NGO

This is the widely used acronym, used to refer to a non-governmental organization, i.e. an organization that is neither a part of a government, nor a conventional for-profit business. Usually set up by ordinary citizens, NGOs may be funded by governments, foundations, businesses, or private persons.

In South Africa NGOs have not only played crucial supportive and interventionist roles in the during the Apartheid years and the years of transformation, but have become crucial since as the country seeks healing and redress, and this is significantly so at the grass roots level in fields such as health care, the arts and education.