Mentorship Storytelling Event

Last Saturday we started direct community involvement in our Mentorship Programme through exploring what experiences people in our community have had with mentoring and being mentored. This was the first step towards incorporating the interests and needs of the community in a mentorship training that will be offered early next year. The stories that people shared will inform the training we develop.

This mentorship story circle also provided a once off opportunity for the participants from different parts of our community - from participants in our Rites of Passage programme to their parents to individuals from partner organizations - to share and witness one another's stories.

Eating lunch before sharing our stories

 

After sharing stories, people spoke about components of mentorship that appeared in the experiences shared. Many felt strongly that mentors should not identify those they mentor, it is the role of the mentee to identify someone they want to grow with. In the stories shared, mentors were sometimes family members and teachers and mentorship relationships were sometimes formal and informal. Nearly every person identified that a mentor must be able to listen deeply. Mentorship, some said, is largely about self reflection and about constantly learning from our experiences and reactions. 

 

We left the event with so many more questions... What does it mean to be somebody? What role does this play in mentorship? How can we together heal and build the fabric of our community through shared ownership and shared vision? 

 

What is your story? In your opinion, what are the most important components of mentorship? If you joined the training what would you like to explore? Keep your eye out for the next mentorship storytelling event in January. You do not need to join the training to come to the story circles.

The Power of Listening

 

  











What If Listening Could Change the World?
 
Nicole Le Roux, co-founder of I Am Somebody!, is one of 20 young social entrepreneurs recently honored by YouthActionNet as 2012 Laureate Global Fellows.  This blog post was written for YouthActionNet.

I think every person has at least one family or personal silence, something that is just not spoken about. My silence is racism. I’m a 26-year-old white woman from South Africa and my family was directly and indirectly involved in upholding the system of dehumanization, segregation, and violence my people coined apartheid.

I have long been afraid that if I break the silence around my family’s experience I will hurt the people I love most. But what if our stories could change the world? What if the answer to the problems we face – the answer to violence, HIV/AIDS, poverty, war – was as simple as encouraging others to speak their truth, listening deeply to better understand, and finding our own truth in that understanding? 

I came to know the power of listening when I spent three weeks with my grandfather five years ago. I blamed him for being racist, a view I had confirmed when I found out he was a high court judge during apartheid. Right before visiting him, a friend of mine challenged me to listen to my grandfather, rather than argue. Although my grandfather said many things that I deeply disagreed with, and although I doubted my choice many times, I simply asked more questions and tried to listen harder.

During those many days of listening I found something I didn’t expect to find, I found love. I saw my grandfather as if for the first time – his soft comforting hands, the smile wrinkles around his eyes, the way he contemplated everything. I saw his fear of not being loved and how it upheld his worldview because it made it harder for him to be wrong, to be vulnerable, and to connect with other people. Every idea I had about him being different from me was shattered when I listened to his stories because I couldn’t blame him for what I also embodied. Fear had driven my own denial of how I had internalized racism and embodied my privilege. I realized that I have to confront that fear and the only way to do so is by breaking the silence.

My grandfather taught me that the cost of our fears is great. Fear maintains the status quo, drives crowd mentality, stifles creativity, upholds war, increases class disparity, and enables gender inequality that perpetuates the spread of HIV/AIDS. Fear defends privilege and silences the underprivileged. My grandfather also taught me that we are not our fear. Through seeing him, I realized that we are more beautiful, vast, complex, and valuable than we could ever dream.  

Several years after this experience, I co-founded I Am Somebody!, an organization that seeks to build a reconciled South Africa whose people have learned from and transformed their history.  We use storytelling and youth development to build resilient, reconciled, and integrated communities. Through several interconnected long-term programs, we create the space for diverse young people, their families, mentors, and friends to confront their challenges, to speak their stories, and to be witnessed.

Through telling stories about the challenges they face, participants in our programs and members of our community are able to see themselves more clearly and support one another. They do this across cultures and classes and the lines of division apartheid created based on skin color.

One example is a female participant in our Young Adult Rites of Passage Program, who dropped out of school to become a caregiver in her family while she was still a child herself. Many of her internal and external challenges stem from inequalities created by apartheid. She says that sharing her story has been like looking into a mirror and seeing herself and her situation from new angles. The reflection in that mirror has helped her to make important life changes and take ownership of her future.

