Amy Biehl Foundation Trust

Last updated

Amy Biehl Foundation Trust monument in Gugulethu Amy Biehl Foundation Trust Gugulethu 02.jpg
Amy Biehl Foundation Trust monument in Gugulethu

The Amy Biehl Foundation Trust was the organization established in Cape Town, South Africa by Linda and Peter Biehl commemorate their daughter Amy Biehl, a white American anti-apartheid activist who was killed by a black mob during racial violence in South Africa in 1993.

Today two organizations are the successors to the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust.

The Amy Biehl Foundation USA is headed by Linda Biehl and based in the United States.

The Amy Foundation is based in Sybrand Park, Cape Town, South Africa and is headed up by Kevin Chaplin. www.amyfoundation.co.za

The reasons for the split into two organizations include Linda and Peter Biehl's desire for the South African organization to stand on its own as a sustainable organization. [1]

The original foundation strived to fulfil three rights in the South African Constitution: the right to education, the right to equal employment, and the right to health. The foundation's mission statement is "to weave a barrier against violence" and "to prevent youth violence through a holistic approach to community development in socio-economically disadvantaged communities in and around Cape Town." [2] It aimed to do so by empowering the youths of the townships around Cape Town, mainly through after-school programs with activities like music, dance, drama, sports, crafts and HIV/AIDS peer education. These programs were run at several township-schools every afternoon, and in addition the foundation ran weekly activities outside the townships for some of the children, and they also have Saturday and Holiday programs. The foundation initially received funding from USAID as well as private donations.

Linda Biehl, Amy's mother and a founder of the trust, speaks on the promise of restorative justice, and continues the work of the foundation. She was awarded the Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo (bronze class) in 2008 by South African President Thabo Mbeki. [3]

Two of the four men convicted for Biehl's murder, Easy Nofemela and Ntobeko Peni, have since reconciled with her parents, [4] and Ntobeko Peni still works for the Foundation in South Africa. [5] Easy Nofemela left the Amy Foundation in 2018.

Footnotes

  1. "Amy Biehl Foundation USA". Facebook. Facebook. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  2. "Amy Foundation | Non Profit Organization - Home Page". Amy Foundation. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  3. Bathandwa Mbola. "South Africa honours Linda Biehl", SouthAfrica.info, 23 April 2008.
  4. "Amy's Story", CBS News, 1999, 2000.
  5. "Linda Biehl & Easy Nofemela (South Africa) - Forgiveness Project". Forgiveness Project. Retrieved 2017-09-07.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">People Against Gangsterism and Drugs</span> Violent South African vigilante group

People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (PAGAD) is a group formed in 1996 in the Cape Flats area of Cape Town, South Africa. The organisation came to prominence for acts of vigilante violence against gangsters, including arson and murder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Township (South Africa)</span> Urban living areas reserved for non-whites in Apartheid South Africa

In South Africa, the terms township and location usually refer to the often underdeveloped racially segregated urban areas that, from the late 19th century until the end of apartheid, were reserved for non-whites, namely Black Africans, Coloureds and Indians. Townships were usually built on the periphery of towns and cities. The term township also has a distinct legal meaning in South Africa's system of land title, which carries no racial connotations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islam in South Africa</span>

Islam in South Africa is a minority religion, practised by roughly 1.6% of the total population. Islam in South Africa has grown in three phases. The first phase brought the earliest Muslims as part of the involuntary migration of slaves, artisans, political prisoners, and political exiles from the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) that lasted from about 1652 to the mid-1800s. The second phase was the arrival of indentured labourers from British India to work in the sugar-cane fields in Natal between 1860 and 1868, and again from 1874 to 1911. Of the approximately 176,000 Indians of all faiths who were transported to the Natal province, almost 7–10% of the first shipment were Muslims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khayelitsha</span> Suburb of Cape Town, in Western Cape, South Africa

Khayelitsha is a township in Western Cape, South Africa, on the Cape Flats in the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality. The name is Xhosa for New Home. It is reputed to be one of the largest and fastest-growing townships in South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Education in South Africa</span> Overview of education in South Africa

Education in South Africa is governed by two national departments, namely the Department of Basic Education (DBE), which is responsible for primary and secondary schools, and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), which is responsible for tertiary education and vocational training. Prior to 2009, both departments were represented in a single Department of Education. Among sub-Saharan African countries, South Africa has one of the highest literacy rates. According to The World Factbook - Central Intelligence Agency as of 2019, 95% of the population age 15 and over can read and write in South Africa were respectively literate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gugulethu</span> Suburb of Cape Town, in Western Cape, South Africa

Gugulethu is a township in the Western Cape, South Africa and is 15 km from Cape Town. Its name is a contraction of igugu lethu, which is Xhosa for our pride. The township was established along with Nyanga in the 1960s.

