services such as quality education, health care. We work with fully established structures organizations such as UNICEF, seeking help and a strategic approach from their expertise and experience.
CPOA works with African governments to access authority to provide Agricultural training to students in Special Schools or schools with different types of disabilities that we have identified and targeted as part of our mandate, social responsibility, and community projects. Through our monitoring and evaluation assumption sample from the few schools we trained, we tenaciously believe that we can make a considerable transformation by offering sustainable farming skills to the learners. The African market economy has proclivities to disregard and ostracize to the periphery of the economy the Adult Basic Education Training (ABET) learners and students from Special Schools. CPOA seeks to impart Agricultural skills to marginalized learners for a “do it yourself program” skills development. We want to turn students with disabilities into students with abilities. We want to turn students who are disabled into able students. The governments parade about disability learners yet they partially employ them. The private sector seldom employs people with disabilities because they focus on profit-making. Our mandate is to cater for progressive projects that assist people with disabilities throughout Africa. Our focus is mainly on countries where elderly people do not receive social grant money. We explore critical metrics in Agricultural Projects for both theory and practical activities and Project Management in farming. Our services guarantee success in huge and small projects. In 2023, Le Vera Institute has done shadow training for Special Schools in Gauteng, and we have seen an opportunity to provide transformational agricultural services. We want to train students in Special and ABET Schools on Agriculture for sustainable development.
CPOA installs state-of-the-art methane digesters for Farm Projects. The Biogas Plant produces electricity utilizing animal manure and crop waste from the farm. With biogas technology, waste is stored in a specially built container called a bio-digester or biogas plant. Besides producing fuel, biogas plants have the added benefit of producing high-nutrient manure, or organic fertilizer and encouraging better sanitation on farms. Biogas is a renewable source of energy. CPOA has developed bio-energy villages to show how biogas can be used to get the most out of local synergies. The villages will provide electricity and heating to their residents. The biogas plants will provide a guaranteed supply of energy. Development in the rural areas is promoted and efficient cycles which represent major contributions to environmental protection are created. There is no other use of energy is as efficient as biogas utilization in a co-generation plant. Biogas co-generation plants simultaneously generate both electricity and heat. Co-generation plants convert between 80% and 90% of energy from biogas into heat and electricity. Our systems are highly efficient, profitable, and very reliable. Services include development, planning and the construction of biogas plants. Technical and biological support is offered to customers. These services will help to create employment for Special School students.
CPOA wants to help learners in special schools to operate on projects that help in self-sustenance and community development and long-term projects that will grow and continue to exist from generation to generation. We initiate the projects and manage them for a limited period ranging from five to ten years, while mentoring the learners. The learners will be involved hands-on right from the onset. Each community involved in the Special Schools’ farming activities will have projects designed according to the suitability of their area, depending on the availability of land, water, labour, markets, climatic conditions, soil types and other factors. We aim to empower the communities directly by involving them in the day-to-day operation and owning the projects. Special skills training will be given to the Physically Disabled, Women and Senior Citizens and Youths for them to have skills in the business. Young men receive extra life skills to instil a “sense of community” and responsibilities in them to care for and to protect.
CPOA undertakes the development of small commercial farming units in South Africa. These units are going to take unskilled personnel with access and entitlement to agricultural ground and assist in developing their knowledge and skills so that they can in a relatively short amount of time, be able to earn an income from this activity. The numbers involved are very exciting and could, if successfully implemented create a valuable ground change giving economic freedom to many people. A project of this nature also works hand in hand with food security and re-empowering the general population to take a hand in their future. Lastly but also importantly it gives rural communities a potential employment area minimizing the driving forces of urbanization which have stripped our countryside of employable youth and has turned them into shack dwellers on the outskirts of cities. It is a reality that many projects of this nature have been earmarked and funded but have fallen short of a level that could be seen as a total success. The reasons for this are numerous and it would be a mistake to enter this arena without paying for the lessons learnt.