as they affirm in our workshops, “if we don’t do good things for our communities, then no one
will. We are our own heroes.”
After three months of workshops, I was blown away at how eager the participants were to create
progress on their own. So, after months of Takalani Empowerment consisting only of myself and
50 youths, I affirmed that the right leaders and counterparts would enter my life. Six months after
the launch of Takalani Empowerment, we have six new adult facilitators and six subprograms,
which include boys and girls youth empowerment, food security, literacy, water and sanitation,
vulnerable persons empowerment, and community resource development.As we continue to
expand, a common question I am asked is how I can manage to do so much?
It’s simple. I believe in people. I believe the one thing people want and need the most is to feel
inspired. And inspiration, folks, is the catalyst of creation, and the stimulus for growth and
reckoning. I have witnessed the transmutation of apathy into passion, of defeat into courage, and
of entropy into poeisis. When I have so many first hand experiences to justify my faith in this
environment, how can there be any room for doubt?
I have been led to leaders from within the Venda community who have been demonstrating
social responsibility and a passion for community building long before my presence here. These
leaders are now role models for the community- exemplifying a new identity as evolutionaries of
culture. As they stand before our group of participants, these leaders are a mirror to them. These
revolutionary thinkers lead by reflecting to their people, and to me, the possibility, achievement,
and progress which is contained in the cells of our bodies and the fibers of our being, just waiting
to be tapped.
We, together, are living, breathing proof of the alchemy of potential.