Monday 15 September 2014

Father Desmond Reaches 80

Desmond Tutu has been called many names – archbishop, voice of the voiceless, rabble rouser, and others that are not repeatable!

He is probably liked more among whites than among blacks at this stage.  Put another way, he has been consistently disliked by those in power – previously whites and now blacks.

His face is etched in global awareness, as distinctive as Colonel Saunders founder of KFC.

He tried to withdraw from public life, but keeps making comebacks!

He gave his permission in 2006 to let us re-name C4L in his honour.  The proviso was that he could not get actively involved.

C4L chose him for 6 reasons.  He is African.  He is a person of faith.  He has remained in civil society, not entered the public sector.  He started in service delivery (as a teacher) and moved into advocacy (for justice).  He was and is courageous.  He engages the powers.  For these reasons he became C4L’s icon… our champion, our hero.

He wrote a book called God is not a Christian.  Food for thought.

He has a way of being totally unorthodox while still wearing that traditional old dog collar!

He wrote this poem, Victory is Ours:

Goodness is stronger than evil;
Love is stronger than hate;
Light is stronger than darkness;
Life is stronger than death;
Victory is ours through Him who loves us.

In his collection called An African Prayer Book, his poem above is followed by another from Bread for Tomorrow, in Kenya.  It is called Deliver Me:

From the cowardice that dare not face new truths
From the laziness that is contented with half truths
From the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth
Good Lord deliver me.


Commemorate!

Here’s the challenge… to give 80 bucks to commemorate this special occasion.  This will help with some C4L development costs that cannot be funded by grants.  In other words, the “general fund”.  Grant funding is a mixed blessing – they increase an NGO’s volumes but they also come with stringent spending limitations.  So “unallocated funding” is very useful.

In Canada, mark your gifts clearly for C4L and send them to:

Reachout To Africa
Parkgate RPO

PO Box 30052

North Vancouver, BC

V7H 2Y8

In South Africa, make a deposit to C4L’s account at Standard Bank:

    Desmond Tutu Centre for Leadership
    Branch code: 05 28 52 43
    Account number: 0302 82713

The big birthday is October 7th.  Visit C4L on that day for an Open House!  Hoyo hoyo!

Long live Desmond Tutu!


Getting it right


C4L seems to be ending a 2-year period of consolidation and starting to grow again.  The big news is that before Oct 7th, it will complete the graduation of 80 youth with accredited training on campus in 2011!  This is from the Livelihood Security Unit.

Before the end of the year, two other accredited training courses are coming on line for 2012:

End User Computing – a segment of our Organization Development programme
Social Auxiliary Worker – a new umbrella for youth deployed in community service

The strategic focus on youth seems to be a propos in the light of the “jobless recovery” to global economic recession.  C4L’s approach mixes economic empowerment with social service.  Especially in terms of the water emergency and the energy crisis, youth need to take ownership because their generation will be affected by these more than their forbears.

The rotational “acting up” has been working well.  Instead of a CEO, the “CEO-ship” is being shared on a rotating basis.  This is giving the Senior Management Team more opportunities to stretch and grow.

This month C4L is joined by two young Europeans volunteers.  Julia just arrived from Germany for one year, to carry the torch of the On-line Mentoring project.  Wendy is arriving soon from the UK for 3 months to help get the next two accredited training courses ready.

The work of C4L is never far from Desmond Tutu’s prayer about “the cowardice that dare not face new truths”.  The new generation has to conserve resources like water and energy more than their short-sighted forbears.  Youth need to gain entry to the work place much sooner that they are presently able to.  The “digital divide” between North and South is widening not narrowing.  Social work as a profession needs to find more room for young auxiliaries.  C4L is at there forefront of these efforts – where it should be.

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