The moral fibre of South African society has crumbled. Crime, in all its horrific manifestations, is on the increase and will not be stopped through reactive or symptomatic responses alone. It is a change of heart and soul which has to take place. Awaken the Soul of Africa inculcates and reaffirms values which have been lost along the way, values of tolerance, respect, honour and integrity.
The primary goal of this project is to inform and educate South Africans about the pressing need for a community-driven African renaissance of values and culture. We received funding in 2007 and 2008.
Since the previous work in the field of HIV and Aids had been conducted in the Eastern Cape, KZN and Mpumalanga in 2002 and 2003, it was decided to build on this work in 2007 and 2008 by continuing in these provinces. One of the key project partners in each of the three provinces was the church. It has credibility as a moral agent and therefore serves as a powerful mechanism of change. By combining our message of social transformation with that of the church, we can only succeed in contributing to form morally strong communities!
All workshop attendants were provided with the appropriate end-user friendly material, consisting of the core publication, Awaken the Soul of Africa and the Facilitator's Guide. Both end-user focused and training-of-trainers' workshops were conducted, the obvious benefit of the latter being that a wider range of information was disseminated among communities.
A workshop comprises two sessions. The first session deals with communication and conflict resolution and the second session explores the idea of the African renaissance – for South Africa and locally for the participants' own community. It focuses on galvanising our target communities to action – taking practical steps towards bringing real change.
Recipients were excited about the publication. They anticipated that widespread use of this booklet could bring about change in their crime-ridden communities – especially because it can be used by different religions, ages, sexes, races and literacy level groups.
2007/2008 Awaken the Soul of Africa! was implemented through workshops with faith-based organisations and funded by the WK Kellogg Foundation.
2002 Awaken the Soul of Africa! was sponsored by the WK Kellogg Foundation and implemented with workshops in various provinces.
