8.1.1 If the full story of the Dutch Reformed Church's role during the apartheid era is to be told, some attention must obviously be given to the church's service in and to the community over the years.
8.1.2 In a sense, the Dutch Reformed Church formally began its ministry of compassion in 1827, when it founded "Een School voor de Blinden en Doven" at Worcester. Over the years 8 schools for the blind, 11 schools for the deaf and a school and after-care centre for the deaf and blind have been erected for all population groups. At one stage there were about 78 mission hospitals under the control of the Dutch Reformed Church. In the then Transvaal, the hospitals at Nkhensani, Tshilidzini, Meetse-A-Bophelo, Bakenberg, Letaba and Magalakwena all owe their existence to the great missionary revival in individual congregations.
8.1.3 In the 1950s the Dutch Reformed Church ran 8 homes for the aged. By 1990 there were 113. Eight homes for the chronically ill were built, as well as a hospital for recovered and convalescing lepers. The church has 23 children's homes around the country. Three industrial and agricultural schools have been erected.
8.1.4 The Dutch Reformed Church reached out to Africa. Eight hospitals have been erected in Botswana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia and three institutions for lepers in Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Three schools and after-care centres have been built in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana, a children's home in Zambia and two schools for the deaf in Zimbabwe and Zambia.
8.1.5 The Dutch Reformed Church has been intensely involved in community service since the 1960s, and by 1990 was already running 23 service centres. Since 1992 some of the Dutch Reformed Church children's homes have begun to set up satellite children's homes in disadvantaged areas. The Abraham Kriel Children's Home, for instance, operates a large satellite children's home in Soweto.
8.1.6 Community development has been given concentrated emphasis since 1993, and 319 social workers in 108 social work offices across the country are directly involved with squatter camps and disadvantaged areas.
8.1.7 The church's institutions and services are open to all population groups. The social workers provide services to all the people of South Africa. Sixty percent of the professional time of Dutch Reformed Church social workers is spent on statutory matters, and these services are widely regarded as indispensible. In total, these services provided by the church amount to about R245 million per annum, of which the state subsidises approximately 47%.
8.1.8 Virtually all Dutch Reformed Church congregations are directly involved in community development. Job creation projects, literacy classes and training in life skills are at the top of the list. This informal service by the church is obviously difficult to quantify, but amounts to millions of rands every year.
8.1.9 As for "missionary work" - which has to be understood in broad terms, as it embraces the proclaiming of the gospel within the country and outside it as well as related charitable services and inter-church aid - about R12 million was spent on this in 1982, R23 million in 1987 and R30 million in 1994. Today missionary work is also done jointly by the Family of Dutch Reformed Churches (the Dutch Reformed Church, the Reformed Church in Africa and the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa).
8.1.10 "The remarkable story of the missionary work of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa and other African countries has yet to be told in full," said a German journalist visiting South Africa a few years ago. "We must take proper cognisance of what generations of missionaries have done to lead tens of thousands of people to Christ, to help establish strong, indigenous congregations and churches, to build schools and hospitals, to give their service of love to the blind, the deaf, the crippled, the poor, the hungry, the aged and the young, to train ministers and spiritual workers, to provide Bible translations and other reading matter, to employ radio and television in the cause of evangelisation ..."
(Details from: JJ de Klerk ea: Die Diens van Barmhartigheid en die Ned Geref Kerk, Cape Town, 1990; brochure: Die oes is groot, Cape Town, 1987, and further information supplied by the ministry of compassion and mission offices of the Dutch Reformed Church)
