A South African woman has chosen to gift her birthday to an underprivileged school while leaving them with an inspirational message.
Susannah Farr, the CEO and founder of gold-youth development agency, had a dream, and she has made it a reality for 1000’s of young people.
Consumed by a vision of young Africans living out their given purpose in life and leading Africa into its full potential, Susannah Farr founded a community based NGO in 2000.
“You are valuable. When you believe that you have value- you will start to value others too. And you HAVE to start to fight to be part of a movement of positive change that is bigger than yourself. We cannot see our community or country or continent shine until YOU begin to let the gold that is inside of you SHINE”
The birth of gold-youth in 2004, as a larger capacity-building NGO, was the next natural step. Susannah’s vision was to refine, further test and scale up across multiple communities within Southern Africa.
She explains: “The concept of Peer Education, which harnesses the influence that young people have on their peers, is not new. The new idea that I developed and implemented is the concept of a Peer Education Model that is measurable, replicable and scalable, with clear indicators and expected outcomes which are core to sustained change at an individual, peer group and ultimately at a community level.”
“The gold-youth Peer Education Model, if rolled out in enough countries, provinces, schools and community sites can effect systemic change and will positively impact the way that the education and health systems interact with and support youth.”
Susannah has chosen to spend her birthday away from her young family as a way to raise awareness of the work that gold-youth is doing and also to share her message with the young people of Masoyi.
The Masoyi Community is a small tribal area consisting of six villages located within the Ehlanzeni District in Mpumalanga province. The area has a population of approximately 220 000 people, of which 28% of the sexually active population are believed to be HIV positive.
There are sometimes as many as forty funerals each week most of which are AIDS related deaths. The area is characterized by low levels of infrastructure and high levels of unemployment (currently standing at 75%). There is a growing number of granny and child-headed households emerging. Increasing numbers of households are afflicted by poverty due to loss of breadwinners to diseases like HIV/AIDS and others and families are absorbing the costs of caring for the sick.
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Herman High Learners Help Turn Hermanus Pink for Pauline!Susannah’s message, which she shared at assembly (she spoke in Swati, the local language), is at the heart of what gold-youth believes and fights for every day.
“Youth make up just under half of the population in Southern Africa which is increasing every year. Most of you are probably growing up in challenged communities, lacking positive role models and parental support. Many of you are facing the reality of orphanhood, some of you are finding it hard to stay in school, some of you have experienced abuse. Poverty and unemployment are daily struggles for many here.”
“I have a dream to see a generation of young people – like you – given the support and told the truth about what you can be so that no matter what your circumstances you can make choices today to begin to come into your full potential. I believe in young people.
“You are our future.”
“You need to lead today and not just tomorrow. Your small decisions to keep on choosing the higher road will get you to where you will be in the years from now. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t make it.”
“You are valuable. When you believe that you have value – you will start to value others too. And you HAVE to start to fight to be part of a movement of positive change that is bigger than yourself. We cannot see our community or country or continent shine until YOU begin to let the gold that is inside of you SHINE.”
‘gold-youth’ mentors and trains youth, giving them the support and positive guidance that they so badly need in order to develop skills, leadership, to stay in school, make wise choices and inspire change within their schools and communities. The gold-youth programme increases their employability and connects them to opportunities post school.
Over the past decade ‘gold’ has reached thousands of young people, and created jobs for 100’s of youth leaders, in communities in South Africa, Botswana and Zambia, and the results and outcomes, measured through an auditing process, are measurable.
This is her ‘back to school birthday campaign’ to raise R100 000… to assist in any way, click here.
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