Indigo

Indigo development & change has been involved with a range of activities across a spectrum of projects both locally and internationally. The organisation's strength lies in its ability to facilitate local action amongst members of rural communities with the ultimate focus on empowerment of marginalised groups and simultaneous promotion of social and environmental justice. All senior staff members of Indigo development & change hold post-graduate university degrees in the social and natural sciences, and are thus suitably skilled to make meaningful input on local basic training and skills development. Locally, members of Indigo have offered various training and facilitation inputs to local community based organisations and conservation oriented businesses. These include basic training in bookkeeping, costing and pricing, inputs on small-business development, and training in basic computer literacy. Apart from its local contributions in the Suid Bokkeveld and Nieuwoudtville communities in the Northern Cape and Western Cape, Indigo has operated more broadly in these provinces, as well as abroad. Regional activities include rural development work with small-scale farmers in Zambia and Lesotho. The organisation continues to establish and maintain national and international networks with the aim to inform and implement appropriate policies where they are useful to fulfilling Indigo's mandate. With its Head Office based in Nieuwoudtville, the organisation remains sensitive to the issues and dynamics of the communities in which it operates. At the same time, no projects are developed or implemented without the committed participation of the project target group. With emphasis on methodologies of participatory processes, Indigo's operations are informed by the requests and needs of local community members who earn their livelihoods from the land they work and live on. Indigo seeks to respond to these needs in appropriate ways that speak to the mission and vision of the organisation.