I don't know if you are like me, but often I look around at neighboring communities and people and think to myself what should I be doing? For the past couple of months I have felt quite challenged in this, and so I decided, for myself, to start this certain on going project. I decided that I would spend time with people who are giving up their time and energy to serve and impact communities so that they might teach me something…well, that they might teach me how to love.
My first project was the Sozo Foundation, which is run by a couple called Anton and Elana. I had the privilege of going into a community with them to see one of their projects take place, The Sozo Boutique project. This certain project is just one part of what the foundation does, and encompasses doing a home make over on homes in townships in order to create a better and safe environment for children and their families. So, one Saturday morning Nick and I met them at the house where the latest project was happening. I took some shots while I was there and the following Tuesday went back to the house to see the finished work. Oh my goodness and was it a change! As we sat there with the family, toasting with a cup of Iron Brew and the mother of the children looking so proud of her newly restored, renovated and re-furnished home I suddenly realized that I had witnessed not just a home make over but a change in the entire family.
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| The volunteers from The Sozo Foundation starting their work on the house, early Saturday morning |
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| Sozo Foundation volunteers going into the home to start work |
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| The House from the outside, before (top) and after (bottom) |
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| Volunteers working on the house, even a few people from the community came to lend a hand! |
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| The bedroom, before (left) and after (right) |
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| The lounge area, before (left) and after (right) |
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| The bathroom, before (left) and after (right) |
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| On the left, before, this was the stove they were using and on the right, after |
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| This is now the new and improved kitchen area |
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| These are some of the photos that Anton and Elana took the day before work started and before they moved all the furniture out (from top left; kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, living room area and more of the kitchen) |
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| When I went back on the Tuesday I took some photos of the new restored home (from top left; kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, living room area and new sink/kitchen area ) |
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| Even their dog looked super stoked about the new house! :) |
I also got to spend some time with Anton and Elana afterwards to ask them more about The Sozo Foundation and what it was all about:
1. Tell us a little bit about yourselves and your team and about the Sozo Foundation
Anton: We run the Sozo Foundation which is primarily a youth development project and a social upliftment project that works in mainly the Vrygrund, Lavender Hill and Capricorn areas. The word 'Sozo" is a greek work, meaning "to save, rescue and preserve" which is our main vision for the foundation, Our vision is - to save a suffering society, through empowerment and social change; to rescue a generation of future leaders from cultural anonymity and to preserve communities, through education, restoration and sustainable development.
We would like to give communities identity, remind them of who they are and that their circumstances and environment does not have to dictate who they are. For everything the Sozo Foundation is doing at the moment, this is really key - that we would like to empower and develop communities in a sustainable manner. We don't just want to be a foundation that goes into the community, gives things and then disappear. we would like to train people, teach people, empower people to that they can be the change they want to see in their communities.
We have a couple of different projects within the Sozo Foundation at the moment these are;
Sozo Boutique: this is a social upliftment project which is basically a home make over project. through this, we hope to change to face of communities from the inside out and create an environment for children that is safe to live in. we want to change, upgrade and uplift the physical environment of vunerable young people. The effect of this physical change within the community could be dramatic and impact emotionally, mentally and spiritually the families whose homes we go into. we want to re-establish the home environment so that the house is not only a dwelling place but a home. We want to add value to this community, that is why, at the moment, we are only focusing on targeting one specific community so that we can have maximum impact.
Sozo Educentre: is an education project for young people which runs 3 days a week in the library in the Vrygrund area. This project combines education with mentorship, so we work with a specific number of young people from the community and we have a committed group of volunteers and tutors that not only teach the young people but to be there to guide them through their schooling and life.
Sozo Eden: this is a urban vegetable farming project which we have partered with Soil for Life. Through this combined effect we have a team of volunteers trained to empower families to know how to self sustain good tasting organic vegetables. Why we are growing organic vegetables only is because we want this to be sustainable, as most families do not have the finances to provide for pesticides etc. we would like to provide the knowledge about what is good to put into the soil and how to use the resources available in the community to be able to always provide good healthy vegetables to feed their families. this gives purpose to families, and provides a source of income addressing the food security issue.
Sozo Reap: is an entrepreneurial course, a micro enterprise project. it is a 13 week course where potential and current entrepreneurs are trained up for 3 hours on a Saturday, learning the basic principles of business.
