The Australia Africa Community Engagement Scheme (AACES) is a collaborative partnership between Oxfam Australia’s Southern Africa office and a group of South African-based organisations working at a grassroots level to affect social change. 

The breadth of issues these organisations tackle is diverse and includes health, sustainable livelihoods which typically involves food security and income-generating activities, early childhood development (ECD), water, sanitation and health (WASH) and empowering people with disabilities. These organisations work at achieving social justice for communities that ensure vulnerable groups such as children, women and people with disabilities are aware of their human rights and given the knowledge and capacity to articulate their place in society and engage stakeholders to ensure accountability.

The AACES collaboration makes for a unique cross-sharing platform, where each local partner is recognised for their individual expertise and is able to share and reflect on this with other partners across the network.

This publication shares the stories from partner organisations Woza Moya, OneVoice SA, Save the Children, and Tholulwazi Uzivikele in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.