MERWEVILLE ALUMNI
DEVELOPING POTENTIAL ∙ TRANSFORMING A COMMUNITY ∙ ENDING POVERTY
HISTORY
When founding members George Fredericks, Patrick Buys and Loius Lottering’s paths crossed they quickly realised that they shared the same visions and goals to make a difference in Merweville. The Fredericks family whose father George Fredericks senior was transferred to Merweville as teacher, he taught 49 learners in a school with no classroom or toilets but an old church hall. The Fredericks family is highly respected today, and George Fredericks senior’s legacy and the impact he left in this community still lives on today. The Fredericks family wanted to assist the poor in the community by giving them soup and bread in the June holidays and a braai in December, the family has been doing this for the past 20 years. When Louis Lottering an ex student of George Fredericks Primary heard from his grade 1 Teacher Beatrice Fredericks, and what her family did twice a year, he informed childhood friend Patrick Buys whose parents and Louis grew up in extreme poverty in Merweville. They both shared a passion to make a difference in this town that their parents, through the grace of their higher power was able to rise above this and give their children a better future. They visited George Fredericks Junior at his home in Paarl and realised the impact it made in the lives of the community feeding them 2 days out of 365 days per year, yet they wanted to do more. Their lived experience and personal understanding of the needs of this community were used to develop the organisation. A meeting was held with other ex pupils and teachers of the school and The Merweville Alumni of George Fredericks Primary School was born. As meetings continued they realised they had to find a balance between their passion to make a difference and the reality of their own lives. Call it fate if you must, when by some divine miracle the board was introduced to Labeekah Peters and Tania Conradie by Patrick Buys. Together Labeekah and Tania have 38 years NGO experience and a passion to uplift poverty stricken communities. The two ladies along with board member Magrieta Van Sitters spent a week in Merweville and through community interaction found that 65% of the community are unemployed, 9% of the children are school drop-outs and only 3% have reached Matric as the town does not have a High school and families find it hard for their children to travel the 150km to High school and stay in a hostel where in most cases they don’t come home weekends and holidays because families just cannot afford the cost. 12% of the children are either orphaned or in foster care and in most cases it is the mothers who are dying at young ages. The info gathered has assisted the alumni to re look at their constitution and develop programs that will uplift Merweville and families to become self reliant and rise above Poverty. The organisation is driven by the fundamental belief that all people are created in the image of God. This compels us to treat every person with love, compassion and respect. By building relationships and seeking the goodness in each person, we enable them to discover their own value.
SUMMARY
Merweville Alumni is a leading dynamic organisation built on the belief that each human being has limitless potential and worth. Everybody matters. We believe that even those who have struggled with a dark past can find brighter days ahead. One way we act on that belief is through love justice hope and joy we support and foster self worth, character and motivation for families and the community. It is in all of our interests to give these individuals a second chance. Direct interventions are needed to help individuals become contributing members of the community - knowing they count! To increase awareness of personal power and capacity to contribute in a meaningful and positive way to family, workplace and community. Direct interventions that assist families, schools, and the community with their immediate needs in times of crisis. Without such interventions—including awareness workshops designed to reduce shame and stigma surrounding incarcerated parents—a toxic cycle of crisis can develop, which could later lead to incarceration for the child. Poverty is an unacceptable human condition. Our dynamic interventions adapt, enhance, exit and emerge, based on the development environment. Real change comes from empowering individuals with the capacity to use, maintain and facilitate these interventions. We have learned that jobs are probably about 80% of what these individuals need to redirect their lives. The other 20% is a mixture of therapeutic and support services. Our aim is to promote, where appropriate, the employment of community members and facilitate the creation of job opportunities that will benefit the community. We frequently evaluate our curriculum, and adapt as needed, to ensure we are meeting the needs of our community. As a community based organisation we compliment the lived experience approach. In life we often attempt to label people, place them in boxes using useful theories and evidence based practices to explain certain behaviours and traits. But as we are all aware people are different and approaches to their issues differ. There is a huge advantage to using a combination of evidence based approaches and lived experience. lived experience is the key to understanding a person's difficulty, lived experience can often identify risks or needs an academic approach can miss. people respond to people, that response in our opinion is greater when a person feels they understood and that becomes evident with a lived experience approach, a commonly shared type of experience or difficulty.
LABEEKAH
