On 16th June 2015, Youth gathered at Beautiful Gate to commemorate the Soweto youth uprising on 16 June 1976.
Beautiful Gate, in partnership with SRC leadership from the College of Cape Town, Amy Biehl Foundation, City of Cape Town and New Africa Development Corporation coordinated a youth programme which included sport, dance, and debate. The main idea, was to encourage young people to stand up for something and to have hope. As Sonwabile Dwangu, Manager of the Youth Resource Centre said "The youth of that generation had a purpose. And we want to encourage the youth of today to see their own purpose. To get more education, to play a role in developing their communities and to take their futures' seriously."
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One of our 2015 Cycle Tour riders, Andrew Marks, came out early to tackle the Cape Rouleur ride which happened the week before the Cycle Tour. Raising awareness of the work of Beautiful Gate, Andrew wore his jersey with pride. Watch the video below to get a glimpse of this brutally hard but beautiful cycle race.
After a week of fires in Cape Town in the week leading up to the 2015 Cape Town Cycle Tour, the race organisers took the difficult decision to shorten the length of the tour from 109km to 47km. While obviously a huge disappointment for many of our riders who had been training hard and raising support for Beautiful Gate, they did not let it deter them and we all continued to support the #showyoucaresolidarityride! This year we had 63 riders on the Beautiful Gate Ride for Hope team. Nine riders were from Johannesburg, 1 from Kenya, 1 from the UK and the rest based in Cape Town. Three of our staff members formed part of the team: Sonwabile, Luyolo and newcomer Thabo. We even had two children riding in the main event and a couple of father-son teams. Beautiful Gate staff came out to support the team as they finished their race, and riders looked a lot fresher than they have on previous years. On the Saturday before race day, 5 children from our after school programme and 6 children, whose parents support Beautiful Gate, took part in the Junior Tour, riding between 1.7km and 10km. Great fun was had by all and the children were excited to receive their medals. While the final amounts are still making their way into our bank account, it looks like we will have exceeded the R200 0000 mark for this year's campaign! We would like to thank each rider that took part and would also like to extend our appreciation to our sponsors who provided cycling jerseys. post-race hospitality and parking. Thank you Tullow Oil, Deloitte, Reeds and Rennies Travel. Have you had a chance to look at the photos on our Facebook page? If you're in one of the photo's, please tag yourself. How can you get involved in future?
WE ARE PROUD TO BE OFFICIALLY SPONSORED BY:This article first appeared as part of our April 2015 newsletter. Read the full newsletter here.
One of the ongoing and most pervasive challenges for South Africa today is the issue of inequality. There is no easier place to view this inequality than in the townships surrounding the City of Cape Town. With two boys in a government school in an established suburb, it pains me daily to see the inequality facing children of the same age in Crossroads and Philippi. While education is not the only area of inequality in our country, it is certainly one of the drivers which if not addressed will ensure that inequality in our country will never be erased. Even as some people applaud an improving secondary school pass rate sadly, only 44% of children get to grade 12 in South African schools. The number of pupils who started grade one in 2002 was 1,261,827 - however, the number of pupils who eventually wrote grade 12 exams in 2013 only 562,112. A staggering 56% of learners lost before even writing matric. Of those that did get to sit down to those exams, only 78.2% passed. Sadly, this means that more than 60% of South African children are left with no qualification at all beyond the Grade 9 level.
How do begin to address this? Read more about how Beautiful Gate's After School programme is improving educational outcomes and beginning to see results. Beautiful Gate’s Youth Resource Centre sees over 1000 high school learners and out of school youth each year. Most attend the Centre to use the computer and internet facilities to do homework, research study and career opportunities and apply to colleges and universities. Others come looking for employment opportunities and internships to help them get into the ever increasingly competitive job market. Last year we launched a pilot project with grade 11 learners to focus on supporting a group of achieving Science and Maths students from New Eisleben High School. By providing Career Guidance, Life Skills and Digital Training we hope to be able to mentor these young learners to discover their career path and assist them through successful application to College or University. Yet one essential intervention was lacking; tutoring support. In 2015, we finally found a partner to help us fill this all important gap – Teach Out. Teach Out is a project under Ubunye and associated with the University of Cape Town. TeachOut aims to harness the experience and expertise of UCT students to provide academic assistance to high school learners in Cape Town’s disadvantaged communities. They achieve their mission by running after-school and Saturday tutorials in various academic subjects. The aim of these tutorials is not to replace classroom teaching, but rather to offer their skills and resources to provide academic assistance from students to students. This helps learners to build confidence and to identify and correct gaps in their knowledge. With focus subjects being English, Functional English, Physical Science, Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy, Teach Out is the ideal partner to help learners accessing the Beautiful Gate Youth Empowerment Programme to succeed academically. Our sincere thanks appreciation to Sarah Palser, Ruth Brain and Sethu Mbuli for helping us establish this vital partnership. We look forward to seeing the impact it will have on the success of our learners! Linathi (10) and Abongile (12) are orphans. Both their father and their mother have passed away. Although they were taken in by their maternal grandmother, she did not care for her grandchildren properly. She was receiving their child support grants every month, but the children were often hungry and didn't always go to school. She was misusing their money for her own needs. Their other granny, Ntombizodwa, was worried about her grandchildren. She took them home to live with her. The problem was that the maternal grandmother wouldn't cancel the grant and Ntombizodwa was struggling to provide for them on her own. In August 2013, she went to the SASSA office to explain the situation and to make an application. But every time she went to the office to follow up, officials promised her that they were trying to deal with her case. It was then that she heard about Beautiful Gate and came to visit our social workers. Our social worker wrote a referral letter to SASSA, explaining the situation and asked them to cancel the grant in favour of the maternal grandmother. Each month Beautiful Gate supported her family with food parcels while she was waiting. We also helped with follow ups, taking the matter up with the SASSA branch manager. After a long wait, Ntombizodwa was rewarded, with a back payment of cash, and the monthly grant being paid to her. Some interesting facts... Beautiful Gate's Family Services includes providing access to grants, short term food relief, advice and referrals for 240 families each year to help them stay together and find long-term solutions. Every year we run a number of workshops to help equip parents, caregivers and the general community with important life skills and information. Read more about our programme.
