We love Masupatsela who work with children because this is simply the best investment in a country’s or a society’s future that one can make. It’s a cliché but it’s true. Little Champs was one of the first projects we came across as a potential story and remained a favourite throughout the selection process.

Not only does the Little Champs project show how a business can also be socially responsible and sustainable at the same time, it operates countrywide giving children skills that are not only invaluable for sports, but their development as a whole. Early childhood development is an area that is sorely neglected in South Africa, yet if one wants to make a difference, this is where you really get the biggest bang for your buck.

When radio personality Kevin Fine and his childhood friend Ashley Kotzin teamed up to create a business in the field of sports development, they looked for where there were gaps in the market and decided to focus on young children. They took a range of sports and broke them down into the basic components that are needed and then created a training programme for 2 to 6 years around these skills.  The development process was intensive: they consulted extensively with a range of experts and then literally experimented with groups of kids. The programme grew in popularity and along with some creative initiatives, put them on the map.

At first the programme was a commercial venture, coaching children from advantaged backgrounds. But Kevin and Ashley soon realised that children from previously disadvantaged backgrounds were getting left behind when it came to developing things like gross and fine motor skills. So they set about finding ways of getting Little Champs into those areas, starting with Alexander. A lot of money is raised from corporates for this, but at the same time they are constantly developing ways for the business to be self-sustainable and for the commercial side to feed the developmental side. The programme has since spread to every province in South Africa and been developed into a franchise model, both locally and internally.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, TO ASSIST OR GET INVOLVED:
Tel: 011 722 7372
Fax: 086 508 0235
Or write to: Little Champs Sports Academy
Post Net Suite 544
Private Bag X9
Benmore 2010

HERE’S HOW KEVIN USED HIS CELEBRITY STATUS TO REALISE THE LITTLE CHAMPS VISION:
-    he noticed that many children from disadvantaged backgrounds weren’t developing necessary motor skills
-    he decided to start a sports programme to address this
-    he teamed up with Ashley Kotzin
-    they investigated how to develop better facilities for kids in townships
-    they set up the Little Champs NGO
-    they developed a training programme together with child development and sports experts
-    people were trained to run the programme
-    the programme was assessed to make sure it works
-    they sourced sponsors and other funding
-    they set up Little Champs programmes all over the country

AUNTY M
DIRECTED by Ayanda Mcwabe
EDITED by Ruan Swartz
TX date: 2 August 2010

We featured Magret Basson – or Aunty M as she is affectionately known – in series I of Masupatsela in the episode entitled Spreading the Message. At that time, she was using her role as a presenter on Riverside Radio, a community radio station in Upington, to spread the message about HIV and AIDS. When her family was affected directly by this, she became determined to make a difference to the lives of those affected by the disease. As many people in the community are illiterate radio is the perfect medium for her message.

Most important to her was the need to encourage family support and Aunty M didn’t just sit in her DJ booth, she went out in the community to speak to and spend time with people. The belief that if she makes a difference to one person’s life she makes a difference in her own life is the driving force behind her educational work.

Sadly Aunty M lost her own daughter after that programme went out, which we discovered when we called her to see if she knew any other masupatsela in her community for series II. Her story of how her daughter’s death had inspired her to start working primarily with children inspired us to revisit Aunty M and catch up on the changes in her life.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, TO ASSIST OR GET INVOLVED
Contact: 073 817 9700

AUNTY M BRINGS LOVE AND LIGHT INTO THE LIVES OF LITTLE ONES BY TAKING THE FOLLOWING STEPS:
-    she used her job as a radio presenter to spread important messages about HIV and AIDS
-    she started reaching out to people in person
-    she started a radio slot aimed at young children, with storytelling and games
-    she makes visits to schools
-    she approached sponsors for uniforms and equipment

Ilithalomso (the light of dawn in Xhosa) is a non-profit organisation that was formed by the members of Masiphumelele and Kommetjie in 2003 in response to the unnecessary build-up of non-recyclable and recyclable rubbish on local beaches. The Ilithalomso recycling project is one of many projects under the KEAG (Kommetjie Environmental Awareness Group) banner.

Community members came up with the idea to turn waste into something valuable while creating employment opportunities at the same time. Different teams work on the project, fulfilling different roles: the team of beach cleaners collects the waste for recycling at the Ilithalomso headquarters in Kommetjie; back at the base, another team sorts the rubbish according to the materials and then washes the rubbish.

Ilithalomso has created employment for numerous community members and one of these people is Yandiswa Mazwana. Yandiswa grew up in Tsomo in rural Eastern Cape where she was always close to nature and dreamt of pursuing a career in geology or tourism. Money was tight and Yandiswa was not able to pursue studies in either of these fields, but when she ended up in Masiphumelele in Cape Town, she got involved in community organisations, which led to her involvement in environmental work with KEAG.

Yandiswa finds her work at Ilithalomso highly rewarding as it allows her to be close to nature and to work for the benefit of her immediate community and for all of us. Yandiswa’s responsible spirit means that she is in charge of  Ilithalomso, but she still enjoys work on the beach far more than she does the office work.

