Ebrahim Rass

Ebrahim Rass has used the skills he developed while working for liberation in South Africa to create an approach for developing economically healthy communities.

Ebrahim takes on South Africa's high unemployment rate through a program that enables individuals to become entrepreneurs and participants in the development of their community. The program rests on Ebrahim's insight that people, particularly the young, can take charge of their lives and be socially responsible only if they are economically independent. Ebrahim deploys a multi-pronged strategy that goes far beyond mere skill training. It trains young people as entrepreneurs while at the same time engaging other stakeholders to provide critical support: the business community to invest financially in the process, the health care sector to provide primary care, and local government and others to employ and mentor youth involved in the project. He has registered his organization, the Masakhane Youth Development and Job Creation Project, as a personnel agency and runs it as a business, with all profits reinvested in the program.

The magnitude of South Africa's unemployment statistics is daunting. An estimated five million people, or one-third of economically active South Africans, were without formal jobs at the end of 1995. In 1996, when the economy registered relatively strong growth of 3 percent, employment increased a mere 0.2 percent. In response to data such as these, President Nelson Mandela pitched "jobs, jobs and jobs" as the top priority for 1998, which sparked a rush of government-led job creation programs. Despite the highly publicized government efforts, it is the small projects, set up by citizen's organizations, that are actually making a dent in the unemployment figures. Even these organizations, however, struggle to cope with the sheer size of the problem. In Ebrahim's community of Riverlea, for example, more than 65 percent of the estimated fifty thousand residents are unemployed. A chronic housing shortage creates overcrowding and the associated problems of child abuse, domestic violence, health problems, and crime. Surveys have revealed high numbers of youth without high school education, many of whom participate in criminal activities and drug abuse.

Ebrahim's approach focuses on making young people into business entrepreneurs. He began with a needs assessment survey in his community of Riverlea, outside of Johannesburg, and used the results to develop the Masakhane Project, which is open to all residents and nearby communities, but concentrates on unemployed persons aged sixteen to thirty-five. Ebrahim offers participants training in literacy, information technology, administration, and life skills. Because health problems are a major obstacle to the economic development of communities, Masakhane Project offers primary healthcare through links with a local clinic. The program starts by helping participants to establish a credit record so they can raise capital for their prospective business enterprise. Participants are encouraged to take any kind of work that will enable them to establish a savings record with a bank. A trust fund maintained by Ebrahim's organization, and invested in by local companies, then adds to these savings. Masakhane Project assists participants in identifying ventures that fill niche markets, helps arrange a bank loan, and links the fledgling enterprise to a big business to secure work. Ebrahim's organization monitors the businesses and guarantees loan repayments. While training the entrepreneurs, the project also seeks to link them to needs in the community through a public works program. This has enabled Riverlea to obtain new housing, clean up the community, and start a brick-making project. Masakhane Project is run by volunteers, but Ebrahim hopes soon to be able to pay a full-time staff. He envisions himself in an advisory capacity with young people running the program themselves. Once the Riverlea program is established and he has the resources, Ebrahim intends to share the idea with other communities and help them to create independent centers that can respond to their own needs.

Ebrahim Rass educated himself through reading as he grew up in Mamelodi, one of the oldest townships in South Africa, where the struggle against apartheid was fierce. He witnessed so much violence while growing up that it made him determined, at a very young age, to defend society against injustice and discrimination. He was raised by his grandmother until age thirteen, when he left to live with an aunt in the "coloured" township of Riverlea. When his aunt died and he was turned out onto the street, friends arranged for a family to informally adopt him and give him their name. Ebrahim joined the political struggle for freedom and rejected religion until he encountered Islam. He studied Islamic theology for the next eight years but was disillusioned by the gender and race discrimination he encountered within the training institute, and decided to return to his community. He joined the African National Congress and rose to become secretary-general of the Riverlea Branch.