We live in a country which is rich in resources and full of people with great potential. Read how South African immigrants have risen to key leadership roles in the United States. Imagine if we could invest our time and energy into the people who are still living in South Africa? We will change our country and impact the world.

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I recently lost my older sister, Mary Catchpole, to a long battle with cancer. She was a wonderful person with a huge heart. She threw all her faith into her Oncologist and Western Medicine. Her battle with cancer lasted for sixteen years, with continued chemo and radiation but her body finally succumbed to the disease.

I have long been aware of the effects of the body, mind and spirit on our health. What we eat, what we think and our environment effects our behaviour and ultimately will have impact on our health.

Recently, Joel Ruttenburg, who is working with kid’s ministry in an informal settlement called Jika Joe, in Pietermartizburg, in South Africa, approached the Trustees of Awesome SA, to request that his initiative come under the banner of Awesome SA. The Trustees of Awesome SA have agreed to support Joel’s initiative. Joel has named his Non Profit Organisation the Eden Kids Trust. The Eden Kids Trust will fall under the banner of Awesome SA until it has become independent and self-sustaining.

Through the Eden Kids Trust, Joel has started a competition among the kids in Jika Joe to grow vegetables. Because of Joel and his passion to make a difference in the lives of these kids, who live in extreme poverty, I felt the need to share this TED Talk with you. Have a look – Collectively we could change the face of our world.

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We have all heard the expression “What you sow is what you reap”. We will reap a future for South Africa with the choices that we make today.

“We know not where we’re going,
Our choices will decide –
It’s not the destination
It’s the glory of the ride”

Reconciliation is the key to opening the door to a good future for our country. Reconciliation is an inspiring idea but unless we practice it in the true sense of the word, we are going nowhere, or worse still, our future will be on a slippery slide to nowhere – a vision that none of us want for South Africa – this country that we love.

The word “reconciliation” means “bringing together again in friendship”. In this country we have astonishing models for this. There are those who are famous such as Mandela, but there are hundreds of unknown people who are reaching out to one another every day, who are giving their time and resources to teach those who have nothing the means to look after themselves.

Reconciliation on the outside might look difficult but in truth it is very simple. It boils down to making the right choices for you and for those who are affected by your choices. Your heart knows the correct answer. Your future will be generated by the choices you make in every moment of your life. The correct choices need courage, sincerity and the ability to
stand up for what is right, regardless of what others may think.

At the end of the day it is all very clear. Treat every person you meet in the way that you would like to be treated, disregarding the divisions of colour, culture or political affiliation. Treat every stranger you meet as a friend that you have not yet got to know. This is the way to reconciliation.

After all, we are all South Africans, and our future is not a place that we are going to but a place that we are going to create.

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Zodwa Khumalo and I walk together in the early morning before our work day begins. When we meet, as one person recognising another, there is no sense of black and white, no definition of colour. Our differences fall away. We walk and talk together and laugh until the tears roll down our cheeks. This is the world of oneness. We then move freely between our different worlds, no longer defined by colour – we see each other as South Africans.

“To judge people by the colour of their skin, their faith or their ideologies is to be willfully blind…..South Africa will progress and prosper when we accept each other in our diversity. We will then become the great country that we have it in us to become.” – Di Smith

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This is an article that Gaynor Young from www.earearblog.com that she wrote about five years ago after just having had a Cochlear Implant.

“Picture a person in a darkened room. The light is off. The curtains drawn closed.
The objects in the room are merely dark shapes. The person moves unsteadily, unsure
where to put her feet.

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