Dancers showcase their skills. Photo: Nondumiso Ntsengentsu

Many South Africans have dreams, desires and interests that they are unable to pursue, due to the limited availability of information in their community. Faced with this challenge, they often lose hope and begin to believe drugs and alcohol abuse as well as violence and crime are the only things that help them to feel fulfilled. With increased focus on personal development and access to information it would be possible for community organizations to help community members fulfill their dreams and avoid the pitfalls of substance abuse and violence in their own lives.

Dance for all, an Athlone based Outreach Programme, looked at the challenges facing community members and came up with a solution. They aimed to offer children in historically deprived communities with an opportunity for enjoyment, upliftment and promotion of self – esteem through the medium of dance, as well as training for young people who hope to become professional dancers. This has lead to the development of a unique, indigenous dance company that embodies creativity and culture. They also offer these classes at other service points in the surrounding townships of Gugulethu, Nyanga, Khayelitsha and Langa.

Eight dance teachers from the United States (US) are expected to come and share their dancing skills with participants.  The list of visiting teachers includes founder of the LEAP programme at St Mary’s College Claire Sheridan, a regular visitor to Dance for All, Kristine Elliot, Geren Scribner, Lucy Van Cleef, Olivia Ramsay, David Tamaki, Annie Colbeck and Alejandro Piris Nino. They will work with students over the next two weeks designing and producing an on-site dance that includes movement classes, repertory and choreographic workshops.

Anyone who is interested in this amazing dance experience is exclusively invited to two performances offered by this initiative from Friday 08 July at 16:30 or Saturday, 9 July at 11:30 in their Dance for All studios in Athlone.

The entrance fee of R25.00 for an adult and one of R15.00 for kids will help you to get inspired and assist you in finding your new hobby.

We can all rise above our current situations and become what we want to be in lives!!!

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Mandela Day, was first introduced on 18 July 2009, the former Nelson Mandela’s birthday, its aim is to persuade people to contribute 67 minutes of their time to make the world a better place.

International Nelson Mandela Day 2011 was launched on 23 May at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Houghton, Johannesburg.  The ceremony involved tertiary students who marked the occasion by expressing their views on what the celebration means to them. According to mediaclubsouthafrica.com, the launch garnered such widespread media attention due in part to popular South African rapper JR’s new song dedicated to Mandela Day, ‘See you in July’.

It is said that, when Sello Hatang, the Mandela Foundation’s spokesperson, asked students to speak about Mandela.Day and how it should be celebrated,Mandela’s grandson, Luvuyo Mandela, mentioned that as a family they have always celebrated his gradfather’s birthday in their home town of Umtata, Qunu in the Eastern Cape, by making food parcels so they can allocate to them less fortunate.  Another youth, Raymond Ntlozi, explained that he honours Mandela Day by volunteering and funraising at children’s home in Zuurbekom, southwest Johannesburg.

Mediaclubsouthafrica.com states that, Breadline Africa, a South African-based NGO, has partnered with the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the NYK Helping Hand Scheme to offer a mobile library to a primary school in all nine provinces of South Africa as part of this year’s Mandela Day celebrations.

This year, NYK contributed R500 000 to the project for Mandela Day. Each library container costs nearly R90 000 to convert and renovate.

Tim Smith, director of Breadline Africa is quoted saying, “we buy sturdy, water-tight containers at a low cost and transform them into mobile structures, which we can use to feed, educate or use as a clinic. Our projects try to establish a level of self-sustainability within the community.”

From 6 June, people haven been encouraged to participate every Monday by giving back to the next person, the community or the environment for Mandela Mondays. People can take as little as five minutes out of their lives for this activity!

So how are YOU honouring the spirit of community service this Mandela Monday?  Let us know by leaving a comment here or on our Facebook page.

