By Louise Batty | Managing Director
As we start 2019 strong, I overwhelmed by the faithful ongoing support of our supporters and partners. Additionally, I want to also thank the many new donors who have chosen to help KTD continue to impact lives of the Open and Vulnerable Children that we serve in a very real way. Thank you!!!
Welcome to all our new supporters, especially those who have joined us over the last few months.
Over the last four months we have seen an explosion of support through GlobalGiving so we have a lot of new people who may not know our history and I thought it important to just go over our back ground so that you have a context to understand the work we do.
I came to South Africa as an Australian Volunteer working for the Department of Health and seconded to a Home Based Care Organization in Tzaneen. My back ground is Nursing and I have 20yrs experience in Palliative Care (Care of the Dying) and 15yrs experience in Community Health Education and Promotion. Within the first 6months we held a SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat) Analysis with over 200 Caregivers (local ladies who work in their villages providing support to the ill and dying).
During the SWOT I asked the question "What was your greatest heart ache?" Fully expecting the Caregivers to say "Caring for people who are dying!" What they said was "Watching Orphan and Vulnerable Children drop out or school, get pregnant, get in to drugs, alcohol, gangs, becoming HIV infected and killing themselves." I was tasked with DO SOMETHING!
For the next 6months I researched programs locally, provincially, nationally and internationally and developed a multi-tiered program with multiple activities to address the needs of the children. I also spoke to a small focus group of 13 children and asked them what they wanted, their answer "To learn new things, have new experiences, meet new people and to have fun".
At that time I partnered up with Elizabeth Mabuza and she and I started the bones of Keep The Dream196 in Nov of 2003 with 13 girls. We used the Scouts program as the vehicle to get the children engaged and then added other programs and training like Boys2Men training, Journey of Life, Sexual and Relational Health Promotion to name a few.
Within 6months we had 60children attending on a weekly basis and I was fortunately able to secure funding to run a camp and train 50 new adults from the local communities who would in turn run the program in their villages. By the end of 2004 we had in excess of 1,100 children and Keep The Dream196 was unofficially born.
In 20017 it was time for Keep The Dream196 to fly, so giving up our secure day jobs, KTD196 was birthed in August 2007. Since that time, Elizabeth and I have continued to work together growing the program to influence not just a few villages but we have been in approximately 140 villages within Great Tzaneen Sub-District and have also stretched out into Limpopo Province in various places. We have seen in excess now of 14,000 children over 16yrs. It has been a huge adventure learning to run a None Governmental Organization in a hostile environment. The changes we see in the children make all of our hardships worthwhile.
I am excited to share more of what will be achieved in 2019 in coming reports however now I want to sincerely thank you in advance for your support and belief in the dreams of the youth that we serve.
What I would also like to do is to invite you to our Colour Fun Run to be held on the 23rd February @0630 (because of the heat). Registration is R20 per child, R30 per youth and R50 per adult. All proceeds will go towards KTD196 and registration of the children in the Scouts program. So whether you run, hop, walk, amble, ride a bike, push a pram, have a wheelchair you are invited to come and meet the children we serve, see Shiluvane village and be a part of the FUN.
Louise
My name is Katlego from Mhangweni village and I am doing grade 12. I’ve been in scouts for 6 years. I joined scouts just for fun because when I joined scouts I was 12 years old and I liked the games they were playing but then there was a lot to learn. Before I joined Keep The Dream106, I was a naughty boys who disrespected his parents and siblings. I never listened to what they used to tell me or instructed me to do because of that I was feeling as if I was older than them. My parents tried to call family meetings and church pastor for me but then failed them.
The reason I did all such things was that I wanted to please my friends. I had no respect for the environment and how to take care of it. At school I used to disobey my teachers and also didn’t do my school work and I hated people with not reason, I had no respect anyone. I violated people’s rights. After I've been part of Keep The Dream196 there were so many changes in my life. Keep The Dream19 taught me how to take care of the environment; how to respect people and even scout law no5 states that “a scout is courteous”. I now know how to obey my parents and school teachers. The first time they introduced the laws to me I couldn’t follow them because they were difficult to me. I had this positive thought that I have to do my best to follow them and I had patience while doing so.
Now I am a transformed person, I know what is right and what is wrong; I treat everyone equal because a scout is a friend to all and brother to every other scout. I remember the Keep The Dream196 took me to training called PLTU, I had an accident where my arm was broken so KTD196 showed me love and support, they helped me in each step I came across until my arm was better, there is no way in which I can depart from this program because there are so many good things they teach. Grow big Keep The Dream196, I love you and your team!
Quick update from Katlego, he has passed matriculation with a bachelors entry to University. He is currently fighting for a place in Johannesburg as he wants to do Law primarily because he has a passion to fight corruption especially within the legal system itself.
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