Trust for Community Outreach and Education

TCOE – Trust for Community Outreach and Education was established by the late Steve Bik o in 1983. TCOE is a national organisation that operates mainly in the rural areas of South A frica. TCOE has six affiliates and these regional operations have their own governance struct ures and regional support staff. Fundraising is done both by the national office and at the reg ional level. The main work and experience of the organisation in the past ten years has been to stimulate the building of local organisations, local leadership and assist these associations to access land and productive assets to improve their livelihoods. TCOE has successfully m anaged to: (i) Build a national organisation and strong leadership; (ii) Build well-informed lea ders that can lead local initiatives and campaigns; (iii) Grapple with the question of land, liveli hoods and food sovereignty in a number of different ways; (iv) Develop a campaign to acces s land for livelihoods; (v) Make inroads into organizing rural women; and (vi) Create strategic partnerships and alliances with organizations working with land and agrarian reform issues.