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About us

The Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE) was established in 1983. We are a national organisation that supports a variety of local movements, associations, local forums, and labour organisations in rural and peri-urban areas.

These are smallholder producers on commonage and communal land, farmworkers and dwellers, small fishers, smallholder producers, forest dwellers, women and youth.

Our Vision

A transformed land and agrarian sector with concrete alternatives for sustainable livelihoods and democratised governance where rural and peri-urban people are capable, have voice, agency to protect and control the commons, the food systems and contribute to the demand for climate justice.

Our Mission

The TCOE commits itself to continue to build and support vibrant movements of farmers, forest and farm workers, labour tenants, fishers, small-scale producers, rural women and youth that challenge patriarchy, political power and corporate capture of the commons, as well as advance the rights of the rural poor to access and control the commons for sustainable livelihoods, with capacity to resist and contribute to a post COVID-19 society that is in harmony with nature.

TCOE’s mission is to strengthen the voice and agency of poor and working-class communities as they assert their rights to livelihoods, food sovereignty, and a life of dignity. The organisation recognises that meaningful transformation in the lives of the rural poor requires collective organisation around a shared platform, one that confronts systemic challenges such as landlessness, underdevelopment, food insecurity, poverty, lack of services, patriarchy, climate disasters, and hunger.

Central to TCOE’s approach is the building of movements and leadership rooted in community struggles. The organisation works from the understanding that only the conscious, organised actions of the poor themselves can drive lasting change and supports the development of a national, independent movement of rural and peri- urban communities that can articulate their own needs, defend their interests, and challenge structural injustice.

Through close collaboration with leadership layers of popular movements, TCOE helps unlock campaigns and struggles that respond to immediate concerns while deepening political awareness and consciousness. These efforts intentionally link local realities to broader national and global power dynamics.

TCOE’s work is grounded in communities, where self-organisation is nurtured through ongoing action-reflection processes, internal democracy, and leadership development.