TO CONTACT OR CONTRIBUTE TO ILITHALOMSO OR KEAG:

Call 021 783 3433.

IF YOU AND YOUR COMMUNITY WOULD LIKE TO REDUCE, REUSE AND RECYLE PLASTIC WASTE IN A WAY THAT CREATES JOBS, THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:

1. get an artist on board to help you come up  with some ideas for products

2. research these ideas to make sure they will sell and create employment opportunities for locals

3. set up an NPO

4. conduct market research around product sales

5. through your networks let people know about the products you have for sale

6. try to expand your market to overseas clients.

FULL CYCLE
DIRECTED by JANE KENNEDY
EDITED by JEMIMA SPRING
TX 26th July 2010

Mary Murphy’s passion is something the most people turn their noses up at – solid waste management. This started during a drive through the Karoo as she travelled between Cape Town and Johannesburg, when she saw plastic bags littering the landscape, miles from any settlement. She started by becoming involved with a campaign around plastic bags with the then Minister Vali Moosa and is now the self-proclaimed “PR person for earthworms.”

Earthworms, you ask? According to Charles Darwin, “It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world as have these lowly organised creatures.” And Mary and her fellow eco-entrepreneurs at Full Cycle would be the first to agree. There are thousands of different types of earthworms – the ones we find when digging in our gardens are earth-turners, that literally plough the soil. But it’s the ones that are known as composting worms that are the true trailblazers of this story.

Few people are not aware of global warming and greenhouse gases – and most people associate the latter with emissions from cars and heavy industry, primarily carbon dioxide. But there’s another huge contributor to greenhouse gases – and that’s the organic waste – left over food and vegetable peelings that are thrown onto landfill sites every day. Ordinarily these would rot into the soil and be taken care of as part of a natural process, but on landfills they are compacted, starved of oxygen and as they break down, produce methane gas which has an even greater negative impact. Not only that, we will soon be in a situation where we will run out of space for rubbish dumps – it is thought that in Cape Town we have 5-6 more years at most.

So what is the solution? Composting earthworms are nature’s answer to organic waste. The eat the waste, neutralising harmful bacteria, add loads of beneficial bacteria and pass out vermicompost – a highly nutritious soil conditioner. If you have a worm farm at home, you can process most of your organic waste at home and use the end results, the vermicompost and worm tea (the liquid that comes off) to fertilise your garden. You can make your own worm farm – there are many different designs, from using old tyres or other containers with a drainage opening, or buy a specially designed systems, like they sell at Full Cycle.

These systems don’t only work in a domestic situation, but have been put to the test at places like the Mount Nelson Hotel and Spier Estate, where large scale waste management systems have been set up that take care of tonnes of waste per month. Waste that would have ended up in landfill sites producing methane gas and contributing to global warming. Instead it’s going back into the natural cycle where it belongs.

Through their entrepreneurship and outreach initiatives, this knowledge is spreading into previously disadvantaged areas. Phumlani Dlongwana, who is the site manager for Full Cycle, has set up a worm farm in Masiphumelele. He uses it to teach youth the 3 R’s – reduce, reuse and recycle – as well as to fertilise a garden which feeds a soup kitchen for the kids who come the Sosebenza Youth Centre, where he is based.

TO FIND OUT MORE OR TO CONTRIBUTE TO WASTE REDUCTION:

There is a wealth of information on worm farms on the internet – but a good place to start is www.fullcycle.co.za. They can be contacted on 021 789 29 22. So go on and give it a go!

SOME TIPS FOR STARTING YOUR OWN WORM FARM:

1. you need to get “red wiggler” worms from someone else with a worm farm or a nursury

2. you can use any waterproof container including old tyres, as long as there is drainage to collect the worm tea

3. give the worms something to hide under – like old newspaper (this also increases the carbon content of the vermiculture)

4. keep the worm farm out of direct sunlight

5. be careful not to overfeed them – they eat their own body weight a day and 1000 worms weigh 250g, so match how many worms you have with how much food you feed them each day

LEAP originally stood for Langa Education Assistance Programme, a volunteer driven project started by John Gilmour in the 1990s under apartheid to provide extra tuition to black learners from Langa. Today LEAP is used metaphorically to suggest the growth the learners experience. LEAP Science and Maths School, an official high school, is located in Pinelands in the Western Cape and in Alexandra in Gauteng.

LEAP was formally established in 2003 and enrolled its first learners in 2004. LEAP accepts learners for grades 10 through to 12 and the school focuses on Maths and Science tuition, allotting double time each day to Maths, Science and English. The school aims to address the dire state of education in South Africa that includes South African learners lagging far behind the African average for performance in Maths and Science, and the fact that most of South Africa’s learners are being taught by teachers who were educated and trained under apartheid’s prejudiced Bantu Education.

The school’s approach is based on relationships, where staff and learners are encouraged to form strong, lasting relationships with each other, and they are encouraged to be open about what they feel. Life Orientation classes especially, where a group of learners attend lessons facilitated by two teachers in a supportive atmosphere, are aimed at encouraging learners to express themselves and to engage with the world they live in. The philosophy behind this approach is that allowing learners to express problems that they may be living with enables them to be less bogged down by the problem and frees their minds so that may be better able to think and learn.

