By Louise Batty | Managing Director
Welcome to all our new supporters to the Keep The Dream196 Community of Supporters!
This is as much my community as it is yours! This is where you get to ask questions, find out details that perhaps are not in the project information. This is where you and I build trust and relationship whereby you can rest assured in the work we are doing, the impact we are achieving the quality and cost effectiveness of the services we are providing.
Having said that, you can leave a message for me simply by rating and completing the reports you receive. I will try to be as responsive as possible. Or, you can email me on keepthedream196@gmail.com I hope to hear from you soon!
I want to thank you all for your support of Keep The Dream196 over the 6yrs (and longer for some) that we have been connected to GlobalGiving. In that time, together, we reached over 15,000 orphaned and vulnerable children in dire need of various forms of help. Help, that because of your support, we have been able to give.
Our Children are not just finding their dreams but achieving them! Many of our children go on to University or College and are successful graduates because of the foundations we are able to lay in their lives. Dreams such as becoming a doctor, lawyer, mechanic, nurse, physio, child psychologist, plumber or teacher to name a few post graduates we have. Major achievements in the light of their peers who often fall pregnant before they are 18yrs of age (13%); or involved in teenage crime (70%); suicide (12.7%) to name a few activities that children outside of the project succumb to in the villages.
We have been able to reduce the teenage pregnancy rate to 0.07% or 12girls in 16yrs with over 8,000 girls in the program. That is astonishing. That is what we have achieved. We have helped these girls choose their dreams over immediate pleasure and to work hard to achieve their life’s goals. It is so exciting.
To breakdown for your R2.19 RSA or $0.18c USD or $0.22c AUD supports one child per day in our program.
R67 per month $4.40 or $6.70 AUD. This is phenomenal I am sure you agree
We are able to achieve this by utilizing our funds efficiently and effectively because of the committed staff providing a smart, well put together professional program which brings the desired behaviour change to enable these once impoverished, hopeless, failing students to become what they desire, not what their peers and friends are doing but what will ensure their success. All of this because of you! All of this because of your support!. It’s that simple.
Thank you just does not convey the look on these kids faces of joy at the weekly meetings we have with them. I wish you could see them for yourselves.
With warmest thanks
Louise
My name is Nosiswe and I am 24yrs of age. I was raised by my grandparents while my mother was in Gauteng for work. A lot could have gone wrong. I could have done a lot of partying, could have been disrespectful towards my elders, neglect my school work and consequently ruining my future.
I had so much freedom to do whatever I wanted to do. I mean my grandparents were old, they didn't have the energy to watch my every move but thankfully Keep The Dream196 introduced the scouts program to help me be a better person and make the best choices.
As a scout, there were laws that I had to live by, scout laws, and I just couldn't afford to misrepresent scouts. Laws such as a scout obey orders; a scout honour is to be trusted impacted my life greatly. I did everything and followed every instruction given to me by my elders because I knew that they wouldn't mislead me or lead me astray in any way.
By being obedient to them I was upholding a scout law. My grandparents and everyone else trusted me and I did my best to ensure that I didn't lose their trust because that was very important to me as the scout law #1 stated that a scout’s honour is to be trusted. In all honesty it was more about scouts than about me. It actually felt like I was doing it for them, like it was never really about me but I was wrong.
Keep The Dream shaped my future because through their scouts program. I was able to pass my matric and pursue the career of my dreams. I was able to make informed decisions about my life. The camps I attended taught me to be independent that has also helped me a lot because when I got to university, being away from home, can be really tough sometimes.
Today I'm a Bachelor of Laws graduate because of Keep The Dream196. A prosecutor in the making. It is true that you reap what you sow, some of my peers found the scouts program boring but if they knew the benefits I'm certain they would have joined too. I know they too had dream careers which could have been turned into a reality if they worked on them. Getting the right advice from the right people can be very helpful because if you have sufficient and accurate information you're able to make informed choices.
Some of them never finished high school education, some did but obtained lower grades which resulted in them not pursuing the careers they have always wanted to pursue and some just settled for so much less. I consider myself lucky and I'm grateful to have been a beneficiary of Keep The Dream196.
Thank you to everyone who supported us!
Nosiswe
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