Two communities in the Helderberg with similar social problems are turning to spirituality to solve crime and other issues in their communities.
On Thursday 27 April (Freedom Day) leaders of various churches, NGOs, NPOs, the police and correctional services all came together at Sir Lowry’s Pass Primary School to pray for communities that are heavily affected by crime and poverty.
Athi Ndwebi, a fieldworker from Uyanda Foundation and organiser of the Helderberg Annual Prayer Meeting, explained the meeting was held so that the spiritual leaders could sit down and explain the vision and the importance of churches in the communities and schools.
“We came together to launch the Helderberg Annual Prayer Meeting,” says Ndwebi who confirms that in the future meetings like these will take place yearly.
“At this gathering we’ve experienced the unspeakable unity and the longing for the body of Christ to be part of the solution.”
In Strand a Spiritual Crime Prevention Forum was recently established to combat crime by connecting the police, Community Policing Forum (CPF) and various churches. “The reason this decision was made is that a large part of the local community in Strand find hope and trust their respective religious organisations and leaders.
“The forum was established to combine all of the resources together to fight crime and other issues in Strand,” says Lillian Albertyn, who is the secretary of the Spiritual Crime Prevention Forum.
Pastors Johannes Pick and Danfred Kleinschmidt are both part of the forum. Pick is the chairman and Kleinschmidt is the vice-chairman.
Albertyn invites anyone who is interested in joining the forum to contact her on 072 920 9864.
