It’s not often that I meet a champion - someone with a great big vision and a great big heart - a bright spark that lights other sparks and makes big fires. Such a person is Bronwen Lankers Byrne, coordinator of the “Imagine Hout Bay” initiative. “Imagine Hout Bay,” as I discovered, is all about [...]
read the articleWhat type of person do you imagine when you think of a volunteer working for the benefit of others in South Africa? Do you imagine a township Mama whose long life has been spent caring for her children, grandchildren and her community? Or do you imagine a privileged young idealist who takes time out between [...]
read the articleThe Maoist cultural revolution introduced the concept of a barefoot doctor - a rural paramedic permanently deployed in far-flung villages. These embedded health-workers would live within and under the same conditions as their client communities - copying the Chinese peasant farmers’ Spartan aversion to footwear (which, apart from being an urban luxury had a ruinous [...]
read the articleThe South African National Zakah Fund (SANZAF), is a faith based socio welfare and educational organisation established during the Apartheid Era as a means to alleviate the suffering of those destitute, needy and oppressed. Since its inception and formalisation in 1974, the organisation has moved rapidly from a ‘charity’ organisation, to an agency of empowerment, [...]
read the articleThe phrase “I’m going out quickly to pick up some guys” will be familiar to many South Africans whose parents manage their own minor building or major gardening projects.
The next step works like this: Dad departs with an empty bakkie and returns an hour later with an assortment of men riding in the back.
These men [...]