Another one of our participants had been engaged in programs in other organizations but never felt safe enough to speak. For months in our program, he also avoided sharing openly but then something changed. He drew a picture of abuse and chose to tell his story. As he did so, he allowed himself to cry. Through that moment of speaking he began to confront his fear and to build the relationships he wanted in his life.

Individuals confronting their fears together can build reconciled communities. I am grateful to my grandfather for sharing himself with me and for teaching me about the beautiful and hard parts of myself. By listening deeply to others we can find more than compassion for them, we can find the gifts within our own silences. And if we then choose to speak, we can change the world.

 

   

Photos from October

Join our second Personal Sustainability Weekend!

Where: "Off-grid" Eco-friendly Forest Camp, Platbos Forest (click here & visit their site for photos)

Dates: 17-18 November 2012 

Time: Departing CT around 2pm on Friday and arriving back at 4pm on Sunday 

"Our vision for the weekend is to create the opportunity for people, particularly those 

working in the non profit sector, to continue to strengthen their personal sustainability 

through exchange with one another, building relationships, room for personal reflection, 

wilderness reconnection and rest."
 

Please RSVP to: 

nicci.leroux@gmail.com 

no later than Friday 9 Nov 2012

Here are some photos from our last sustainability weekend: 

What is your mentorship story? DATE & TIME CHANGE!

Please note that the date and time has been changed. 

The new date is:

Date: Saturday 24 November, 2012
Time: 2:00pm
Location: Novalis Ubuntu Institute 
39 Rosmead Avenue, Wyneberg 

We'd like to invite you to an evening of storytelling, delicious food and incredible people! The evening will also give you a chance to find out more about our mentorship rites of passage programme and how to get involved.

Please RSVP by 16 November to yesiamsomebody@gmail.com to book your spot.

Nicole le Roux, Co-Founder of I Am Somebody!, Honored as 2012 Laureate Global Fellow

Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA – Nicole le Roux, the co-founder and acting Director of I Am Somebody!, which uses storytelling and youth development to build integrated, reconciled and resilient communities, was among 20 outstanding young leaders from 16 countries honored as 2012 Laureate Global Fellows. The Fellowship is made possible through a partnership between the Sylvan/Laureate Foundation and the International Youth Foundation through its YouthActionNet® program.

Nicole le Roux was recognized on October 10 at a special ceremony held on the campus of Istanbul Bilgi University, a member of the Laureate International Universities network.

“We are delighted to welcome the 2012 Laureate Global Fellows into the YouthActionNet® community,” said IYF President and CEO William S. Reese. “We recognize that together these young social entrepreneurs can achieve far more than they ever could alone. The Sylvan/Laureate Foundation is playing an invaluable role in equipping young leaders—at the global and national level—with the knowledge, skills, and connections to each other that are so vital to achieve lasting change in their communities.

“The fellowship has better equipped me to work for our communities. I learned so much about myself, my style of leading, but also how to deepen my strengths in order to give even more to the work I feel so passionately about. It was incredible to spend time with young leaders who have followed their dreams and come up with inspiring solutions in different contexts, to share ideas, to develop collaborations and to make inspiring friends. The fellowship has already been an incredible opportunity for me to share some of the story of South Africa with people from around the world, the story of our challenges but also of our solutions.”

Founded in 2010 by Nicole le Roux and Toni Stuart, I Am Somebody! has started a network of 15 organizations that exchange resources, is running an 18-month Rites of Passage programme with 10 young adults from diverse communities, and has begun to build a network of support for these 10 young adults through storytelling events and workshops with over 400 individuals a year. Our work, while reaching many people, is not about the numbers but about the depth. We believe that listening can change the world. If people are witnessed for who they are, and supported to grow with people from diverse backgrounds, we can create the reconciled communities we dream of.

The Laureate Fellowship is open to young leaders, ages 18 to 29, who have founded or co-founded a social enterprise that has been in operation for a year or more. Fellows are selected by a panel of experts representing the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, along with the previous year’s winners. They benefit from leadership training, networking, advocacy, and funding opportunities and join a thriving global network of more than 650 young social entrepreneurs in 70+ countries.