TO CONTACT OR CONTRIBUTE TO LEAP:
contact them on +27 21 531 9715 or visit their web site.

IF YOU HAVE THE COURAGE TO START A SIMILAR SCHOOL, YOU CAN FOLLOW JOHN GILMOUR’S LEAD:
- draw on your experience from all your years of teaching
- work hard at trying to interest funders in your idea
- be prepared to work without being paid for as long as it takes
- simply follow your heart if you know what you’re doing is right
- find the right funders and partners for your project
- expand your project to make sure more benefit from it!

HEIFER
DIRECTED by AYANDA MNCWABE
EDITED by ENOCK VALOYI
TX 19th July 2010

Heifer is an international organisation with a simple approach to community development that may be summed up with the phrase, ‘the gift that keeps on giving’.

Heifer works with impoverished communities to ensure that the community members develop to be able to feed themselves and their families. They do this through insisting that each recipient of a gift becomes a donor. Community members get together and select a family to receive the first gift of a heifer from Heifer. That family then raises the cow, using the milk to feed the family and in some cases communities have started dairies. Once the cow has given birth to a female calf that calf is presented as a gift to another family in the community. Male calves are not given as gifts, only female calves because female calves are able to produce more heifers, which in turn can be passed on to other families.

TO CONTACT OR CONTRIBUTE TO HEIFER:
contact them in KwaZulu-Natal on +27 31 777 1374, in Limpopo on +27 15 295 8827, or in the Eastern Cape on +27 43 642 2963, or visit their web site.

TO BE PART OF THIS TRAILBLAZING PROJECT AND BECOME A GIFT GIVER, YOU WILL NEED TO:
- join with other community members to discuss your community’s livelihood needs
- organise into a community group that will work towards breeding livestock for the benefit of your community
- apply to Heifer South Africa for funding and training for your project
- be patient as funding may not always be readily available
- once training and animals are received be patient as your animals grow to give birth to their own offspring
- pass on the first female offspring to your neighbour
- continue to nurture your livestock and reproduce for your own family forever!

SCREEN GRABS FROM THE LEAP AND HEIFER STORIES:

Edith Mvelase laughs as she says: “People ask me where I get the energy from. I don’t know where, but I do have it.”

Edith is one of those trailblazing individuals who has the innate ability to make a difference. An opportunity will arise and she cannot help but take it with both hands and make it into something that impacts not just her life, but the lives of those around her.

She grew up in the Eastern Cape and learnt about growing food as a child. After school, she came to Johannesburg and got a teaching qualification, but found it was not for her. Spending time in the Central Library while she was studying however, gave her a feel for what would eventually become her career. She started working in the library part-time and then ended up working full-time at Rhodes Park Library, studying after hours to become a qualified librarian.

Edith’s go-getter attitude resulted in her being selected for a management course. As part of this, she had to identify a problem area at the library, come up with a plan to address this and then implement it. The gardens around the library were in a real state – so she had the idea of cleaning the area up and turning it into a vegetable garden. With help from The Greenhouse Project and other NGO’s working in the area, she, other library staff and volunteers established a great garden – not without a learning curve though!

When a colleague became ill and died from AIDS, Edith was motivated to learn more about this disease. This led her to the Zaziwe Hope for Life Centre, a hospice that cares for people with no other access to health care. Speaking to the kitchen manager, she found out that they were completely reliant on food donations. This gave her the idea of supplying them with veg from the library garden.

When offered the opportunity to participate in a literacy programme at the library, Edith quickly took it a step further. Her teaching training came to the fore and she started running the classes herself, focusing especially on foreigners who needed to learn English in order to study or find work in South Africa. Many of them come from war-torn DRC.

In amongst all this activity, she still works at her job as a librarian and looks after her family!

TO CONTACT OR CONTRIBUTE TO THE GARDEN AT RHODES PARK LIBRARY:
contact them on +27 11 615 4510.

TO TRANSFORM YOUR WORK YARD INTO A THRIVING GARDEN, HERE’S HOW EDITH DID IT:
- she saw that the garden was in disrepair and that there were many people in the community who were ill
- she started a food garden with the help of the Greenhouse Project
- she donated vegetables to a hospice and an old age home
- when things didn’t go according to plan, she and her helpers kept trying until they were successful
- she wanted to make the library more accessible to the broader community
- she started literacy classes and English classes for foreigners to help people get jobs.

SEED
DIRECTED by JANE KENNEDY
EDITED by TINA-LOUISE SMITH
TX 12 July 2010

SEED stands for Schools Environmental Education and Development. SEED began its work with schools on the Cape Flats and aims to transform learning environments through permaculture.

SEED focuses on mentoring teachers to integrate Environmental Education into their teaching practice and developing the garden as a living laboratory for the delivery of the National Curriculum Statements. Their various programmes have been developed in response to needs identified by teachers on the Cape Flats where school environments are often bleak. SEED’s programmes allow teachers to use the garden as an outdoor classroom for learners to engage with the world around them and to apply what they have learnt about the natural sciences in the classroom practically in the garden.

