By Louise and the KTD196 Dream Team | Jack of all trades, master of none!
Welcome to the KTD196 community of supporters! Avuxeni! Minjani!
Thank you to those who are new and have recently joined us, thank you also for those who have been with us for the long haul, you are all awesome and amazing in the way you support the children of Keep The Dream196.
I thought it was time to go back to basics and explain what we do and what is our mission and vision. Many of you will know this but for our new supporters to understand the work we do and the framework we use.
VISION: To see all children enter adulthood with holistic skills and abilities necessary to contribute effectively to the development of South Africa
ORGANISATION MISSION:
“Our mission is to assist children to overcome difficult life circumstances by building resilience physically, emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically, using a Right’s-based framework, so they are able to realize their full potential and contribute to the building of South Africa.”
KTD196 Main Activities:
This project is not a quick fix answer to the needs of children; rather it is a long-term investment in their future. We develop the child holistically and sustainably to overcome not just the current situations they find themselves confronting, but all the challenges that life has to present in the future.
Keep The Dream 196 Children’s Life Skills Project is a comprehensive, integrated model of training, care, and support for all children, particularly Orphans & Vulnerable children and their Caregivers. The model is child-focused and assists the child to identify their strengths and build on them to overcome challenges so they can address their own needs. Children are empowered to participate in activities and decisions that shape their lives; advocacy is an important component of the overall mission of the project.
We use Children's Rights as a framework for the work we do so, where possible, we include the children in decision-making at the children's group level, village level, and district level. We also include their inputs at an organizational level, so if the children have particular needs or ideas about programs they want to participate in, I fundraise to make that happen.
We also use ABCD or Asset Based Community Development which is taking what is already in the child, family, and community and capitalizing on that asset rather than bringing in from outside specific knowledge, skills, abilities, and resources. It is about empowering people and not disempowering them by making people dependent on handouts. It's a process of hand-ups, so it is more about long-term development and impact and less about short-term outcomes.
Our passion is to change South Africa one child at a time through training and skills development. For example, one of the programs that we use to teach children Life skills is called food for Life. This is a 1-3 year training program that teaches children various skills such as water harvesting, composting, cooking, planting seasons, marketing, and basic bookkeeping. We use the Scouts model of cascade training and peer support to empower the children to make wise decisions about their lives from a value's based perspective. They use local resources to create vegetable gardens that are animal-proof, they use local chicken and cow manure instead of store-bought fertilizer, they use manure teas, and local water harvesting techniques instead of purchasing water.
Women in particular with the Self Help Groups (SHG) use their own resources and the ladies become so excited to see their own money grow and learn how to start a small business using the money as a rotating cash float. They are using their own resources, they learn to steward the money effectively, and they are fully engaged because it is their money after all.
Anyway, I wanted to just remind you about what you are supporting, this is just a small snapshot.
Recently, I sent out an email to let you know about a GlobalGiving bonus day. Just to let you know we raised $3,000USD and received the maximum bonus of $1,500 which will go towards supporting the children's program directly. Thank you so much for responding to the call as I said earlier, you are awesome.
Thank you so much for all you do for our children, literally none of this is possible without your support.
Thank you once again
Blessings
Louise
Links:
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