To learn more about the 2012 Laureate Global Fellows, please visit: www.youthactionnet.org.

# # #

About I Am Somebody!
“I Am Somebody!,” uses the art of storytelling to build diverse communities committed to supporting the development of youth leaders. Its goal: to build a network of strong relationships among individuals and organizations that results in integrated solutions to young people’s needs. Through its Partner Exchange Program, I Am Somebody! facilitates the exchange of valuable resources and expertise among youth-serving nonprofit organizations. Its Community Building program consists of storytelling events and individual relationship building, while its Mentorship program provides critical training. These programs offer a network of support for young adults, ages 18-25, participating in its 18-month Rites of Passage program, a personal development initiative that encourages youth to address issues related to integration that affect their ability to achieve their goals.

To learn more, visit: www.iamsomebody.co.za
 

About YouthActionNet®

A program of the International Youth Foundation, YouthActionNet pursues a bold mission: to strengthen and scale up the impact of youth-led social ventures around the world. Through its local and global fellowship initiatives, YouthActionNet provides training, funding, advocacy, and networking opportunities to social entrepreneurs, ages 18 to 29, who have pioneered solutions to urgent global challenges. Joining us are universities, foundations, corporations, government agencies, and individuals – all united in their support young leaders whose innovations are changing the world – one community at a time. 

To learn more, visit: www.youthactionnet.org.

About the International Youth Foundation (IYF)

The International Youth Foundation (IYF) invests in the extraordinary potential of young people. Founded in 1990, IYF builds and maintains a worldwide community of businesses, governments, and civil-society organizations committed to empowering youth to be healthy, productive, and engaged citizens. IYF programs are catalysts of change that help young people obtain a quality education, gain employability skills, make healthy choices, and improve their communities.

To learn more, visit: www.iyfnet.org. 

About the Sylvan/Laureate Foundation
The Sylvan/Laureate Foundation is the company foundation of Laureate Education, Inc. Since 1997, the Sylvan/Laureate Foundation has provided more than $13 million in grants to 100 non-profit organizations. Its mission is to support best practices in training and education worldwide.

A member of the YouthActionNet® community, the Sylvan/Laureate Foundation sponsors the Laureate Global Fellows and is co-sponsor of YouthActionNet® programs at Laureate International Universities – the world’s largest network of private universities, comprised of more than 60 institutions of higher education in 29 countries and 740,000 students. YouthActionNet® programs are currently operating at Universidade Anhembi Morumbi (Brazil), Universidade Potiguar (Brazil), Universidad Andrés Bello (Chile), Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (Peru), Universidad Latina (Costa Rica), Universidad Tecnológica Centroamericana (Honduras), Universidad del Valle de México (Mexico), Universidad Europea de Madrid (Spain), and Istanbul Bilgi University (Turkey).

To learn more, visit: http://laureate.net.

Month to Say Yes Concert!

Say yes and buy a ticket to the fabulous Fundraiser concert with The Kyle Shepherd trio this Sunday 30th Sep 2012 at Novalis Ubuntu institute at 2pm. Thanks to the amazing and fabulous sponsorship of Kawai Pianos www.kawai.co.za and Eastern Acoustics Pro Audio www.easternacoustics.co.za we have a grand piano and beautiful sound. Book tickets now. Email yesiamsomebody@gmail.com. See you there!

The Month to Say Yes Celebrates with The Kyle Shepherd Trio!

What is the Month to Say Yes? The work of I Am Somebody! has been growing, so now we are growing a tree of Yes pledges to sustain the growth of our organisations programmes and the exciting and necessary relationships that have already resulted from our work across generation, class and culture in our Cape Town community. To celebrate the pledges we've received, we're holding a concert! It is free for pledgers, but you can also book tickets.

Don't miss our Sunday afternoon concert with the Kyle Shepherd Trio!

