Thank you so much for travelling on this journey with us, your support enables us to do so much more than otherwise would be possible!
On the 17th January 2024 I explained I would be sharing our dreams for 2024 a bit later. Well here we go!
- We will open 5 Meerkat Dens (that is a new program which we had to wait for funding) for the kids aged 5-7yrs. It will help them get school ready, also assist with basic learning skills. The motivation for this project is human trafficking and poor education outcomes.
Recently 100kids have been found, aged between a few months and 10yrs, at the Mozambiquean Border, many of these kids were to young to know their names, where they were from, what their parents phone numbers or addresses are.
Through Meerkat’s we are hoping to develop a circle of support around our younger kids and prevent them becoming just displaced or lost numbers in a system. It is so tragic. Some parents actually have sold their children to traffickers, others have been tricked by promises of a great education and great life by a philanthropic relative or “friend” of a friend. Others, just stolen.
- Increase the number of Cub Packs and Scout Troup’s by 25% this year. This will also form part of the circle of support for all kids. This will increase our numbers by approximately 25% as well. Covid hit us, hard! We are struggling to come back to pre Covid levels but we will exceed these this year.
- We are also going to increase our number of Rovers (18-30yrs age), by 50%. We rely on the support of the Rovers at camp and at district events where the kids learn new skills, meet new friends, have plenty of fun as they continue on their leadership develop walk.
- We will be hosting 2 colour runs in the different districts where we function, prior to that will training on Child Participation and Children’s Rights for the community and people who attend.
- We will be going to camp and training the Scouts on the Spider Tool, a management, monitoring and evaluation tool which we use to empower the children as part of our Child Participation focus for the next 5yrs.
- We will be training our new adult leadership in skills required to run a successful den, pack, and troop and move them along their journey of providing exciting and developmental programs to the children.
- We are also going to target 25 new Self Help Groups, and at least one new Cluster Level Association Group (this group mobilizes support for community based issues such as crime prevention, service delivery defaulting by government ie water, sewerage and electricity particularly.
- We will continue with our Journey of Life Training in 2024, we have funded from an institutional donor to train 340 parents in 2024, this is so exciting because we are starting to get interest from the fathers in the community, so this training will target those fathers, word will spread and hopefully it will continue.
- We will also continue our work with the teachers and induna’s (village leaders) to assist them to provide a safe environment at school and in the communities for the children we serve. During this process the children will also have an active voice about issues which are directly affecting them!
As you can see, it is a busy program for 2024. There are other projects we wish to instigate as well however; we will have to pace ourselves and our resources.
Thank you so much for the support we do receive from you. You make our wheels turn. We are able to do these activities because of you!
If you would like to get involved more, I will be sending out requests for once off donations to a particular activity. Once that activity is funded then I will be able to give feedback on its success.
Your support is vital to our success in providing a safety net for our kids.
Thank you so much for allowing Keep The Dream196 to DREAM!
Blessings
Louise
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