The principal at Rocklands Primary in Mitchells Plain, Kevin Pretorius, is one of the board members of SEED. At the moment their school garden is managed by SEED and the teachers and maintained by SEED, teachers and learners. Their goal is to have the garden run by the parents so that the people who benefit from the garden will also be managing it throughout the year, not only during school terms as happens now.

TO CONTACT OR CONTRIBUTE TO THE WORK THAT SEED IS DOING:
telephone them on +27 21 391 5316, email them or visit their web site.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO START A REVOLUTIONARY PERMACULTURE PROGRAMME FOR SCHOOLS LIKE SEED DID:
- inform and educate yourself around the principles of permaculture
- share your idea with the local school
- listen to the staff and make a list of their needs and ideas
- register your organisation as a Non-Profit Organisation
- make sure your training programme is an accredited permaculture training programme
- start digging!
- and as you have learnt by now, keep raising funds to keep your project going!

SCREEN GRABS FROM THE RHODES PARK LIBRARY AND SEED STORIES:

Isibindi is a social franchise for doing child and youth care work with orphans and vulnerable children. It is called a franchise because organisations adopt a tried and tested model that is supported by government and funders with strict standards set for the monitoring of the work that is done. The National Association of Child Care Workers mentors the work and does detailed data collection of each project, which makes it easy to work closely with government and donors, and to ensure that children get the best service possible. Child care workers are trained through a course registered with the National Qualifications Framework, so that the community members are set on a recognised career path in the Welfare sector.

In Alice Isibindi assists 432 children, of whom 20 are disabled. Isibindi’s approach creates circles of care around children who are vulnerable or orphaned. The Isibindi care workers provide support to these children – many of whom head households – and allow them time to themselves, to do homework, and to play. The Isibindi model prefers to keep children within the spaces they know, encouraging them to build stronger links with people they know around them, rather than removing them to a place they do not know. Sive and Xhanti for example, were orphaned when their mother died of AIDS. Their grandmother became their guardian, but she had no place to stay and survived only on her pension. Primrose Ndiko recognised the family’s situation and approached members of the Phumlani community to help the family. She requested the chief to allocate a piece of land to the family and found volunteers to build them a house. Today the three – grandmother and two grandchildren – live together in their house because of community and Isibindi support.

While many organisations wait until parents die before intervening, Isibindi encourages parents to test and know their HIV status. This way parents can live for their children, both ensuring that they remain healthy even if they are HIV positive and that they can plan for how to look after their children when they are dead and their children are alone.

TO CONTACT OR CONTRIBUTE TO THE ISIBINDI franchise:
telephone Zeni Thumbadoo on +27 31 312 9484 or +27 79 492 5750, fax her at +27 86 572 7008, email her, or visit the web site.

IF YOU ARE PART OF AN ORGANISATION THAT WOULD LIKE TO ADOPT THE ISIBINDI FRANCHISE:
- collect data and apply for an Isibindi social franchise
- work with community members to recruit potential child and youth care workers
- train these recruits in a series of ongoing courses registered with the National Qualifications Framework
- access Isibindi mentoring to support child and youth care work and provide professional advice
- recruit families to the programme
- get child and youth care workers to engage in a range of psycho-social and domestic services to help children to cope
- assist children  and their care givers to access services in their community, such as schools, ARVs, clinics, grants
- work with Isibindi’s programme and access Isibindi funding and government support.

NKANYEZI STIMULATION CENTRE
DIRECTED by JACQUELINE VAN MEYGAARDEN
EDITED by JEMIMA SPRING

Thembekile Shabalala is an extraordinary woman who has been working with and supporting children with cerebral palsy in Soweto for a number of years. Her son, Nkanyezi, was born with cerebral palsy in 1989 and Thembikile had to cope with the fact that her husband blamed her for their son’s condition. He forced her to choose between him and her son – she chose her son over her marriage and got divorced. Her sister and their family gave her a great deal of support during this difficult time.

Determined to help her son, she set out to find out more about cerebral palsy and started attending training about the condition. She learnt a great deal and in 1991, started working at schools that cerebral palsy kids attended. She realized that there weren’t many facilities to look after kids with this and similar conditions, and many children were sent away. In addition, the stigma attached to having a disabled child made many parents hide them away. So Thembekile started a support group with the parents of cerebral palsy children called ‘Dimpho tsa rona. She had many challenges to keep the group going as there were problems with finding a meeting venue and transport costs were unaffordable.

Eventually she decided to set up her own centre, registered as an NGO in 2001 and applied for funding from the Department of Health. They are called the Nkanyezi Stimulation Centre, after Thembekile’s son who passed away in 2000. The organisation now supports itself on a small amount of government funding, donations, private funders, and volunteers from the community.

Thembekile was recently nominated in the Checkers Woman of the Year Awards and is still fighting for financial support. In 2008, with funding from Standard Bank, City Parks created a park for disabled children where they can play and interact and still be in their wheelchairs.  This stimulation park in Orlando West provides an opportunity to disabled children to play and have fun without any judgment from others and is the first of its kind in the area.

TO CONTACT OR CONTRIBUTE TO THE NKANYEZI STIMULATION CENTRE:
contact Thembekile on +27 79 185 8231.

