Wendy Arendse grew up in Lansdowne, Cape Town within a close and loving family. (Her family had been relocated from Goodwood as part of the apartheid government’s forced removals programme 3 years prior to her birth.)

1976 was a significant year in her high school life when learners all over the country joined in a series of demonstrations and protests led by learners in Soweto in response to the introduction of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in local schools. She was involved in the background in non-violent action and protest against the apartheid regime within her church and a student activist group throughout the ongoing years.

Her work, which included working with students on financial aid at UCT; the TRC and an inner-city church from the 1990s onwards, took her naturally into the community space in different capacities. After a 5-year stint with the provincial government (working within different poverty-stricken communities), Wendy launched a business on 1 July 2005 in response to the needs of many community organisations and small businesses who were responding to the dire poverty around them. She decided to further her postgraduate studies in Development in 2006-2007 – which provided a firm knowledge base to enhance her work experience within the community space.

Wendy’s work has since taken her into general communities, including informal settlements, where she has learnt so much from each community about their needs. Wendy also serves on the Board of the Western Cape Forum for Intellectual Disability (WCFID). She recognises that it is important to understand that each community has its own ethos, its own culture, its own specific needs and desires. As such, she engaged with government at all levels as the NGOs she worked with sought to make a significant difference within those communities. Wendy believes that this solid grounding will assist her in serving you.

Wendy shares that she can contribute the following services to the communities in Cape Town at this time

• A good listening ear.
• Willingness to take up community concerns at government level
• Organisational and systems development (particularly for community organisations / NGOs)
• Senior management, actively contributing to and participating in strategic and operational decision-making for organisations
• Team recruitment, coordination and leading
• Organisational and Human Resources governance and strategic interventions
• Training and mentoring
• Project management and monitoring of multi-disciplinary projects
• Report writing

“I am very privileged and honoured to be one of the nominated Candidates in Cape Town for the Credible Alternative 1st Movement.” ~ Wendy Arendse