By Louise Batty | Managing Director
Greetings Community, how are you all this beautiful day?
Thank you for your continued responses and support! Thank you for answering the call last week for increased support. This means so much; we have children waiting for us to start working with them. We are so keen to start.
Let me tell you some more exciting news.
In the last 3months we have been working with over 1,800 children on a weekly basis. We have also trained over 50 parents in Journey of Life to sensitize parents to what is abuse and how they can perpetrate abuse without even knowing that calling a child names or shouting at a child is abuse. This is a powerful training in which 50families have been touched and changed for ever. How do we know? After the training, at approximately 6months and 18months we ask their children if their parents have maintained their positive behaviour changes. The answer is always yes!
We have reopened an old area, because of your support! We have instantly picked up 80children of various ages all of whom are so keen to participate it’s thrilling to watch. In fact I saw them last week. My program manager and I went to Bodwe Village (a two hour journey north) to spend the day with the leaders, training them on the new program and meeting with the children once again. Last week I attached 2 stories from the children that side. I will attach them again to this report just to refresh your memory.
We are finalising our move, Keep The Dream196 is on the move. For 11years KTD196 has been operating out of my home and just recently the house next door (we rented a room). Now, for the first time we are relocating to Tzaneen CBD itself. What this means is that we will now have a presence in the town. That people will get to know us directly and not just through what is happening in the newspapers.
We are also planning to expand into another province into 2020. This takes planning, preparation and funding. We are giving ourselves a year to make sure the plans are concrete, the preliminary introductions are made, and expectations are examined and agreed to as well as the funding in place for the next 2years. This is so exciting because immediately that we start we will have over 1,000 children and parents to work with. This, as you can imagine, requires a lot of planning and preparation to ensure our high standards and quality of services remain at optimal levels.
I also just want to update you about a personal matter. As a majority of you will know, 8months ago I had a family crisis. My Father had rung to say my Mother was dying and had been given 3days to live and if I wanted to say goodbye I needed to travel to Adelaide Australia from Tzaneen South Africa NOW! I am happy to say, 8months later, my Mother is doing well; she spends most of her time in the nursing home attending different activities. She is not on any medication except vitamins, Dad visits daily and they are finding a new normal.
It is always difficult balancing the organizations needs and my personal needs. It’s particularly challenging to balance the needs of the children we serve and those of my family here is South Africa and my family in Australia. It’s a constant battle as the leader and at times difficult to navigate those responsibilities while straddling two nations. I want to thank everyone for their well wishes and the support I have received through this community. You have lifted me, encouraged me that at least in this area of my life I am well supported.
As you have prayed for me and supported me throughout this journey I have been praying for each of you as well. On behalf of the organization I want you to know that we are not here just to get but also that we are giving. I want you to know I pray for each person and their family that as you give God would give back to you out of the abundance of his love, his mercy and his grace. That as you have given to us generously so God would give back to you generously.
Bless you all
Louise
My name is Casius AMBANI I am 17yrs old soon. I started Scouts at Bodwe Village in 2016.
Before I joined the program I was very bullied by a lot by my friends, I was not naughty but I was bullied a lot.
Scouts has changed my life, it taught me how do things in the right way, how to live with other children. It taught me how to respect others; it taught me how to be clean and to look after myself.
I was very quiet, that was why I was bullied. My friends thought I could not fight that was why I was bullied. Then I came to the KTD196 program and it taught me to stand up and say no. I won’t be bullied any more. I now have a voice, people listen to me.
I love the program so much. It has laws that need to be followed. It teaches me how to speak in a nice way to others, how to lead others especially from my school and the community.
I want to be a lawyer when I finish school
My name Emmanuel Negune I am 19yrs of age and I started Scout in Bodwe in 2014 but I never joined, I thought it was stupid. In 2015 I ran away from home and basically school and went to the streets. I came back in to Bodwe as a Gangster. As a Gangster I was attacking people, robbing them, and threatening them with knives and a gun. I did this for two years.
My home was not good, I did not have a father and he ran away when I was a kid. Even now I don’t know him. My mother was in Bodwe but since 2017 she has been working in JHB. I started being a gangster when I was 14yrs with the neighbourhood kids. I was drinking, I was in my own world, I no longer felt any pain in my heart. I thought I was the boss; I became a bully and started taking things by force. My mother tried her best but I wouldn’t listen. So I left.
I spent 2yrs on the streets. I was not scared because I had a reputation as a Gangster, people were scared of me.
One day I met this other gangster who stabbed me with a knife and I realised I know longer wanted to be a gangster, that I needed to go home, go back to school and to get a job otherwise if I stayed on the streets I would end up dead.
I came back to scouts in 2017 and I feel like my life is now good. I am back in a good life. I am playing games with children, I am a leader, I no longer bully anybody. I am back in school at Grade 10 and I am passing well in school. When I am here at the KTD196 program my mind is doing well, I am teaching, I feel useful and do good things. The community now know I am not to be feared but that I am a Christian and a Scout and that is important to me.
I want to be a lawyer just like Casius. Casius is my friend and he helped me find my right mind, after being on the streets he walked a road with me and together through scouts life is now good.
I spend time encouraging the young people about staying with KTD196 program and they listen to me and have respect for me.
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By Louise Batty | Managing Director
By Louise Batty | Managing Director
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