• We explore industry benchmarks in corporate social investment (CSI) spend and how this impacts on national social economic development (SED).
• We guide you on how best you can increase the sustainability of your CSI programme.
• We consider the importance of establishing partnerships – a hot topic at the CSI Matters conference.
• Finally, we share some valuable development lessons from Africa via Dr Pandelani Mathoma, GM of Old Mutual Corporate Affairs guest speaker at the conference.

We hope you enjoy our newsletter and are able to leave with new insights and inspiration. You’re welcome to make contact via email should you have any questions, if you would like to further discuss topics highlighted in our newsletter or require more information on our services!

Read the newsletter by clicking here!

Warm Greetings from our Team!
Creative Consulting & Development Works

A new day is dawning in Mozambique.
After nearly many years of civil unrest, the small nation on South Eastern coast of Africa is starting to rebuild. The promise of limitless possibilities beams from the smiles of school children running to new or partially built schools. Unfortunately, these smiles often turn to tears as financial backers of many development projects are failing to meet their commitments. As the global financial crisis strikes panic in the hearts of funding institutions, money initially earmarked to help develop post war Mozambique has all but dried up. In response to the growing number of commissioned development projects losing financial backing, Celio Mondlane of Fundacao Joaquim Chissano and Minister of Education Dr. Zeferino Martins, have turned to social media to encourage wide spread investment in their county’s future as well as showcasing its success stories. Educate Mozambique is the blog platform where anybody can learn about and support education initiatives all over Mozambique. It is essentially a way of crowd sourcing new

Flag of Mozambique

 avenues of funding, empowering individuals with information about ways they can contribute. Now, instead of waiting for a massive check that may never come from a bank that no longer considers “charity” a priority, any number of concerned individuals from anywhere in the world can give a little bit of money or time to make a big difference in the lives of children in Mozambique.

Visit the site learn to more about how you can support Educate Mozambique!

Monde Sitole,  a 20-year old sailor and mountaineer originally from Ngqamakhwe in the Eastern Cape currently stays in Khayelitsha. Although living conditions back home weren’t life-threatening, the difficulties and adversity he often faced served as a catalyst to where he is today.

As a child, Monde dreamt of traveling around the globe and meeting new people. He was an explorer at heart, and loved escaping reality by getting lost in the forest and immersing himself in solitude, hearing nothing but the sound of the birds.

His dream of traveling became a reality when he summited Kilimanjaro in October 2010. Since then, he’s planned various hikes, and hopes to summit Aconcagua, Argentina later this year. He wants to climb the highest peaks in each continent and ski the North and South Poles. He also wants to climb all fourteen 8000 peaks – including K2 and Annapurna.

In December 2009, Monde took part in the Pangae Mike horn young explorers camp, held in Switzerland. Lectures at the camp focused on nature conservation, world affairs and responsible adventure  made him realise the need for youth to come together and work towards a solution of making “mother earth” better.

This epiphany was the inspiration for his NGO, Great African Ascents, which focuses on nature conservation and youth development through mountaineering. This approach gives young people an alternative lifestyle while living in poor, marginalized communities.

In future, he plans to open an indoor rock climbing wall in Khayelitsha, called Dare2Dream. Their aim is to train young minds to reach high for their dreams no matter how small, big or absurd. They will use rock climbing to show these children that anything is possible regardless of the physical or emotional hurdles.

“I intend on firstly dedicating my time in doing talks across the country motivating young people and relating my story as I have been doing on previous platforms, such as Woolworths motivational talk and Sport Science Institute of South Africa. I have been selected as one of the adventurers to speak at the Cape Town FeatSa Conference to be held 12 February 2011 at Artscape,” Monde explained.

‘I will also continue with adventure doing other expeditions, continuing to push previously memorised limitations and etching the following words in the minds of young people that: it is not that things are difficult that we don’t dare, but things are difficult because we don’t dare,” he concluded.

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We hope this story serves as an inspiration to many! Regardless of your age and background, with enough persistence and motivation, anything is possible. Be sure to visit the Cape Town FeatSa Conference and check out Monde’s website at Monde Walks.