Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Impact Direct: Nedbank Local Hero

Interview with Venise Smith who nominated Impact Direct as the local hero of the month in Cape Town. This is an initiative managed by one of the large South African banks, Nedbank, and Impact Direct won the award for local hero of the month of October. Here Venise tells us why she believes that Impact Direct is a local hero.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Citizens Expressing themselves

If you want to add anything to this blog please email me: rene.parker1977@gmail.com and I will post it with your name or if you want to remain anonymous that is no problem at all.
This is a space for you to share with others your frustrations or even some positive experiences.
Thank you for reading this blog.
Rene Parker

Citizens Express

Citizens Express blog is birthed out of a discussion I had with my husband Marlon Parker this morning. He was chatting to me about the 27 dinner he attend last night. He said the response he got after his talk was overwhelming.

I would like to use this as a platform for citizens to express how they feel or how they have been affected by systems of authority.

I volunteer at a Non-Profit organisation called Impact Direct in Athlone. They have just updated their website: www.impactdirect.org.za (I will give you more info on them later). One of the latest and most exciting projects they are running is the reconstructed project with ex-drug addicts and gangsters. Please check out their website: www.thereconstructed.com and www.mom2zero.com.

So back to the citizens: I know for a fact that there are lots of people out there who have been let down and dissappointed by either government or other forms of authority. Impact Direct have been running this reconstructed programme for nearly 2 years already. I have personally written proposals and requested funding from the Department of Social Development. We have submitted these proposals 3 times already and received no response. Once you read up on the project you will note how successful this project is and how much help is been given to people that really need it. So, on Friday Morning Live hosted the show at the Impact Direct centre. SABC invited Social Development, the MEC of Safety and Security and the Premier of the Western Cape. Impact Direct was carrying on as per normal preparing for Friday, when we were requested to submit another proposal by Social Development (we just handed exactly the same one we handed in on 3 different occassions).
Please read the next post to follow this story...