Blog
Sep 04

Transforming Lives and Communities through Faithful Support and Synergistic Programs

WOW, you are just so faithful, I just want you to know how much I appreciate you as a person. You have blown me away. You have captured the hearts of our children with your concern and care. You have thought about our kids, you have seen us and noticed us and shared our concern for these amazing children.

Did you know you are building generations to come! We are producing real change in the lives of children and families.

Last week I shared about the importance of team work, between organizations and at a practical level within the Children’s Program. There is also synergy between the Self Help Groups (SHG) and the Children’s Program.

Currently, we are training parents in the SHG’s regarding Journey of Life, a wonderful training which assists parents to identify the road blocks from their past that prevented them from being happy, achieving, and whole individuals. Then translating that on to their children’s lives to remember how it felt to be a child and how often they felt powerless and afraid. Many times parents identify they are actually the problem in their children’s lives.

After that emotional and healing training, we are training the parents on child participation within the family and the role parents play as duty bearers to hear their children’s voices according to Article 12 of Children’s Rights Convention.

The parents are so impressed with the training that when we ask for 20participants on Monday, we had 30 come, Tuesday there were 34 and Wednesday (today) 35 participants arrived. Although we have a donor and budget for 20, obviously 35 participants is 75% more than we had budgeted for, so your support has helped directly with this and future trainings.

The extra people who came to the training are excited about the SHG program and requesting that we start another group, which of course we can. The synergy between the two programs is fabulous.

Parents from the SHG groups where they are not participating in the Children’s Program are requesting their children participate in the Scouts Program, and they are willing to volunteer and be trained in the process. The parents who are part of the Children’s Program and not yet part of SHG are becoming so excited about the changes they see in the women and families that have already benefited from SHG. Many of the ladies have been sharing how they are starting new businesses and are adding an extra room to their homes and paying cash for the materials.

The future is looking so much brighter than before because of your support.

Currently, people are focussed upon their families’ development, however we will steer them towards community development as time goes by.

We have one Cluster Level Association (CLA) which is a combination of 10 SHG’s, which is working on the provision of piped water to their village in Burgersdorp. Often people have to buy, at an extortionist rate, water from a tanker, or the boreholes have seized, or piped water comes once a week to the community because of lack of maintained infrastructure. Using their Human Rights, the CLA are demanding better services and having a voice a local and district municipal levels.

You are wonderful and for you to think so highly of what we do, it is priceless. Thank you is such an inadequate word to convey my heart and my sincerity. I am humbled by your care and compassion. Your support and concern for the uplifting of these young lives, of bringing real change, is expanding in such a real and tangible way. Together we are transforming lives, communities and social systems in a very real way.

Its all so exciting.

Thank you

Louise