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