TO SET UP A SIMILAR PROJECT WHERE YOU LIVE, LEARN FROM THEMBEKILE’S PROCESS:
- when her son was born, she found as much information as she could about cerebral palsy
- she started helping at schools and saw the conditions
- she started a support group for parents of children with cerebral palsy
- she registered an NPO
- she managed to raise funds from government, donors and business
- she was instrumental in the creation of a stimulation park for differently abled kids.

POSITIVE MOMS
In 2007 we featured a story on the work that Positive Moms is doing around South Africa. This organisation works with HIV positive mothers to ensure that they are able to obtain the medication they need and have the information they require to keep living healthy lives. In this episode we speak with Romy Saitowitz to find out how the organisation has grown and learn that through increased funding they are also able to ensure the children of HIV positive mothers receive proper care and treatment.

FOR MORE ON Positive Moms:
visit their web site.

SCREEN GRABS FROM THE ISIBINDI AND NKANYEZI STIMULATION CENTRE STORIES:

This is the story of a woman who is using her gift for healing, not to enrich herself, but to help other people. She is an integral part of her community and is not only playing a role in healing people, but in bringing people together and in healing the community.

Mama Deyi is a traditional healer in her 50s, who is based in Khayelitsha Site C. She grew up in Pondoland and arrived in Cape Town in 1989. She first received her calling to be a traditional healer when she was 10 years old, and although her father was also a traditional healer, she would not want to accept it. The years that followed were difficult: she became ill and after she married and had children, one of them passed away. She finally accepted her calling in 1994 after the death of her father and returned to the Eastern Cape for her training. She started her work as a traditional healer in 2000.

After practising for some time, she recognised that many people she was treating were suffering from malnutrition and this stopped them from getting well. At first she started growing vegetables outside her house, but then linked up with local schools, and along with other community members set up bigger gardens. The food grown here is used in her soup kitchen or is sold to raise funds. This project is called the Nosakhele Food Garden.

She was encouraged by another member of the Traditional Healers’ Association to go for training in Home Based Care, especially around HIV and AIDS. She has converted one of the shacks on her homestead into a little clinic with five beds for patients who are too ill to look after themselves. As a healer, Mama Deyi believes that it is best for Traditional Medicine and Western Medicine to work hand in hand, with the strengths of one supporting and supplementing the strengths of the other. Her work has been recognised internationally and she has received some funding from PEPFAR, among other organisations.

TO CONTACT OR CONTRIBUTE TO THE NOSAKHELE HIV and AIDS PROJECT:
contact Mama Deyi on +27 83 766 1887 and make sure you have someone who speaks Xhosa with you to talk to her!

TRADITIONAL AND WESTERN MEDICINE CAN WORK TOGETHER – FOLLOW MAMA DEYI’S LEAD:
- she saw the how HIV and AIDS was affecting her family and community and decided to take action
- she started a food garden and soup kitchen project
- she registered her organisation as an NPO
- she was able to raise some funding from international donors as well as using some of her own money
- she linked up with other traditional healers and caring people in her area
- she sends ill people to clinics and helps them with their treatment
- she created a care centre in her home.

WOZA MOYA
DIRECTED by AYANDA MNCWABE
EDITED by JEMIMA SPRING

Woza Moya means ‘come breath’ or ‘come spirit’ and the project was born from the caring spirits of the Buddhist and wider community in Ixopo, KwaZulu-Natal. When two employees of the Buddhist Retreat Centre died of AIDS, Sue Heddon and others realised that they were living amidst a silent human tragedy. Following discussions with various stakeholders, including traditional leadership, the Woza Moya project was founded with the aim of lessening the impact of HIV and AIDS in the area and the attendant poverty that feeds into the pandemic. They linked up with the San Francisco Buddhist community, who raised funds in order for the project to get going.

One of Woza Moya’s important goals is to provide care and support for those infected and affected with HIV and AIDS, including the provision of medication. Prevention and education are also a big focus: part of prevention is poverty alleviation through income generation projects and in this episode we meet Benedicta Memela, the Income Generation Co-ordinator.

Benedicta grew up caring for other people – a quality she believes she inherited from her grandmother. She joined Woza Moya as a Community Health Care Worker walking miles each day to visit people and see what help they needed. In her role as Income Generation Co-ordinator she works with The Department of Agriculture and organizations like Heifer helping people to earn an income and provide for their families. Despite the difficulties of the work – especially when she was an unpaid volunteer – Benedicta is committed to what she does and the difference that she can bring to peoples’ lives. This spirit is shared by all those involved with Woza Moya.

TO CONTACT OR CONTRIBUTE TO THE WOZA MOYA PROJECT:
call their office on +27 39 834 0023 or visit their web site.

TO SET UP A SIMILAR PROJECT WHERE YOU LIVE:
- assemble all the stakeholders to discuss the issue of HIV and AIDS
- raise funds from buddhist communities that share your philosophy
- registered an NPO
- train your home caregivers
- rais further funding for staff and volunteers
- establish legal and agricultural services
- request land from traditional leadership
- build your centre, like the Woza Moya Centre, to suit your community needs.

