UNSUNG HEROES AND HEROINES AWARED
In a society such as ours nothing is more important as building a strong sense of community and shared goals. The Community Builder of the Year is therefore one of the many projects aimed at building our nation through volunteerism.

Volunteering is important for numerous reasons that benefit both the community and the volunteer themselves. When someone donates a handful of time, the difference made is tremendous and it shapes a community for the better while the experience improves the person who donated the time. Volunteering is what makes a community because it brings people together to work on a goal.

The Community Builder of the Year is a Nation Building Project which was started more than 20 years ago by the Late Dr Aggrey Klaaste. The main aims and objectives of the Community Builder of the Year is to

• encourage a spirit of volunteerism and nation building by recognizing and celebrating the contribution of diverse individuals, groups and institutions towards the upliftment of South African communities.
• Acknowledge community workers for their outstanding work and sacrifice – irrespective of race, colour or creed – all members of our rainbow nation.
• Identify and highlight those community workers who freely give of their time and efforts to uplift their communities and set an example for others to follow.
• Recognise corporations that make positive contributions to the upliftment of their communities.
• Encourage other community members to uplift themselves in the same manner as these role


Speaking at the event last night MEC Alvin Botes hailed them as the unsung heroes and heroines who are continuing to fight the challenges of inequality and poverty . He said “ They burn the midnight oil and walk long distances , often without food and money , to comfort the sickest of the sick and the poorest of the poor “

He also said “ We salute those who run projects aimed at the eradication of poverty , hunger and unemployment in rural and urban areas. Poverty compromises people’s ability to enjoy their basic human rights . Those who lack basic amenities cannot enjoy the other rights in our constitution “

The combination of poverty and illiteracy in our communities is a devastatingly powerful. Therefore the ordinary community members who volunteer in the field of poverty relief and literacy are transferring the power of being able to choose. MEC Botes made a special note to the community members who have the ability to teach young people to make life decisions , teach them how to write a CV , how to plan for their future , how to resolve and avoid conflict and how to do family planning. As those are the basic skills they need to mould them and make them respectable pioneers within their communities.

In conclusion MEC Botes said” Tonight we are going to salute many charitable people , among these are members of pension communities . They are safeguarding the money and dignity of our parents and grandparents against abuse , robbery , theft and exposure.

The Community Builder of the Year is divided into the following 5 Categories of which each category winner received prize money of R 20 000 which must be used for the sustainability of the project.

Youth,
Adult ,
Senior a
People with Disabilities
Group

WINNER YOUTH – Ricardo Jonathan – Kgatelopele Youth Community Development Project - Groblershoop
WINNER ADULT CATERGORY – Ditlogeleng Tito – Curling Wire – Barkley West
WINNER SENIOR CATERGORY – Stella Matsipe – Tswelelopele Elderly Club – Olifantshoek
WINNER GROUP CATERGORY – Kasper Spandiel – Kasper Spandiel Coaches – Ritchie
WINNER DISABLED GROUP – Tebogo Merementsi – Joe Morolong Disability Cluster – Tzaneen Village

Our province needs men and women who has vision and can see the challenge and rise to it when challenges present themselves. Leaders are not born , they made. They are made by the extraordinary pressures of the circumstances in which fellow citizens find themselves at one particular time. Leaders do not have a throne on which they sit and from which they command people to do tasks. They lead by doing, often working more than the followers. In the morning they rise before everyone else. They miss lunch and other meals. They work until after everyone has gone to bed. Leaders do not wait for people to vote them into position before they can start working for their people. They work first and get recognised later. They do not work for recognition and do not ask for recognition.

The Department of Social Development was happy to have those leaders among their midst last night where they could be honoured and served .

ISSUED BY

Conrad Fortune
Manager: Communications
Department of Social Development
0798730679