Date: 30 September, 2012
Venue: Novalis Ubuntu Institute
Time: 2pm
Price: Entry is free if you pledge!  You can also buy tickets for R120 before or R130 at the door. For bookings email yesiamsomebody@gmail.com

Please also note that complimentary tickets always available for individuals who cannot afford ticket price

  

A BIG Thank You to the first 23 individuals to pledge Yes:

1. Tina Schouw                          
2. Damian Holt
3. Ceri Baron
4. Toni Stuart
5. Mukhtar Mukuddem 
6.Lorna Mulder
7. David Rhodes                     
8. Glynis Daniels                     
9. Andy Duncan                       
10. Delene van Dyke             
11. Edward Sieh                     
12. Margaret Matthew 
13. Tessa le Roux      
14. Greg Andrews
15. Jennifer Parsley
16. Malika Ndlovu
17. Liesl Ramlal   
18. Earl Abrahams  
19. Pat Craig  
20. Anneleigh Jacobson           
21. Rageema Jacobs          
22. Julia Mukuddem          
23. Mrs. Stuart  

What you can do:

Become one of 100 people to pledge R100 a month for one year.
Every pledge grows a leaf on this virtual tree.
Help us fulfill our target of growing 100 leaves by the end of September.
Of course, we will receive a donation of any amount with deep gratitude. 

How do I pledge? To become a pledger just email yesiamsomebody@gmail.com with "I SAY YES!" in the email body or subject and we will follow up with you directly.  

 
What I Am Somebody! does: I Am Somebody! uses youth development and the art of storytelling to build a resilient, reconciled and integrated community. At the centre of our organisation is our eighteen-month Rites of Passage programme for young adults from diverse backgrounds. Within a nature based programme, young adults work to overcome barriers that inhibit them from courageously creating lives that matter. For these young adults, I Am Somebody! has created a support network of diverse individuals to assist them through its Mentorship Training Programme and its Community Building Programme as well as provide opportunities and access to 15 non profit organizations through its Partner Exchange Programme.

The Month To Say Yes is here!

Say Yes! Help fill our pledge tree with 100 leaves by the end of September and watch the leaves and the impact of your support grow... 

The work of I Am Somebody! has been growing, so now we are growing a tree of Yes pledges to sustain the growth of our organisations programmes and the exciting and necessary relationships that have already resulted from our work across generation, class and culture in our Cape Town community.

What you can do:

• Become one of 100 people to pledge R100 a month for one year. 
• Every pledge grows a leaf on this virtual tree.  
• Help us fulfill our target of growing 100 leaves by the end of September.  
• Of course, we will receive a donation of any amount with deep gratitude.

To find out more visit www.monthtosayyescampaign.org  and watch the leaves on our virtual tree grow. Also visit this web page to download your Yes pledge form and this letter with more information about the campaign. 

We believe that people who know they are "somebody" can live with purpose and create whatever they envision! Just thnk of the small sacrifices you need to make to help and compare them to building a country where every young adult leads a life that matters in a community that is healthy and whole... say Yes! You, too, can help create this vision!

Gratitude is the memory of the heart ~Jean Baptiste Massieu

This past week, our Board Member Tina Schouw celebrated her birthday. Many of you will know Tina's music. Some of you will know how often she has shared her gift to help us raise funds, performing at soirees and other events. 

I have long been in admiration of Tina. When I first heard about her I definitely idolized her, she was a role model for me of a strong woman who lives her dream. Now that I know her better,  she has helped me find the strong woman within myself and is helping the organisation do the same for others. I still remember when Toni Stuart and I, in the very early days of the organisation, approached Tina and asked her to join our Board. We asked her because we knew that she would help us find the inner wisdom we needed to build the dream of I Am Somebody! We were so nervous that she might say no, but her answer was a huge smile and a YES! She has been a mentor and support for I Am Somebody! ever since. 

I believe that the successes of I Am Somebody! and the resilience of the organisation in these early days can be attributed to the commitment our board has had. Regardless of their busy lives they each contribute so much to the work, they are the roots that are not always seen above ground. They are a support daily, they give their time without always been recognized for it and without needing anything in return. They believe in the dream of our work and they have been hugely instrumental in making it happen. Thank you Greg Andrews, Kyoko Kimura, Tina Schouw, Toni Stuart, Diana Ferrus and Kita Thierry. 