SADAG (SOUTH AFRICAN DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY GROUP)
In 2007 we featured a story on the work that SADAG is doing around South Africa. Mental health and mental illness is easily overlooked by most of us, but SADAG does important work, educating people about mental health. In this episode we speak with Cassey Amoor to find out how the organisation has grown and learn that their work includes primary schools today.

FOR MORE ON SADAG:
contact them on +27 11 262 6396 or visit their web site.

SCREEN GRABS FROM THE NOSAKHELE AND WOZA MOYA STORIES:

Trevor Mulaudzi came from a family that believed in the power of education. Having worked hard at school and grown up to be a geologist, Trevor was incredulous when he spotted school children walking about the streets of Rustenberg during school hours. He stopped his car, got out and demanded that the children return to school.

The children told Trevor that they needed to find clean toilets before they could go back to school. When Trevor realised that filthy toilets were driving children out of schools and interfering with their potential to learn, he gave up working as a geologist on the mines, rolled up his sleeves and started cleaning South African school toilets. In the beginning he offered to do this for no charge and he eventually devised a system where he sold toilet rolls to schools, which they in turn could sell to the parents and use that money to pay him.

Trevor struggled in the beginning – he had to learn about chemicals and sewerage systems, but he was determined to ensure children had clean toilets when they went to school. As his idea gained ground amongst principals, his company, The Clean Shop, started to employ parents of the schools and have them clean the toilets for their children and their schoolmates. Cleaners who have been with The Clean Shop for a while get their own set of cleaning products and equipment and are then sent off on their own to begin their own cleaning business.

Schools that work with The Clean Shop vouch for the fact that children are happier and more attentive since the toilets at their schools have been cleaned.

TO CONTACT OR CONTRIBUTE TO THE CLEAN SHOP:
please contact Trevor Mulaudzi on +27 82 973 1082 or email Trevor.

TO FOLLOW IN TREVOR’S SIMPLE YET TRAILBLAZING FOOTSTEPS YOU WILL NEED TO:
- form a company, like Trevor did
- get together all the people involved to work out how you can solve the problem
- apply for funding from the relevant government departments and other funders
- donate your services for free in the beginning
- advertise your services to big businesses who will be able to afford them
- work out new ways to help people generate income through your project
- convince all involved to take ownership of the project to improve awareness
- watch your company grow

DON’T CRY AFRICA
DIRECTED by LESEDI MOGOATLHE
EDITED by TINA-LOUISE SMITH
TX 24th May 2010

Cornet Kleynhans studied graphic design and went on to work as an artist. As she became overwhelmed by the poverty around her, she lay her dreams for herself aside and decided to do something that would have an impact on other people’s lives. Along with a few other people she formed the organisation Don’t Cry Africa that works hand-in-hand with the local police to ensure the basic material needs of local children are met.

Through their work in the area, the police are alerted to situations where people are in need. They are not able to assist directly, they are required to refer people to NGOs and to the Department of Social Development. Now the Mangkweng police draw Don’t Cry Africa into their network and point them in the direction of those they may be able to help.

As a result Don’t Cry Africa has built relationships with various local bodies, like Pula-Madibogo Primary School in Mangkweng and the orphan drop-in centre run by Pastor Lea. Don’t Cry Africa responds to the needs of the children and families within these organisations by organising sponsors for clothing and other necessities, e.g. they have supplied school uniforms, school shoes, shoe polish and toiletries for the children.

Many of the children at Pastor Lea’s drop-in centre are orphans who often do not have full time adult care. Through the combined efforts of Pastor Lea’s team and Don’t Cry Africa these children also get new clothes and toiletries that they would otherwise not have.

TO CONTACT OR CONTRIBUTE TO DON’T CRY AFRICA:
please contact Cornet on +27 82 447 6793 or email Cornet.

TO FOLLOW IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF CORNET KLEYNHANS AND DON’T CRY AFRICA, YOU WILL NEED TO:
- follow your heart and take the idea of helping people more seriously
- start to raise funds for your work
- donate food parcels and other resources where needed
- register your project as an NGO
- become a more active member of your community, so that people know your work
- visit schools, churches and other community groups to hear the problems you may be able to assist with
- work to secure sponsorship for people’s salaries
- continue to liaise with the police social wing to identify new community issues and problems to assist with

SCREEN GRABS FROM THE CLEAN SHOP AND DON’T CRY AFRICA STORIES:

The men who stand along the side of the road looking for work are such a common feature in South Africa’s landscape that we often drive by without giving them a second thought. Many of these men have skills that make them employable, but because they are outside of the formal employment system, they struggle to find work and make a living.

The aptly named, Men on the Side of the Road, which was founded by Charles Maisel in Cape Town is doing its bit to help these men enter formal employment. After years of passing the men on the side of the road by himself, Charles eventually decided to sit down with some of the men to find out what their needs were.

Today Men on the Side of the Road runs 1 000 sites across South Africa, 15 of which are branded and therefore visible to the passing public, who may be looking for day labourers. Many of the sites they occupy today existed before Men on the Side of the Road set up their stands. Men looking for work were already congregating there and people looking for labourers knew where they could find labour. The men waiting for work at the sites voluntarily register with Men on the Side of the Road, who then assesses each man’s skills and checks references. Each registered member receives a membership card that encourages people to hire them because they are no longer hiring someone off the street, they are hiring someone who is part of a formal organisation with verified references and contacts.

