Lifeskills 2,743 vulnerable children South Africa

Dear All,

Nelson Mandela day is 18th July, when we celebrate a great man and his vision of everyone helping each other by volunteering in their communities. However we at Keep The Dream196 feel that every day is Nelson Mandela Day. Every day is an opportunity to volunteer and assist others.

This unfortunately is unpopular with a lot of people who limit their support to one day a year, if their is a photo opportunity involved. Forgive my jadedness however having been involved in a number of these special days and seeing politicians pitch up for a meal, done the necessary working garb, hold a paint brush to a wall, have the obligatory photos taken and then disappear to view their profiles in the district or national newspapers is enough to make anyone vomit.

Having said that we believe that volunteerism is the backbone of any society, it builds social capital and enables people to feel good about themselves as recipients of support but also as the volunteer. I have volunteered most of my life, from the age of 7yrs and continue to do so at 57yrs. It is a culture that needs to be re-established amongst all people. Everyone has something to give, it makes such a difference to how one views the world.

With that in mind, many of our scout groups through the support of Scouts South Africa and the Messengers of Peace project have been involved in decorating and painting creches and drop in centres around the subdistrict; training creche teachers in first aid and hygeine as well as establishing food gardens and planting trees for shade at these points of care for young learners. The creches and drop in centres are usually run on a shoestring budget so decorations externally or posters for learning internally are a luxury item.

We also have hosted Zoelife/TearFund Volunteers, these youth come and showing volunteerism is alive and well to our scouts some of whom plan to take a gap year in the future and join Zoelife and volunteer in other provinces. Its exciting to see volunteerism on the rise back after the South African government destroyed it with stipends and using volunteerism as a career pathway for the unemployed.

I want to thank everyone for supporting the work we do and the impact we have. Your support is essential to us and gives us such encouragement to continue..............................thank you!

By Nsovo

I love Keep The Dream196 we do all sorts of interesting things. Our aim is to be useful and to help people. I have helped paint a creche in my community. I feel so happy because I am helping the little children go to a nice clean and happy place. I also feel proud because the community sees we are working hard and not being lazy or getting into trouble.

I know how to paint so when I have my own home I can paint it for myself. We work hard doing all sorts of different things. Its fun and it keeps us busy.

I love scouts and Keep The Dream196

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