Impophomo is a Non-Profit Organisation (NPO), which was established by Northpoint City Church, and represents the church’s outreach programme to bring about social and human development in the impoverished community of Zandspruit. This informal settlement is located in Johannesburg north in an area known as Honeydew, alongside Bayers Naude Drive. It is estimated that 13,000 families constituting a population of about 65,000 people live on an area of land the size of 50 hectares. There is a severe lack of basic services and welfare infrastructure for these people and most people (estimated at around 70%) are unemployed. The majority of people in this community live in absolute poverty, where average household income (for a family of 5) is estimated at less than R 800 per month. Due to a gross lack of meaningful social developmental interventions in Zandspruit, tragically the people call themselves “the forgottens”.
God has called Northpoint City Church to rise up on behalf of the poor in Zandspruit. The mission statement of Impophomo is: “A church with a heart of love for the Poor and a people rising up in faith and action to fulfill God’s purposes for Zandspruit in social development and the gospel”. Impophomo aims to achieve this by providing interventions for meeting the needs of the poor, bringing about social upliftment, creating socio-economic development opportunities, whilst reaching people for Jesus and building them spiritually into the values of God. Impophomo specific focus and purpose is to undertake projects in Zandspruit within the following 5 categories:
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Poverty eradication through projects focusing on livelihood development i.e. job creation, enterprise creation, income creation, local economic development, sports development and infrastructure development.
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Providing for the basic needs of the poor i.e. food & clothing support, basic services, improving living conditions, medical resource programmes, educational resource programmes, assisting in community crises and emergencies etc.
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Education and skills development i.e. Adult Basic Education Training, schooling programmes, life skills development, computer literacy training, specialized skills development, mentorship programmes and career building.
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Spiritual guidance and support i.e. counseling, trauma (child abuse, sexual abuse, women abuse, rape, violence, death) discipleship, prayer, bible training, parenting courses, marriage courses, family planning, etc.
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Other projects i.e. recreational days, sports days, drama, community leadership training and other projects related to the skills of people within the church.