At her birthday gathering over the weekend, with a few friends and family, Tina asked people not buy her presents but to bring cash donations and drop them into a hat, which as she puts it is to "support the work of my favourite, fabulous NPO, I AM SOMEBODY" She collected R2100.00 towards our work! 

In her beautiful way, Tina suggested that her experience might be an example of a way that people in our community can help raise money for I Am Somebody! But more on that coming during our month to grow a garden in September (Wondering what this is? Watch this space to find out more soon!!) 

Thank you so much Tina for this gift among the many that you have given our work. Wishing you a very happy year!

---- Nicole le Roux, Director of I Am Somebody!

Personal Sustainability Weekend

 Xoli Fuyani of Earth Child taught morning yoga classes

Our greatest resource is people. Together, I Am Somebody! and Educo Africa's vision for our recent weekend workshop was to support the sustainability of the people within different organizations through room for personal reflection, wilderness reconnection and rest, and to develop deeper partnerships among those organisations using the concept of networking and exchange.

The Personal Sustainability Weekend, held July 20 - 22,  was an idea that surfaced at our Environmental Partners networking meeting last year. Alex Eppel of Educo Africa felt strongly that the sustainability of an organisation starts with the people doing the work.  We resonated with his belief and realized that although it was incorporated into our work before, we had never directly addressed it with our partners. I Am Somebody! and Educo Africa collaborated to develop and implement the first of our personal sustainability weekends for individuals working in non-profit organisations. The amount of interest for this programme was significant, it was clear to us that the issue of personal sustainability was very relevant to many people in the non profit sector.

Walking to do a solo in our beautiful natural surrounds

The weekend was centered around a question that was drawn from the incredible work of Organization Unbound (www.organizationunbound.org). The question was: When did you last receive the gift that you so regularly give to others? To work with this question participants had the chance to do a solo activity and tell the story of their solo, but they also had the opportunity to contribute their own answers, tools or solutions to the group.

The value of the weekend was ultimately created by the incredible wealth of passion, resources and skills within the group. It was inspiring to witness the way each person brought themselves to the weekend. It was also incredibly moving to reconnect with how much we do receive in our own lives from working within our communities and with the environment.

Sylvester making potjie

Participants Nolubablo (far left) and Zimkhitha (bottom right)

I Am Somebody! also saw this as an opportunity to support young adults in our Rites of Passage programme. We invited four of the participants in our Rites of Passage programme to attend the weekend and share the work they do and aspire to doing.  For Sylvester, whose dream it is to open a restaurant, it was an opportunity to make potjie for a group.  For Michael it was a chance to be witnessed for his work teaching surfing to kids, and to speak into what step he wants to take in the Rites of Passage programme. For Nolubabalo and Zimkhitha it was a chance to facilitate and share the work they are doing with youth through their organization at UWC. The four participants brought their passion, their dreams and an inter-generational perspective to the larger group, offering as much if not more than they were receiving. Exchange, we believe, happens across generations, across experience, across class and across culture.

Jenny Radloff from APC Women facilitated a vision board actiity

Finally, one of the most beautiful things to witness this weekend was the diversity of the group and the wealth of exchange this diversity made possible. There was inter generational diversity. There were people from organizations across different non profit sectors, from environmental to gender and technology to community building and youth development. There were consultants and artists with backgrounds from sustainable building to international documentary film. But there was also diversity in gender, class and culture. Throughout the weekend the diversity was often mentioned by participants as something to appreciate. We were reminded this weekend, that working towards an integrated, resilient and reconciled community can happen simply by exploring issues that matter to us within diverse groups of people.


We are very grateful to everyone who participated in the weekend and to Educo Africa for collaborating to make it happen and we're really looking forward to the next one!!
If you are interested in participating in the next Personal Sustainability Weekend on  November 17-18, 2012 please RSVP to yesiamsomebody@gmail.com and alex@educo.org.za

Rites of Passage Programme Workshop

On July 7-8 we held the first of eight two day workshops that are part of our Young Adult Rites of Passsage Programme. Click on the photos for more information about the workshop. Thank you so much to our partner, Novalis Ubuntu Institute, for providing the venue through non-monetary exchange. Thank you to our sponsors, Knead Bakery Muizenberg and Empire Cafe for donating bread and soup. Thank you to our volunteer, a mentor to one of the participants, Olivia Coetzee for sharing her story and supporting the weekend process in many ways. Thank you to Damian Holt for logistical support. 