One Settler, One Bullet was a rallying cry and slogan originated by the Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA), the armed wing of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), during the struggle of the 1980s against apartheid in South Africa. The slogan parodied the African National Congress's slogan 'One Man, One Vote', which eventually became 'One Person, One Vote'. It is not to be confused with the controversial protest song "Dubul' ibhunu".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Biehl</span> American activist and scholar

Amy Elizabeth Biehl was an American graduate of Stanford University and an anti-Apartheid activist in South Africa who was murdered by Cape Town residents while a black mob shouted anti-white slurs. The four men convicted of her murder were pardoned by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela</span> South African academic (born 1955)

Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela is the Research Chair in Studies in Historical Trauma and Transformation at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. She graduated from Fort Hare University with a bachelor's degree and an Honours degree in psychology. She obtained her master's degree in Clinical Psychology at Rhodes University. She received her PhD in psychology from the University of Cape Town. Her doctoral thesis, entitled "Legacies of violence: An in-depth analysis of two case studies based on interviews with perpetrators of a 'necklace' murder and with Eugene de Kock", offers a perspective that integrates psychoanalytic and social psychological concepts to understand extreme forms of violence committed during the apartheid era. Her main interests are traumatic memories in the aftermath of political conflict, post-conflict reconciliation, empathy, forgiveness, psychoanalysis and intersubjectivity. She served on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). She currently works at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein as a senior research professor.

Prior to 1994, immigrants from elsewhere faced discrimination and even violence in South Africa. After majority rule in 1994, contrary to expectations, the incidence of xenophobia increased. Between 2000 and March 2008, at least 67 people died in what were identified as xenophobic attacks. In May 2008, a series of attacks left 62 people dead; although 21 of those killed were South African citizens. The attacks were motivated by xenophobia. In 2015, another nationwide spike in xenophobic attacks against immigrants in general prompted a number of foreign governments to begin repatriating their citizens. A Pew Research poll conducted in 2018 showed that 62% of South Africans viewed immigrants as a burden on society by taking jobs and social benefits and that 61% of South Africans thought that immigrants were more responsible for crime than other groups. Between 2010 and 2017 the immigrant community in South Africa increased from 2 million people to 4 million people. The proportion of South Africa's total population that is foreign born increased from 2.8% in 2005 to 7% in 2019, according to the United Nations International Organization for Migration, in spite of widespread xenophobia in the country. This made South Africa the largest recipient of immigrants on the African continent in 2019.

South African Education and Environment Project is a non-profit organisation serving children and youth through educational support at every level of academic development. The organisation helps young people who are neglected by South Africa's education system.

Centre of Science and Technology (COSAT) is the first of three STEM schools in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa. It was established in 1999.

The Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation (DTHF) is a nonprofit organization founded to provide treatment for and conduct HIV/AIDS research. It is based in Cape Town, South Africa, and is managed with the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the University of Cape Town. The Foundation operates community sites throughout greater Cape Town, providing treatment, testing, and outreach services to at-risk communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Biehl High School</span> High School in New Mexico

Amy Biehl High School is a charter high school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The school is now housed in the Old Post Office building in Downtown Albuquerque. The school is named after Amy Biehl, an anti-Apartheid activist who was murdered by a black mob in South Africa in 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Non-Violence Project</span> Non-profit organization

The Non-Violence Project Foundation (NVP) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to inspire, motivate, and engage young people on how to solve conflicts peacefully. It holds violence prevention and nonviolence education programs for schools and sports clubs around the world.

Quentin "Dragon" Chong is a retired South African professional mixed martial artist, trainer/coach and actor who has appeared in a number of American movies, local TV series, advertisements and magazines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnet Theatre</span> Independent physical theatre company based in Cape Town, South Africa

Magnet Theatre is an independent physical theatre company based in Cape Town, South Africa. It was formed in 1987 by Mark Fleishman and Jennie Reznek who have since been the company's artistic directors. Besides creating original theatre productions, Magnet Theatre is actively engaged in youth development work in the Cape Town area as well as in the Cederberg Municipality.

Mandisa Monakali is a public speaker, educator, social worker, researcher, lobbyist, advocate, project manager, strategic planner, workshop and community organizer. She is the founder and Executive Director of Ilitha Labantu.

Linda Biehl is an American philanthropist and mother of Amy Biehl, an activist who was murdered in 1993 in South Africa. She is the co-founder and director of the United States-based Amy Biehl Foundation and the South African-based Amy Biehl Foundation Trust.

Marcellette ("Marci") Gaillard-Gay Williams is an American retired academic administrator who served as interim chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst from July 2001 until July 2002. She was the university's eighth chancellor and the first woman to serve in the position.