"But there is hope, even in remote communities decimated by disease and largely overlooked by the rest of humanity, I have seen it first hand. And much of this hope lies in the hands of African churches which, for years, have been the front line of care for millions of people living with HIV and AIDS. For these people of faith, hope is not abstract : it's something practical and powerful."

The Cape Town Metropolitan Region is located at the south-western tip of South Africa, in the Western Cape Province. It is characterised by spectacular physical beauty; historical significance and tremendous economic inequalities. In this city of approximately 4 million people there are extravagant shopping malls, world-renowned wine farms, late model luxury cars and leafy suburbs. However, the reality is that for the bulk of Cape Town’s population, these are an illusion. In this city: 40% of the labour force is unemployed, 69% of the population does not have access to adequate housing, 33% of the population is HIV positive and the number of orphans is expected to exceed 2 million children by 2010.

This staggering array of statistics represent the challenge facing the South African church as it moves into a second decade of democracy. That the South African Church must respond to this challenge is generally well recognised. Local church congregations, national denominations, big business and the government all believe that the church can play a pivotal role in facing this challenge. But whilst there is often no need to convince people of the urgency for action, what is lacking are the resources in the places that need them, appropriate community development skills and models of local church interventions that can be replicated across large numbers of congregations and communities.

The Warehouse Trust

The Warehouse Trust was formally established in 2003 by the Anglican Parish of St John’s in Wynberg, Cape Town. The Warehouse, situated in an actual warehouse in Wetton, was established by the Parish to work with churches in their response to the poverty and injustices still prevalent in South Africa- and came into being as a result of a long journey of seeking God’s heart for solutions to the systemic problems in South Africa's society.

Initially each of the six churches that make up the Parish of St John's established "Ministry Among the Poor" teams in their own congregations who were trained and mentored to reach out to people in need. In early 2000 a vision emerged to setup a warehouse which would provide a base for Parish Ministry Among the Poor initiatives, and once the vision became a reality, a new mission became clear. Working with under-resourced churches in their response to the poverty and injustice in their communities, rather than establishing our own seperate programmes.

The primary geographic focus of activity is in the Wetton-Lansdowne-Philippi Corridor, a portion of the Cape Town metropolitan area that includes the suburbs of Nyanga, Khayelitsha, Phillippi, Gugulethu, Manenberg, Heideveld and Crossroads.