Our candle for the children within us had animal crackers as well but they disappeared before we could even properly light the candle so they would never find their way in to the photograph.

The last activity of the weekend was called "River of Life" where you tell your story through a river.

Each participant painted the River to look at their own life, and began to look at how they have found belonging, independence, mastery and generosity in their lives.

After painting we told the stories of our rivers and the stories of creating the rivers.

Open Event

OPEN - event in collaboration with the Two Oceans Aquarium
It is on nights like these that anything in our country, in our community and in our lives feels so completely possible! Thank you so much to everyone enabled this event to be a success, there were so so many people who gave of their skills, their time and their energy!!! It was such an amazing experience for the I Am Somebody! team to have so many people support and take ownership of the vision and work of the organization, to have the participants and people from the community together and to experience, and to listen to the music while watching fish swim by! Watch out for our next big event coming in September. These photos were taken by Andre Meyer, who volunteered his time and skill to support our work.

Thank you so much to the Two Oceans Aquarium for collaborating on the event and to our sponsors TRUTH photography, Web Tickets and Lourensford Wine Estate. A huge thank you also to the Rhythm Workshops, Diana Ferrus, Tina Schouw and Sandile Mhi.

All proceeds of this event supported I Am Somebody!'s first Rites of Passage Programme camp! Thanks to your support, we raised R8500. Thank you so much for all of your support. 

 Above Left: Poet Diana Ferrus gave a beautiful performance in Afrikaans and English that used the power of words to transform

Above Right: Helen Lockhart of the Two Oceans Aquarium and Nicole le Roux of I Am Somebody! introducing the collaborative event

Right: Julie Blundell, Jonny Blundell and Anele Viti of Rhythm Workshops enabling us to create music with tubes - it was magical!

 











Above Right: Tina Schouw sharing her music and her heart with us

Left: One of the participants of our programme, Sandile Mhi rocked his first performance ever sharing his music, rhymes and wisdom in English and Xhosa

Right: Board member, Tina Schouw talking back stage with two of the participants in I Am Somebody!'s Rites of Passage programme Nolubabalo and Zimkhitha.

What is the Role of White Youth in South Africa's Struggle Movements?

While this is not an I Am Somebody! event, we are excited about the question they are asking and wanted you to know about the event: 

 

Ndifuna Ukwazi

Presents

Building Young Unity Across Divides:

What is the Role of White Youth in South Africa's Struggle Movements?

Date: Youth Day – Saturday 16 June 2012
Time: 11h00 – 15h00
Venue: Central Methodist Church, Greenmarket Square

Dear Guest,

We would like to invite you to attend Building Young Leaders for a Better Future: Unity Across Divides. Our guest speakers will include Paula Ensor, Paula Hathorn, Alison Lazarus, Zackie Achmat, Doron Isaacs, Waldimar Pelser, Murray Hunter and Vuyiseka Dubula-Majola. They will discuss the role of White, Coloured and Indian youth in creating a struggle movement that builds solidarity across the various divides – such as race and class – that have come to define South African society.

The seminar will have two panel discussions. The first will comprise activists who participated in the liberation movement in South Africa, and will focus particularly on their role in the 1976 uprisings. The point of this panel is to create a platform to discuss the role that White, Coloured and Indian youth played in the 1976 uprisings – a fact that is not always given as much weight as it deserves.

The second panel will be made up of white activists who participate in current South African struggles that aim to progressively realise the rights enshrined in the Constitution. The discussion will focus on how and why they became involved in the various struggle movements of modern South Africa and what they believe the role of the white youth in South Africa's current context.

We would like to invite five members from your organisation to join us at the seminar. Lunch will be provided (please contact Zenande Booi for catering purposes). Transport will be provided from Khayelitsha and UCT. You can also watch the seminar live at NU Live <http://nu.org.za/upcoming-events/live-streaming/> if you can't attend on the day.

