SAPRA Annual General Meeting 2017
2017 Director’s Report
The future of the South African Pagan Rights Alliance
SAPRA, a community-based organization, was formed in 2004 as a faith-based (Pagan) human rights activist alliance. In recent years, SAPRA has assumed the mantle of a formal non-governmental organization, and has shifted its focus of attention away from strictly Pagan human rights activism to incorporate a wider approach to human rights issues affecting not only religious minorities in general, but other marginalized groups requiring human rights advocacy and support.
Over the last 23 years, SAPRA has demonstrated its capacity and proficiency in human rights activism and justice advocacy.
If SAPRA is to remain relevant, it must acknowledge and embrace the need to expand its current activities beyond its original scope as a community-based advocacy organization. It must progressively seek to advance its human rights and social justice advocacy beyond its original religious community specific mandate. To do this, it must once again evolve from purely community-based activism, to that of paralegal advocacy and service.
In many communities around the world, community-based paralegals serve their communities as informal and often free basic legal advisers. Paralegal organizations provide basic legal advice to individuals and communities who have no access to, or who cannot afford access to formal legal services. They offer advice on practical and meaningful issues such as social welfare, basic employment disputes, negotiate and mediate inter-communal conflict, provide basic education on legal rights, and organize community development initiatives aimed at restoring justice and promoting human rights education.
In order to achieve this worthy goal, those who currently serve the Alliance will be required to build capacity through training and education.
We trust that our loyal formal members, and the general community from which we took root, will join and support us on our envisioned evolution.
Annual General Meeting 2017 Event
Damon Leff
Director: SAPRA
South African Pagan Rights Alliance
Director: Mr. Damon Leff ∙ Chief Executive Officer: Ms. Morgause Fonteleve ∙ Marriage Officer Registrar: Dr. Retha van Niekerk ∙ General Secretary: Ms. Gitta Seyfert ∙ Treasurer: Ms. Nidhi Chaitow ∙ Executive Committee: Ms. Christina Engela, Mr. Francisco Fumarola.