A fun-filled week at the Kid's Holiday Club in Enhlanhleni, KwaDabeka co-hosted by CAST and our partner, KwaDabeka Baptist Church. Almost 100 children have attended each day and are guided by Psalm 23 as the theme of the event.
It's Youth Day in South Africa. Just as we commemorate the brave young people who stood up against oppression in 1976, we continue to support the youth of today who live in a world of poverty and injustice. We had the opportunity to provide new school uniforms to primary and high school learners in the rural community of Molweni, KZN who lost theirs in the recent floods. Thank you to Pastor James Mangisa of Azalea Road Baptist Church [...]
At CAST, we believe that resilience is key to being able to deal with life's challenges and bounce back from setbacks. In addition to our sport and discipleship programmes, we are excited to be running the Smart Moves Resilience programme as part of the national Life Orientation curriculum that will reach over 400 youth in our communities this year - many of whom have already shown great improvement in their level of engagement and participation at school. The [...]
Since joining CAST as a programme participant two years ago, 31-year-old Judith Abrams has made a valuable impact in giving back to her community as a volunteer for CAST’s Child Literacy and Youth Development programmes. Judith came to know CAST through a friend who worked at the Mariannridge CAST Community Centre assisting in the facilitation of programmes. She then signed up to participate in the Business Experience and Business Growth courses to learn how she could improve her [...]
Mandela spoke these words on the second anniversary of Youth Day in South Africa, This generation of youth stands at the border-line between the past of oppression and repression, and the future of prosperity, peace and harmony. Today's generation of youth face the same challenges on the "border-line" of change. Social issues like drug abuse, fatherlessness, poverty, and HIV/AIDS face the young people today, especially in the communities where CAST works. On Monday, CAST remembered the Soweto uprising [...]
A few weeks ago, we heard about Jupiter, who attended CAST's literacy programme training. CAST's literacy programme is based on another programme called Wordworks, which was established in 2005 to support and improve early language and literacy learning among children from historically disadvantaged communities in South Africa. CAST received book donations for Wordworks from a local book supply company called Books2You. The books were intended to go to Westville Senior Primary, but the school decided to donate them to [...]
Meet Lindsay, a business mentor to Lindiwe in Lamontville (from last week's story). Lindsay is a mom from Westville; she has triplets in Matric. She also works for her husband's business. After Bridgette, the founder of business forum, encouraged Lindsay to volunteer with CAST, Lindsay decided to become Paradigm Shift trainer in KwaDabeka and Lamontville. Because of her experience as a trainer in a bank, this was a great way to volunteer. However, when Lindsay was asked [...]
Yasmin Adams, CAST's Inner-City Coordinator, has started a program called "Give Your Brain a Hand" for students at Addington Primary School that focuses on developing God-given talents. "Give Your Brain a Hand" is intended to provide a creative outlet for the children in multiple areas, such as arts and crafts, singing, and dancing. The idea behind "Give Your Brain a Hand" is that students can use the talents God has already blessed them with instead of focusing on the [...]
For many years, CAST's Youth Development programme has provided multiple sport ministries for boys. During the last few months, Dale Nunes and Antony Mbugua have started a tennis team specifically for high school girls in KwaDabeka. This exciting new opportunity has provided the girls a safe place to go after school to spend time with their friends and gain confidence in a new skill. On the tennis court, girls are encouraged by the coaches to keep trying new tennis [...]
Many of you may have seen our new slogan floating around the social media realms and wondered what the inspiration behind it is. "Move Beyond Charity" is our way of expressing what the core beliefs behind our organisation are. We believe that extreme poverty can end, that mindsets can be changed, and that love is a necessity. We believe that changing the world requires more than just a handout, more than just charity; it requires action.... it requires [...]