2. How did the Sozo Foundation start / where did the idea originate from?
Elana: It all started as we got to know a lot of young people in the community of Vryground, Capricorn and Lavendar Hill. Through these relationships we realized that the need among these young people was huge. For example, their physical environment, the family environment, as many of these young people have grown up in families without parents. We also got to understand that a lot of the young people in these areas live in houses that sleep between 5 to 6 in one bedroom and that the space and guidance to study is often not available. A lot of them are also in schools where there are about 60-65 young people in a classroom, so they don't necessary get the attention and input they need. So we wanted to help out with education and this is how the Sozo Educentre started. We wanted to create a space where they could come into a safe environment to study, do their homework and also gain some guidance with their education.
Through starting this, and being exposed to some more of the core needs of vulnerable children and their families we identified various opportunities for empowerment and sustainable social change.
3. What are some of the long term and short term dreams/goals of The Sozo Foundation?
Anton: We have a big vision for all the various projects we are involved in at the moment.
With the Sozo Boutique our long term vision would be to upgrade the whole community and that eventually we will be able to start building homes for people that do not have. Short term of course would be to change one house at a time, one street at a time, one family at a time.
In the Sozo Educentre long term we would like to see this mentorship program see through the entire school journey of young people, as well as further, so that we see them pass their final exams, see them go to university and colleges and get work placement or apprenticeships and then maybe come back to the Educentre to train other young people. Short term we would like to see all of them increase in their abilities and capacity in their education.
Long term for the Sozo Eden project we would like to have planted so many gardens that we will be able to establish a garden nursery centre that will be able to be run by local people. This would be a non-profit center where people can come and exchange produce and seeds, pick up gardening tools they need. This would be fantastic in providing employment for local people but also to be able the long term running of all the gardens. short term we would like to continue to plant more vegetable gardens, train families up to tending to them and see the families benefit from this.
Short term for Sozo Reap we would like to educate more people in how to run a business so we would see more potential entrepreneurs and also current entrepreneurs up and running their own businesses. Long term we would like to see this turn into some more practical that there would be more and more micro enterprises birthed out of the course that will serve the community, so that the finances created would go back into the community. We would also like to get more current business owners involved in taking one of the potential entrepreneurs under their wing, so to speak, and guiding them through their business idea.
4. Have you got any stories you would like to share from when The Sozo Foundation started?
Elana: With the Sozo Boutique projects we have run up until now, we have seen an amazing response in volunteers and gifts of either supplies for upgrading the house or furniture. Its really been amazing to see and with some of the things we have received we haven't had to ask but certain things have just arrived, which has been great to see more people get on board with the projects.
Anton: Also when we launched the Sozo Educentre in the community at the library we were not sure who would come and turn up to support the launch. However when we got there 70 local people were there with their children. We had some speeches from community leaders and when we finally came round to cut the ribbon for the unveiling there was a huge cheer from everyone who was there. it was so great to see the local people from the community have such pride and ownership of this project. Often we can all go into these communities seeing the change that needs to happen but we forget it is their community and they want to see that change as much as we all do
Elana: Its also been great to see how the community accepts us from the beginning and how they all look after us as we have built relationships with more people from the areas, even having people wanting to be friends with us and wanting to help us also.
5. Where can we find you?
You can find us on our website, we also have a facebook group where you can receive updates on what Sozo is doing and see where you can get involved.
6. What are the current needs of The Sozo Foundation?
Anton: In a nutshell, we need financial support. We have had some wonderful support up until now that has enabled us to do the projects we are doing at the moment, but we would like to grow and have two full time paid staff to be able to help run all the projects.
Our other needs are more tangible. There is always an opportunity for people to get involved in volunteering some of their time to help, whether this be to help one Saturday when we partake in Sozo Boutique. if you can use a paint brush or a broom this can be for you. We also need some more tutors to help in the Educentre. The Educentre runs on a Tuesday afternoon, a Friday afternoon and a Saturday morning. People can volunteer for all these sessions, or once a week, or even once every two weeks. Also with this you do not neccassry need to know how to teach. We basically tutor, so you might have a test one week and have to mark it, but will have to answers to be able to.
There are also opportunities to sponsor a house. We have worked out that if general materials like paint etc were not donated a basic house make over would cost between R8,000 to R10,000 per house. This would include painting the house inside and out, including primer, replacing flooring, general appliances, replacing the windows, bathroom, curtains etc.
In the future we would also like to set a sponsor a child scheme to enable people to sponsor one of our young people to go through the Educentre in a year. We think this would cost between R300-R300 per month per child.
If you are interested in getting involved with The Sozo Foundation in anyway, please either contact them directly through the website, or feel free to leave a comment below