SASSA (The South African Security Agency) is tasked with administering social security services. Beautiful Gate is pleased that they have decided to open an approval office on our site. This will further assist our community members to access the support they can get from government. In 2012, there were approximately 3.54 million orphans in South Africa. This includes children without a living biological mother, father or both parents, and is equivalent to 19% of all children in South Africa. Many children in South Africa do not live in the same dwelling as their biological parents. The proportion of children living with both parents decreased to 35% in 2012. Twenty-three percent do not have either of their biological parents living with them. Just over a quarter (26%) of all African children do not live with either parent. If you are interested in finding out more about statistics relating to children, you can read more here. Source: www.childrencount.ci.org.za The names have been changed to protect the family. The image is a stock photo. Do you know that as a South African tax payer, you can deduct the amounts that you donate to us up to the value of 10 percent of your taxable income? This applies to individuals and businesses making donations. That's a great incentive to keep giving! From the 1st March 2014, you are also able to roll over any donations in excess of the 10 percent limit to the succeeding year of assessment.
The South African tax year ends on the 28th February 2015, so it's not too late to give. We will issue you with a Section 18A receipt for your tax return. The easiest ways to give are online or direct into our bank account. Please contact support@beautifulgate.org if you need more information. We value each and every donor that makes our work possible and helps create hope in this community. Thank you! Every year friends, colleagues, schools, churches, organisations and sometimes even strangers choose to become Beautiful Gate Ambassadors. Using their own initiative, creativity and abilities, they set out to do something to raise funds for us.
This year, one of our Ambassadors, Andrew Marks, is taking on 700km for Beautiful Gate, riding the Cape Rouleur and the Cape Town Cycle Tour! Read about what he's doing here. If you'd like to become a Beautiful Gate Ambassador in 2015, email marketing@beautifulgate.org to register your idea and get the fundraising tools you need. If there’s one thing every man desires to be, it’s to be a Real Man. It’s the one thing that binds us, that makes us tick, that we all strive for…and sadly, it’s the one thing South African women and children do not see enough of. Rape, Abuse, Domestic violence, Abandonment, Lack of protection and support. All these societal ills and family dysfunction are rife in South Africa today. Most of all non-profit resources go towards protecting and supporting children and women. Society strains to help the vulnerable. Women and Children. Why? Because often they are not protected and supported by the men in their lives. Weak men, abusive men, selfish men. But there is hope! Real Men…Amadoda Oqobo…can change that. In our recent launch workshop men from all over our Philippi community joined together to discuss what it means to be a real man. The outcome? Well so far, four primary values have emerged: 1. Real Men LOVE, PROTECT and RESPECT their partner 2. Real Men are REAL FATHERS to their children 3. Real Men STAND UP FOR OTHERS in their community 4. Real Men DON’T RAPE or commit acts of violence Finally, the Men’s conversation has started. Watch this space for more. Join in the conversation. What do you think a Real Man looks like? When Athenkosi joined the Beautiful Gate After School Programme in 2014 he was in grade 4. He wasn't doing very well at school, at home he was not listening to his parents, and at school the teachers were concerned about him. "When he first came along, he was disruptive. I was worried about him, so I referred him to our social worker." Athenkosi met with our social worker, and our child care workers visited him at home. His parents were invited to a meeting at Beautiful Gate. And now, a year later... Athenkosi has changed. He has become a soccer star, and has become a respectful little boy, at school, at home and at after care. "We are also very proud of him as his tutors! He makes us proud!" Athenkosi passed grade 4 very well and is now doing grade 5. Beautiful Gate's After School Programme reach more than 200 children every week day afternoon at the Beautiful Gate centre and other sites around the community. Read more about our After School Programme on our website, or if you would like to help us reach more children like Athenkosi, please make a donation online today. |
Crossroads ChildWelcome to a window into the lives and issues facing children in the Crossroads community on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. Most of these stories centre around the children and families we work with at Beautiful Gate South Africa, a Christian non-profit organisation whose mission is to show God's love as we care for and protect children, empower and preserve families and mobilise our community to do the same. Archives
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