Sibanye started after the Kouga Wind Farm established a workshop to help women in Sea Vista, with skills and development . They told us to pay it forward. 10 ladies got together and decided to help the youth, because of the high drug usage and crime, and created a NPO. From there we took in a group of girls and boys, who we would talk to, in order to teach them about the dangers of drugs, teenage pregnancies and all aspects of empowering themselves for the future. We help them improve on hygiene, sanitary, self respect and education.
What skills and resources were you able to draw from the community for this project?
Several St Francis Bay community members have come forward and helped us to market Sibanye with fundraising projects, donations of sanitary ware and toiletries. Helping physically with the township cleanups. Donating beads and time and emotional support. The local Sea Vista spaza shops have donated for events that we have had. We have also had the police and NSRI come do talks with our groups.
The challenges
To fight substance abuse, rape, crime and teenage pregnancies. To create awareness of what they can achieve, in the future if they change their mindset and circumstances, by learning and working hard. To make their homes safer and more respectful, and pass this information on to their community. To give them the love, care and respect that they are not receiving from home and helping them understand what self respect is. By providing sanitary ware, toiletries, outings, life lessons, skills and opportunities that they would otherwise not receive.
Addressing the challenges
Although there is still a lot of work to be done, and more youth to be reached, those that have joined the groups have grown in strength and respect for both themselves and others. They have learned to love themselves, and are striving to do better at school. They have also learned about cleanliness inside and out. We have helped some of them get out of substance abuse and gain self confidence. We have also had some township cleanups, getting the rest of the community and municipality involved, and plan on doing many more to try get the message across to the rest of the community. The girls have started with yoga classes, improving their self respect. And there will be beading lessons soon as well.
The achievements
As discussed in "how our project has been successful". We are currently providing toiletries and sanitary ware to the boys and girls every month. Many of the children can now read. The children have gained huge self respect and the ladies of Sibanye are also so much and have become very empathetic to their girls and boys. We had a mothers day get together', where we educated the mothers in the community with various speakers, on how to be more nurturing, loving and caring to their children. We are trying to break the cycle of child abuse.
Johannesburg, South Africa