Please RSVP to and/or contact Zenande Booi (email: zenande@nu.org.za <http://zenande@nu.org.za/> , cell: 079 732 1591, Tel: 021 423 3089) for further information.

Sincerely
Ndifuna Ukwazi



Office 203, 47 on Strand Street

47 Strand Street, Cape Town, 8000
Tel: 021 423 3089

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NdifunaUkwazi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/NdifunaUkwazi
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/ndifunaukwazi/

DIRECTIONS

>From N2:
Head along N2 to Cape Town CBD
Pass CTICC on left
Exit N2 onto Buitengracht Street
Continue along Buitengracht Street
Turn left into Strand Street
The Ndifuna Ukwazi offices are on the corner of Long Street and Strand Street.
Ndifuna Ukwazi is a recently established non-profit trust that aims to build and support social justice organisations and leaders in South Africa. Part of our programme involves hosting seminars on various topics of importance to democracy

You are invited to "OPEN"

BOOK YOUR TODAY TICKETS AT: www.webtickets.co.za

OPEN: An Evening of Song, Sound and Poetry

This press release about our collaborative event on June 16th was posted by the Two Oceans Aquarium 31 May, 2012. 

In celebration of Youth Day on Saturday 16 June 2012 the Two Oceans Aquarium, in association with I Am Somebody!, will present “OPEN: An evening of song, sound and poetry”. The event is in support of the non-profit organisation I Am Somebody! 

Featuring Jonny and Julie Blundell and Anele Viti from the Rhythm Workshop, poets Diana Ferrus and Sandile Mhi, and renowned jazz/folk singer Tina Schouw, OPEN will  take place against the backdrop of shoals of silver fish, graceful rays and sharks in the I&J Predator Exhibit.

Working from Cape Town in South Africa, brother and sister team Jonny and Julie Blundell specialise in facilitating interactive rhythm workshops using various instruments including musical tubes, African djembe drums, pan-pipes and assorted percussion. Together with Anele Viti, they will facilitate an Interactive Musical Tubes performance with the OPEN audience. Participants will be astonished with their ability to create rhythm, melody and harmony with a bunch of plastic tubes!

Diana Ferrus is renowned for her poem about Sarah Baartman whose remains were on display in Paris until 1986. In 2002 Ferrus read her poem for Sarah Baartman at the handing over of the remains to the South African government. At OPEN Ferrus will perform poetry in English and Afrikaans and will focus on themes around women, peace, identity and love.  

Sandile Mhi is a young poet who is a participant in I Am Somebody!’s Rites of Passage Programme. During this eighteen month programme a group of young adults between the ages of 18-25 meet regularly to go through rites of passage. Together they work with different aspects of themselves, including their strengths and their challenges, and share their story as they take different steps towards their dreams. Mhi will share his experiences of this programme through poetry.

Renowned musician Tina Schouw will perform songs from her most recent album “Winds Call” as well as some old favourites. Schouw is a heart artist making connections to the heart of healing. She is a singer /songwriter/ guitarist and author who continues to perform locally and internationally.  She has produced and staged her own shows, as well as collaborated with various artists on different productions in South Africa. Her music draws on an eclectic blend of styles including, folk, jazz, Latin and contemporary.

Proceeds from OPEN will go towards I Am Somebody! Through its programmes, this non-profit organisation provides people with the personal foundation for making better choices, stronger communities internally, integrated solutions between communities and restored relationships with nature that nurture community development. The programmes are based on principles of storytelling, the give and take of listening and the authenticity of real exchange.

Tickets to OPEN cost R130.00 and include entrance to the Two Oceans Aquarium, a glass of wine on arrival and a light snack. Tickets are available at Webtickets.co.za - www.webtickets.co.za. Doors open at 19h00 and a cash bar will be available.

For more information please contact:

Helen Lockhart

Communications & Sustainability Manager

Tw Oceans Aquarium

Tel: 021-418-3823

Email: helen.lockhart@aquarium.co.za

Website: www.aquarium.co.za

Nicole Le Roux

Director

I Am Somebody!
www.iamsomebody.co.za <http://www.iamsomebody.co.za>
http://www.marioninstitute.org/serendipity/i-am-somebody
Tel. 071 568 8970