Men on the Side of the Road also successfully took out an interdict against the South African Police Service who had been chasing the men away from the sites, preventing them from finding work.

Today Men on the Side of the Road works in three areas, viz. job placement, training and job creation where they try to find projects that will create new jobs, rather than taking existing jobs out of the market.

TO CONTACT OR CONTRIBUTE TO MEN ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD:
please contact Charles Maisel on +27 21 461 8376 or email Charles.

TO FOLLOW IN CHARLES’ TRAILBLAZING FOOTSTEPS YOU WILL NEED TO:
- speak to the men standing along the roads where you live and work to find out their needs
- ask the public to donate tools for  the men to use
- formalise the project to facilitate the link between potential employers and unemployed men
- set up branded sites where men can wait and employers can find them
- start skills development and small business initiatives where the men on your project can learn and develop skills

DENZHE ELECTRICAL
DIRECTED by LESEDI MOGOATLHE
EDITED by JEMIMA SPRING
TX 17th May 2010

While working as an electrician, Thomas Munwana saw many qualified men approach the company for work. Invariably these men were turned away because there simply was no work for them. Thomas decided that he could change the situation if he started his own business that would employ electricians. He saved towards this goal over the twelve years he was employed and was eventually able to start his own company, Denzhe Electrical.

Denzhe started small from a cramped office where Thomas stores the files of the contracts he has worked on. In the beginning Thomas and his partner made business cards that they distributed to shops around town. Working without an internet connection, they would also buy government bulletins, scour them and apply for tenders. At times, they did not have money to buy the bulletins.

Denzhe’s break came when they were awarded the contract to electrify Makwarela Stadium in Thohoyandou. This contract helped to inject much needed money into Denzhe and Thomas was then able to act towards achieving more of his goals for Denzhe, including upgrading from his Toyota Corolla to a big bakkie.

More contracts started to come in and their biggest client to date has been the Department of Public Works. With the money Denzhe is making, Thomas has been able to send staff for training where they develop their skills further and obtain certificates of their qualifications.

Denzhe Electrical in Thohoyandou, Limpopo has changed the lives of the men it employs.

TO CONTACT OR CONTRIBUTE TO DENZHE ELECTRICAL:
please call Thomas on +27 82 970 1810 or on 27 15 962 1690.

YOU MAY NOT BE AN ELECTRICIAN, BUT YOU CAN STILL FOLLOW IN DENZHE’S FOOTSTEPS:
- learn all you can where you are working at the moment
- start to save your money for your future business
- plan your future business
- once you have enough savings and a solid business plan, resign from your current job
- get others on board to work with you and pool your resources
- register your new company
- have all the partners apply for loans to fund the buying of the equipment you need
- when things fail, work out new ways to address old problems
- start an internship programme to attract qualified students to help with training more people
- approach the local municipality for jobs for your interns

SCREEN GRABS FROM THE MEN ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD AND DENZHE ELECTRICAL STORIES:

Dora Nkwanyana grew up in a household where the family was always bigger than simply biological family. She learnt to share not only with her brothers and sisters, but also with friends and neighbours. It’s this understanding of family as those who live close by that feeds Dora’s caring attitude towards the community around her.

Today Dora runs a business in Nseleni, but she is often away from work – as her husband, Mtsekwa, laughingly remarks – taking care of the elderly people around Nseleni. There are elderly men and women who have no families upon which to depend – they have no-one to help them with housework or to help them buy food. Fortunately Dora cannot bear to see vulnerable people on their own and she goes door to door to find out what people need and how she can help.

Dora, herself a pensioner, and the elderly of Nseleni have also formed an organisation called Sesikhulile Luncheon Club. The members of this club, both women and men, congregate at the local community hall to share stories, offer advice and have fun. Some members do craft work, from which they earn a small income. Teachers also go to the Club to teach the members how to read, write and work with numbers. An important element of Sesikhulile Luncheon Club is that the members are also fed lunch, which means that they are assured of a solid meal on the day that they meet.

Dora’s family supports her caring work and often help out.

TO CONTACT DORA NKWANYANA AND CONTRIBUTE TO HER WORK:
call her on +27 82 496 3357 or on +27 35 795 1584.

TO FOLLOW IN DORA NKWANYANA’S FOOTSTEPS YOU NEED TO:
- approach social workers for advice
- approach elderly communities to find out how you can help them
- with the elderly, work out ways that they can generate income for themselves
- gather enough members (50) to register and start your non-governmental organisation
- continue to consult with the social workers and others

PLEASE SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE TO VIEW SCREEN GRABS FROM THE STORY ON DORA NKWANYANA

JOSEF ISAKS
DIRECTED by AYANDA MNCWABE
EDITED by RUAN SCHWARTZ

As a teacher, Josef Isaks was disturbed by the high levels of crime in Louisvale, Upington. What really spurred him into action, though, was the brutal rape of Baby Tshepang, which made him determined to turn the negative image of Upington into a positive one.

