SERVICE PROGRAMMES » OTHER SERVICE PROJECTS: EMPOWERING ALL

Youth Leadership Training Programme | Prison Smart
Breath Water Sound | Service Projects | MyVillage Support
"Its time to transform conversations that matter into actions
that make a difference." Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Anti Drug Forum (ADF)
The ADF was set up in October 2005 to address the alarming drug abuse & addiction that has afflicted the community of Chatsworth in Durban as well as surrounding communities. This is an ongoing project and the ADF clinic provides a structured program including psycho-therapy, skills development, recreation and building self esteem.

The Breath Water Sound workshop has been adopted as a compulsory component of the rehabilitation program. Support group meetings are held every Thursday evenings for both patients and parents.

Achievements:

• 80 000 thousand learners empowered through awareness programs
• Over 1200 patients have been rehabilitated through the Breath Water Sound workshop
• Over 6000 patients have visited the clinic since its inception

Testimonials from parents and youth are:
"I now have my son back"
"This program has changed my life"
"I feel completely calm and relaxed"

Project Co-ordinator: Shooks Dorasamy
Cell: 083 326 3783
Email: shooks.dorasamy@is.co.za
Project Reference: DBNADF



Blanket Drive
The blanket drive has been an annual winter project in Johannesburg. In 2008 Durban & Cape Town have participated bringing blankets to various disadvantaged communities, street kids and shelters. This year Johannesburg combined a soup kitchen with the drive offering warm meals to the afflicted as well.

Achievements 2008:

• 900 blankets distributed in JHB
• Over 300 blankets for Durban
• Over 200 blankets for CPT

Crown Mines School Project
The objective of this project was to:

1. To nurture awareness among the students with respect to healthy living and developing a healthy mind and body.
2. To provide the techniques of the Art Excel course to the students.
3. Nurture awareness of the environment through the tree planting exercise.

Students enjoyed the yoga sessions and the Art Excel programme and showed an interest in continuing with their breathing and yoga and applying all the skills learnt. The students were more relaxed and the feedback obtained from the teachers after observing the children, was positive.

Weekly yoga sessions were conducted at the school. The Art Excel programme was conducted during October 2008 with 15 learners between the age of 8 – 13yrs. Tree planting with the Art Excel group of students and the teachers was conducted during the Mission Green Earth initiative.

Testimonials:
"I feel good, happy, relaxed and comfortable. I didn’t expect to feel like this during the course." Lebogang, 13yrs
"I felt tired in the beginning, but after the breathing I felt more energetic and happy. I learnt to observe and handle stress" Charline, 12yrs



Greyville Eco schools project
This project was set up in 2007 by volunteers from Lenasia JHB with vision of greening Greyville primary school and making it a model green school for replication. Thus far three awareness campaigns were held at the school.

An Owl workshop: The project was run in partnership with Birdlife South Africa. The workshop provided the learners with an opportunity to meet an owl in a manner that is unthreatening, educational and fun and explain their importance to our environment and dispel myths about owls in order to engage learners as a pressure group on communities acting for the betterment of the environment.

Tree-Planting: For most learners it was the very first time that they were involved in digging soil , observing the different Soil layers, Root structures, mulching & its water conservation benefits .Also many learners were empowered with the responsibility of adopting the saplings and seeing to the long term well-being of the trees. The learners seem to gain a healthy respect for trees and the environment. They also enjoyed the very Tangible learning experience of what most of them knew as text book information only, hence there was a lovely cohesion between classroom learning and real life experience. 16 trees were planted.

Water Project: Volunteers from the IAHV were asked to evaluate environmental projects completed by the learners. All projects were focused on different environmental issues related to water. Evaluation from the volunteers revealed:

• Increased awareness of environmental problems that we are currently facing
• Increased awareness of the importance of water
• Learners realise that with their right to clean water comes with their responsibility to keep water clean
• Learners have developed a positive attitude toward water i.e. they want to conserve water at home

Prison Stress Management and Rehabilitation Training (SMART)
The Prison SMART program has been taught in South Africa from 2002. It has been very successful over the years. 7 prisons have benefited from the program nationally.

Gauteng:
1. Leeukop Maximum Medium & Juveniles security
2. Bavianspoort Maximum Medium & Juveniles security
3. Boksburg Maximum Medium & Juveniles security
4. Vereeneging Maximum Medium & Juveniles security
5. JHB Correctional Maximum & Medium security
6. Groenpunt Maximum Medium & Juveniles security

KZN:
7. Westville Maximum & Juveniles security

Western Cape:
8. Pollsmoor Maximum Medium & Juveniles security

Over 5800 prisoners have benefited from the program to date. Prision SMART has also received great print media coverage over the years which have built up its crediabilty. The team have also been instrumental in building PS in Zim, Tanzania & Kenya through recomendations from the 8 prisons in SA.

Testomonials:
"My mind was so stressed and depressed, my mind was thinking of so many things, now my clarity of mind is good and I feel better" Inmate Leeukop
"Before the course I was always stressed and emotionally down, which made me not sleep and very aggressive, after the course everything seemed to change I feel relieved of stress and my sleeping pattern improved and I am also becoming humble and very calm. I think this course is very helpful because now I can control my abilities to think and my living and I can socialise with my fellow inmates and I am now more relaxed than before" Inmate Leeukop

Read recent articles & recommendation letters: The Star newspaper | Sowetan newspaper

Feedback from the Department of correctional services

National Project Director: Chintz Bhana
Cell: 082 877 8142
Email: chintzbhana@worldonline.co.za
Project Reference: PS07



Sosbenza
Sosebenza (meaning: 'let us work together') is a community-based youth centre in Masiphumelele Township, Cape Town. Along with various community groups with aim of to build and maintain a safe and inspiring environment where the youth of ‘Masi’ can be nourished - physically, intellectually and emotionally.

The centre is a dynamic space used by different organizations that share a similar goal – to uplift the youth, by offering a wholesome alternative to gangs, drugs and violence.

At present activities at the center include

• a Women’s Empowerment Sewing Project,
  
• The Bicycle Empowerment Network,
• Litha Lomsa (an environmental education and action group),
• An Organic vegetable garden from which the children are fed,
• A Recycling Centre,
• Various Dance and Church Groups
• Indigenous flower garden.
• Monthly IAHV/ AOL BWS workshops

To learn more or to get involved contact Ben: bengetz@gmail.com |
072 475 2977



Xenophobic Trauma Relief
On May 12, 2008 a series of riots started in the township of Alexandra (in the northeastern part of Johannesburg) when locals attacked migrants from Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, killing two people and injuring 40 others.

In the following weeks the violence spread, first to other settlements in the Gauteng Province, then to the coastal cities of Durban and Cape Town.

Attacks were also reported in parts of the Southern Cape, Mpumalanga, the North West and Free State.

Causes A report by the Human Sciences Research Council identified three broad causes for the violence:

• relative deprivation, specifically intense competition for jobs, commodities and housing;
• South African exceptionalism, or a feeling of superiority in relation to other Africans; and
• exclusive citizenship, or a form of nationalism that excludes others.

AOL/IAHV volunteers assited by providing trauma relief workshops at many of the camps nationally particulary the Soetwater camp in Cape Town, Camps in Gauteng & Kwa Zulu Natal. Food, clothing, medical aid & other aid were supplied and there was overwelming support by South Africans nationally to the afflicted.

IAHV partnered with the Redcross and created pick up & distribution points for them in Gauteng. IAHV also provided stress relief workshops for volunteers of the redcross in Johannesburg.



Youth Leadership Training Program (YLTP)
The YLTP phase 1 program has been successfully taught in the Western & Eastern Cape region since 2007. 6 respective YLTP’s have been conducted in 2007 & 2008. YLTP now consists of a core group of young people from different cultural, traditional and racial groups, that are presenting a unified group of young people, from historically divided communities through the legacy of apartheid, who are now focussed on working together in building a peaceful, non violent, stress free South Africa. YLTP is working on all levels, presenting the idea of Harmony in Diversity ( or the traditional African concept of UBUNTU ( Belongingness / unity ), to all sectors of society, local leaders, Parliament & Government.

The vision for 2009 is to continue presenting YLTP and to form strategic partnerships with Governement and business to further YLTP and to make it accessible to all youth. The YLTP team is set to help implement this powerful program and spread the idea of unity through Africa.

YLTP STATS from 2007 to 2008:
No. of YLTP phase 1’s conducted = 6
No. of YLTP attendees phase 1’s = 144
No. of people benefiting from BWS = 3516


YLTP key area of focus – Unity / harmony in diversity

The youth Leaders were also instrumental in 2008, in planting 150 000 trees during the MGESUTA campaign, as well as organizing STAND UP events in townships and rural areas. YLTP played a significant role in keeping peace and stability, by offering trauma relief during the xenophobic violence in the Western Cape region.

www.yltp.org.za/

Project Co-ordinator: Elizabeth Meiring
Cell: 082 497 6428
Email: elizabeth@artofliving.org.za
Project Reference: YLTPWC



Youth Village
As a result of the continuing relationship with Forte High school in Dobsonville JHB. It has become apparent that there are an alarmingly large number of children at the school who are from child headed families or who are themselves heading such families. The objective of this project is to assist and empower these children in a sustainable way. This will be done in the following manner:

Physical Organic Food Garden
The school has allocated land at the side of the school to develop as an organic garden. Food & Trees for Africa have been approached to assist us in starting the food garden.

Mental, Emotional and Spiritual development
70 of the youth have successfully completed the AOL Youth Empowerment Seminar.

Food distribution December 2008
Food parcels as well as basic cosmetics were provided to sustain 120 children during the holiday period due to the school feeding scheme only being active during the school terms.