My name is Karabo , I am 17yrs old, in year 11 at high school and I have been a part of Keep The Dream196 since I was 12 yrs of age. KTD196 introduced Scouts to Radoo in 2010.
Scouts has changed my life, I didn’t know what to do because I was an ordinary boy, I would just do what everyone else was doing without thinking about my future. After being in scouts I realised anything is possible. For example, I thought joining the bad boys in the village was the right thing to do. My family and village teens were my role models, drinking, smoking, dropping out of school, stealing, crime, and some of my friends are now in prison, I watched this and thought it was cool but scouts showed me a different future, one I could be proud of.
I thought the village boys would laugh at me and make me a fool to others in my village but I decided to make my own decision, the right decision according to the scout laws. I have a future. Scouts has changed my thought patterns and my behaviors.
My best friend joined scouts with me, he thought it was a great thing because of camping and games we played. But out of all my friends I am the only one left in scouting because obeying the scout laws is very tough. My best friends now hang out at shabeens all the time drinking, many have dropped out of school, having high risk sex, getting girls pregnant and becoming HIV infected.
Given was my best friend when I was 12yrs, we joined scouts together but after 3months Given quit. Given now at 17yrs is repeating grade9 again for the 3rd time, spending all his free time at the shebeen with many girlfriends, involved in high risk sexual activity. Scouts has made me realise there is more to life.
I lost a lot of friends in the beginning because of continuing with Scouts. Others joined scouts because of me and the positive changes they saw in me. We provide support for each other, we do activities together such as improving the skills in the younger scouts, we actively recruit younger kids to join. We also do community service for vulnerable people (old people or those on their own who don’t have relatives to care for them) in the community such as cleaning up their yards, we fund raise money and buy food for them, collect water and let them know they are not on their own, that people care for them. We often clean the streets of our village and after the SASSA grant has been given out in my village my troop goes to the visiting point to clean the area afterwards. The community see us as good children and are proud of the work we do. They know we are Scouts.
Scouts has given me the ability to think positively, to be a role model to the other younger children in the village, and to even help children to realise Scouts is a very positive impact in our lives.
- Management
- Organizational
- Communication
- Good leadership skills
The scout laws I took in to my heart and I have changed
I enjoyed coming to camp and thought that was all scouts was but then I realised Scouts was all over the world and if I decided to live the right way using the scout laws, I could achieve anything.
My life could have been useless but now with scouts I have a direction and a purpose.
Once completing matriculation I have a dream to be a dentist. I will take my studies further and attend university. I also will prove to my friends that Scouts was not a waste of time and in fact I chose correctly.
Even though I will be a professional I will still be involved with Scouts and Keep The Dream196, KTD196 needs to grow bigger and touch more lives in Limpopo and Scout Africa. I will be continuing my involvement in Scouts as an adult leader but also assisting financially and resource wise as I know that many development troops start with nothing but passion. They need resources for scouting materials and activities, please consider helping us now so we can move forward with our dream for Scouting.
I feel proud of being in scouts because I care for people, I am a leader, I am role model and I have a future.
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