Luthemba Lethu Community Project is a registered Non-profit organisation. Further, it is also registered by the Tax Exempt Unit of SARS as a Public Benefit Organisation and has been approved for purposes of section 18A. It is run by a group volunteers that is formed in a board that meets regularly to be accountable to the members.
“Luthemba Lethu” meaning “Our Hope” is a non-profit organisation started from a place of need.
In 2006 we started reaching out into the Modderbee Correctional Centre and quickly realised that normal outreach programmes were not effectively changing offenders.
So, in 2007 Andre Roodt, a Pastor at Maranatha Community Church then, together with some church members also staff members from Modderbee Correctional Centre and the head of Kempton Park police station, went to Argentina to look at a model operating in certain Correctional Centres that changed the recidivism rate from 50% to 5%. Community involvement to reduce crime through the local police station.
The model was adopted in our local police station and at Modderbee Correctional Centre. In 2007 we already saw a 50% reduction in crime in our inner city and a fully dedicate section was identified in the prison for inmates that wants to participate in this rehabilitation program. It was reported by prison officials that only 10% that did the program after 3 years reoffended.
The Church adopted this model and soon found itself with more than 50 volunteers and full-time employee running this program within the Modderbee Correctional Centre.
It soon became apparent that a program that only focuses on the Correctional Centre was not enough and in 2011 LLCP added two areas of focus to its operation, namely:
- A high school program with full time life coaches in each school to affect the spiritual climate inside.
- Dedicated churches and community involvement in the local police station.
- Fully operation camp site to equip community for change.
This will assist us in focusing on two areas in the community.
- Crime Prevention through our Schools Programme.
- Crime reduction through accountability by community.