pre-1994 damage to Township Communities
As a local white my wife and I visited Soweto for the first time in July 2004. We only found love and warmth, we were shocked at the lack of corporate and local white participation ten years into our new democracy. Of the 270 000 international visitors in 2003, only 70 000 'got off the bus'.
Our immediate focus was to get local whites into the Township, (my barefoot 24/7 status is a symbol to get white feet into the Township), and the 200 000 international visitors. We became tour operators by default to achieve this, Taste of Africa, and our success rate has not impacted much on the statistics.
We became very aware of the lack of sport and recreation in the Township, no child plays structured soccer in school, and attributed this to the lack of life-skills in the youth. Two years later we started a foundation to rehabilitate sport in Soweto, and a twelve months down the line we realized that sport was not enough to address the problem. The youth operate in their 'comfort zone' and when faced a challenge they moved directly into the 'fight zone'.
We established that the youth suffered from the following shackled life-skills; "Attitude - self-esteem, self-respect; Responsibility; Communication; Decision Making and Problem Solving". We soon sourced a curriculum from the University of Missouri and started conduction workshops.
During the workshops we started to understand the impact of the lack of self-respect may have on the 'violent crime' and HIV infections' in our country.
As we progressed we started to understand the damage done to our communities, particularly through the abuse and atrocities in during the 1980's and for the first time I started to understand the responsibility that I had for some of our countries problems. (The 1980's will form a separate discussion topic).
I have a DEBT to our society and I have started to settle my debt.
I am developing an initiative to empower our Townships and would like 'Changemakers' to give some input to where we could go.
Regards
Cedric
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L'éducation ne se borne pas à l'enfance et à l'adolescence. L'enseignement ne se limite pas à l'école. Toute la vie, notre milieu est notre éducation, et un éducateur à la fois sévère et dangereux.
Paul Valéry
The education does not restrict itself to the childhood and to the adolescence. The education does not limit itself to the school. All the life, our environment is our education, and at once a severe and dangerous educator.
Paul Valéry
L'éducation est un progrès social... L'éducation est non pas une préparation à la vie, l'éducation est la vie même.
John Dewey
The education is a social progress... The education is not a preparation for the life, the education is the life.
John Dewey