A case study of The Gift of the Givers

Ashwin Desai
University of Johannesburg, Centre for Sociological Research

Not what we give, But what we share,
For the gift without the giver Is bare.
James Russell Lowell

Executive Summary
1. GOG was one of the first civil society organizations to provide support to the victims of xenophobic attacks of May 2008. The article follows closely GOG’s support work once people had been moved to the camps. It seeks to quantify the kind of support GOG provided and evaluate the effects of this support. What the research reveals is that GOG was very effective in supplying much needed goods like blankets, mattresses, nappies and food and to keep this support going for a prolonged period. It also was able to draw on its media network to co-ordinate the collection of goods donated by the public and draw on the work of volunteers to both collect goods and co-ordinate its distribution. GOG also showed its flexibility in responding to the violence for example by diverting blankets collected for its annual “winter warmer campaign” to those living outside police stations and subsequently in the camps. However, what the research reveals is that while GOG supported people who wished to return to their home countries, it did not contemplate support for those who left the camps and who decided to stay on in South Africa. Through interviews with those displaced by the violence and who chose to stay behind the article illustrates their desperate circumstances. It is suggested that organizations like GOG need to consider ways in which their support work can continue beyond the barbed wire of the camp. The article also through the voice of one of a volunteer shows the incredible work that ordinary citizens played but how once the crisis was over organizations like GOG failed to integrate volunteers into their work despite the desire of some to continue to work with GOG.