Lifeskills 2,743 vulnerable children South Africa

Dear Friends and Partners of Keep The Dream196

I have been sharing the highlights of our journey with the kids for over 6years with you now.

All of our achievement’s, all of our successes are because of your support and enthusiasm for the children we serve and also some of our challenges, and sadly some of our losses. Through it all you have remained. For that I am very grateful. We continue to have amazing impact, we continue to change children's lives and transform families.

We continue to see real sustained behaviour change and yet still we are not funded by government.That means we are even more reliant on people like you to support the children that we serve. The impact I have shared with you previously remains the same:

• Teenage pregnancy in our program has declined from 13% provincially to 0.07%

• Teenage crime from 70%of youth are victims or perpetrators to 1 child in over 12,000 through 15yrs of operation

• 90% matriculation pass rate increased from 62% through government schools (which all our children attend)

• Successful suicide rate of 12.7% nationally where our suicide rate is 0.

These are just a few outcomes, as you can see they are phenomenal and it is because you enable us to continue to do the work. Our successes are your successes. Together we have literally saved lives, we have stopped families from imploding, we, together, have stopped children from being stunted physically and intellectually for example: through training adults how to create permaculture food gardens.

There is so much more I would like to share. If you would like a copy of our Annual Report please go to our website and sign up for our newsletters and receive a copy of the report or email me directly on keepthedream196@gmail.com and I will gladly send you our report which covers 10yrs of official operations (we operated for another 5yrs prior to become registered).

Together, hand in hand we are making futures available to thousands of desperate, directionless, hurting children! We cannot do any of these activities without your ongoing sustained support. For those who are supporting us on a monthly basis, THANK YOU! Words are not sufficient to be able to tell you the impact you are having on the lives of the children we serve.

For those of you who have given monthly in the past, we miss you! We need your support to continue to impact the lives of children in a meaningful way.

For those of you who have given once or twice, we need you! We need regular monthly support. At one stage you recognised the value of our program to give to the work we do. We are only as successful as the funding we receive, without your support, in an ongoing manner; we are not able to reach the children as effectively or as many.

Help us be the solution to crime, teenage pregnancy and youth suicide. We have already proved we are the answer for the last 15yrs. Please sign up to donate on a regular monthly basis.

Did you know $4 or R40 will keep one child in our program for 1month! For the price of a little bit more than a cup of coffee, you can save a child from hopelessness, despair, suicide, poverty, teenage pregnancy and give them the support and skills they need to become active vital members of society with the abilities to become leaders of the future.

The decision is in your hands!

Thank you for your support

Louise

Nkululeko Social Worker/Project Manager

My name is Nkululeko from Tzaneen, Limpopo. I am proud to say that I am not only from Limpopo but I am a scout as well. I have been a scout for the past ten years and it has been the greatest time of my life.

Keep The Dream196 a local NGO, brought a number of different programs including scouts to Greater Tzaneen in 2003. I started scouts when I was 12 yrs old and there were only 13 of us in the first group. I joined when I was in high school and now I am a professional social worker from the University of the Witwatersrand.

When I applied to University I knew very well what I wanted to do and that was Social Work because of how Keep The Dream196 has changed my life. I was a very selfish girl, who didn’t care about how and what other people thought of me and I was very naughty, after joining scouts I stopped being selfish and started thinking about other people.

I got an understanding that as young children we are in control of how lives can be when we grow up. I started being friendly, clean, courteous and thrifty all thanks to the scout laws. I gained respect and acknowledgements from my high school teachers about the way I behaved myself and about how good my grades were.

Because of Keep The Dream196 and the positive experiences I had being a scout I knew that I wanted to help other children to have the same opportunity to better their lives regardless of where they are from and their background. I wanted to advocate for children who are being oppressed, to empower young adults that they shouldn’t see themselves as victims of their situations but they should see themselves as victors who can make a difference.

I wanted Keep The Dream196 to grow and children’s lives be changed to the best lives that they can have which is finding inner happiness, doing their best and having high self-esteem. I was employed by Keep The Dream 196 in January of 2013 as a social worker at 21years, 10yrs after joining the program and I am now able to do that, I am able to help vulnerable children, I am able to talk to parents and explain the importance of good parenting skills and the role of scouting to their children and how to help them in knowing how they can engage with their children. I am a very happy to say that I love what I do and Im happy with my profession.

Being a scout has made things easy for me to engage with the public and people I work with. This is why I am very thankful to Keep The Dream 196 and it is important to conserve it because the work they do brightens children’s future.

Because of all the work I have done with Keep The Dream196 as a child and young adult I have been chosen to represent South Africa in Indonesia as a Rover (the 3rd branch of the Scout Movement for young adults aged 18-25yrs). I am so amazed at where Scouts and Keep The Dream196 have taken me. Although I was one of the first to become a scout in 2003, I want to see others have the same opportunities to do what I am doing now, to travel, to represent my country, to be a successful professional to give back to my community and the children of South Africa.

Nkululeko

Links:

• Our new website
• Our Facebook Page for daily updates of activities