Sometimes we need to consciously step outside the news grind to see reality. And despite the very best efforts of a misguided few, most South Africans are getting along with each other in the same way they have always done – with ready smiles and helping hands. Â
My colleague Chris Bateman is on a well-deserved holiday, but before leaving for trout fishing heaven he left us this uplifting contribution about a family member doing her bit to make the country a better place.
Chris writes: “With top companies like Deloitte’s investing in Youth Advisory Boards and abundant stories of smart, committed kids breaking out of the poverty trap and succeeding beyond their wildest dreams, two seemingly disparate things have clicked for me.
___STEADY_PAYWALL___
The catalyst was curating a news piece about the brilliant new Youth Explorer App launched on Youth Day in Cape Town. It provides anyone with information on the status and wellbeing of young people anywhere in the Western Cape. It’s a long-gestated project of the University of Cape Town researchers at the Poverty and Inequality Initiative, in partnership with Open Up Africa, Stats SA and the Economies of Regions Learning Network.
Whether you want to gauge educational levels and/or school attendance, age-spread, crime, services, health status; you name it, it’s there. You can also compare one area with another, with handy infographics available.
Being of cynical bent, my first response was yes fine, great idea, but with our dysfunctional municipalities, how much of the glaring disparities depicted will ever be addressed.
That’s actually beside the point. We have one of the most vibrant NGO, NPO and private sectors in the world – in fact government is over-reliant on them in helping deliver services, often claiming credit where none is due.
This came home to me courtesy of my talented dancer niece, 28-year-old Jessica Riding, who outlined her new public benefit outfit to me at a recent family braai.
Currently teaching dance in the leafy Southern Suburbs of Cape Town at primary and secondary schools both on-syllabus and as an extracurricular activity, she’s long had a passion to do something uplifting for underprivileged communities.
Jessica has come up with Move4Two, a public benefit body that uses dance fees from higher income parents to fund an underprivileged child in the Gugulethu township on the Cape Flats.
Those kids can’t afford the luxury of dance lessons, so to get them into the loop my niece needed to make the project sustainable.
She’s secured the Masikanye Community Hall in Gugs, is awaiting final approval from SA Revenue Services for registration as a PBO (enabling tax deductible donations) and wants to connect with local schools within a 1-2km radius of the hall. Her website is about to go live.
Jessica will begin with 3-5 year olds. Her view of the Youth Explorer App’s potential? “That’s incredible. For us, anything like that will help us grow and make connections with the community, which is ultimately what we want to do.
“It’s perfect for any organisation wanting to go into areas where everything is different to what we know. It’s also exposure for both sides and helps bridge the divide’’. Another example of the innovation of youth re-infusing hope into the breasts of their cynical elders.
I love this kind of story. You’ll find many of them in our recently launched Good Hope Project section on Biznews. It provides a welcome contrast to the depressing fare dominating headlines nowadays.
The Good Hope section is home to many stories like the one Chris shares with us here. BTW, if you’d like to support his niece, she can be contacted via email at [email protected].