Josef believes that the police are meant to be the friends of communities and to help people, rather than kept at a distance and treated with the suspicion they often are in South Africa. As a result, one of the first things Josef did was to form a Community Policing Forum (CPF) in Lousivale. He called together leaders and representatives of various organisations and they elected a chairperson for the CPF. Then they called on the local police to deliver their contribution and today, the residents of Louisvale work hand in hand with the police to solve any problems that arise.

Josef, however, does not only belive in fighting crime, he also looks after those who need his help. As the principal of the local school, he is often aware of problems amongst the learners and rallies volunteers together to attend to these. He has also helped some small businesses to get off their feet.

UNFORTUNATELY, WE DO NOT HAVE CONTACT DETAILS FOR  JOSEF IN LOUISVALE AT THE MOMENT

TO FOLLOW IN JOSEF’S FOOTSTEPS AND TAKE POSITIVE ACTION YOU WILL NEED TO:
- identify people to be part of your local community policing forum
- form a CPF
- organise meetings for people to talk about addressing the need for security where you live
- get the local police on board to support your community policing work
- work with the local police to share their resources as you need them
- get training that teaches you how to empower victims of crime
- work with community organisations and schools to distribute pamphlets and get your message to the community

SCREEN GRABS FROM THE STORIES ON DORA NKWANYANA AND JOSEF ISKAS:

As a teenager, Tamzin Ractcliffe wanted to study child psychology and child development, but her vocational guidance teacher discouraged her, saying she was too soft. As a result, Tamzin studied commerce and entered the tough financial world, as an analyst. Her persistent inner voice, however, meant that Tamzin did end up studying psychology and working with former political prisoners. This work gave her insight into how it may be possible to bridge the gap between what people do have and what they don’t have.

Over the years, her experience in asset management, psychology and as a fundraiser for Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town provided the foundation for Greater Good South Africa (GGSA). Tamzin set out to create a platform, based on the financial markets use of research and analysis, where the big corporations who were looking to spend their Corporate Social Investment money could connect with the small organisations, non-profit organisations and charities that needed the money.

Greater Good SA started as a night time job where Tamzin would take the information she was getting as a consultant and make it more publicly available on the internet. Today GGSA has an online presence where anyone can find out about the organisations GGSA supports and connects with funders. In this way, each organisation, in a sense, has its own web page with information about the organisation. The web site goes beyond this and also works like a social networking site where givers and givers can connect with each other and receivers and receivers can connect with each other.

Tamzin feels she is fortunate to be able to make a difference in people’s lives and to be doing something that she truly enjoys.

TO LEARN MORE OR TO CONTRIBUTE TO GREATER GOOD SOUTH AFRICA:
vist the GGSA web site or phone them on +27 21 762 7944.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO USE THE INTERNET TO HELP PEOPLE, HERE ARE THE STEPS TAMZIN TOOK:
- she established goals and objectives for the organisation
- she applied to the Shuttleworth foundation for funding for the GGSA website
- she set up an online network for NGOs and donors to meet
- she started free consultation to help NGOs understand what donors are looking for

PLEASE SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM FOR FURTHER IMAGES FROM THE GGSA STORY

MISSING CHILDREN SA
DIRECTED by CANDICE PRINSLOO
EDITED by TINA-LOUISE SMITH

Missing Children South Africa was founded by Pieter Boshoff in 2007 when Sheldean Human went missing in Pretoria. One of Sheldean’s cousins knew Pieter and asked him to upload photos of Sheldean and publicise her disappearance online. Pieter was happy to do this, but he realised that once they had the web site set up to help find Sheldean, it could be used to help find other children, too. This was when he registered the site as www.missingchildren.co.za.

The work of Missing Children was very demanding and Pieter found himself spending more time on the web site than he did on his company that earned him an income. Eventually he called on the people involved in the organisation to formalise it and today there are professionals, like a lawyer and an accountant as members of the board, who can also assist in the running of Missing Children South Africa.

The chairperson of the board is Nico Panagio, a well known local actor. Nico and other public personalities use their public presence for the benefit of Missing Children SA, to ensure that the organisation is visible to as many South Africans as possible, to ensure the safety of children in South Africa.

Missing Children SA work with community volunteers and the police to ensure the safety of children. They also promote the use of the Identi-kits, which contain the fingerprints, a lock of hair, and photographs of children. It is a kind of insurance in case your child going missing.

TO LEARN MORE OR TO CONTRIBUTE TO MISSING CHILDREN SOUTH AFRICA:
visit the Missing Children South Africa web site, email Judy Botes or phone them on +27 72 647 7464.

TO USE THE POWER OF THE INTERNET TO KEEP CHILDREN SAFE, LIKE PIETER DID:
- establish that your project will be able to help
- register your web address online
- create the web site for the project
- keep updating the information on your web site, to keep visitors informed
- find funders to keep your project going
- formalise your project by establishing a board to oversee the efficient running of the project
- as your project gets bigger, work out ways to reach more and more people

SCRFEEN GRABS FROM THE GREATER GOOD SA AND MISSING CHILDREN SA STORIES: