GROWING SMART LEADERS THEREFORMIST SOCIAL VENTURE
GROWING SMART LEADERS Shaping the Future for the Youth by the Youth – June Mokoka The interesting thing about life is that we are never ready. We believe we have to wait for the right time to act, for the right people to help us or wish the unfavourable situations we find ourselves in should go away. Being in a position you’re not ready for can wear you down. It can break you. You will want to quit. But that’s because you’re not prepared. It doesn’t mean you can’t become prepared.
that turn out the way we want or anticipated. No wonder that very sense of wellbeing is able to create tragedies in the process of pursuing our happiness. For example, people scheme. Steal, betray or kill to get to what they want and believe will make them happy. That usually happens when human beings expand the energy of fear, greed, selfishness and violence in pursuit of happiness.
Welcome to a life-enriching movement of young people determined to develop their inner being, inspire actions that create value to their lives and the lives of others, support life in the form of meeting needsneeds of the physical planet, trees, lakes, or human beings or animals.
A major part of Growing Smart Leaders encourages young people to challenge their leadership ability, particularly the fine distinctions between leading in order to possess power, and/or leading in order to inspire others.
Positive changes can only materialize when we resolve to depend fully on God and stop the self-destructive philosophy of a ME! ME! ME! mentality. In the natural, all human beings love great highs; our sense of wellbeing and happiness is determined by external events and circumstances
It promises transformational leadership of great practical worth. For instance, great emphasis is placed on doing something yourself in place of waiting or expecting someone to do it for you. It could be a kind notion of encouraging young minds to get involved in recycling waste to raise money for a friend who has cancer or
August 1, 2017 Volume 2
12 August 2017 is International Youth Day collecting during winter The themeblankets of International Youth Day for theishomeless. 2017 Youth Building Peace
Join us; learn more; organize! The official commemorative event to celebrate International Youth Day at the United Nations Headquarters in New York will take place on Friday, 11 August 2017. To learn more about how you can participate in the event or watch it live. http://bit.ly/IYD17
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Youth Empowerment and Career Development August 12th, 2017 Time: 09h00 – 16h00 Venue: Leruo’s Guest House Kimberley, Northern Cape Province South Africa Theme: 21st Century Skills, Careers, and Competitivenes LIMITED SEATS – REGISTER NOW to avoid missing this transformative opportunity
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TRANSFORMING OUR WORLD WITH SDGS The Sustainable Development Goals On September 25th 2015, countries adopted a set of goals to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda. Each goal has specific targets to be achieved over the next 15 years. For the goals to be reached, everyone needs to do their part: governments, the private sector, civil society and young people. Achieving this vision requires a fresh approach with the Youth included as part of the solution finding process for a sustainable future. With that in mind, Growing Smart Leaders’ fresh insights and a holistic view of career development incorporates the fundamental elements on youth empowerment with new strategies to help them think beyond their current or immediate environment.
The take away focus is for participants to stimulate their thought process and realise that the objective of any career is to transform people’s lives, and the following skills are harnessed. ▪ Thinking critically and making sound decisions about the bombardment of information that comes your way every day— both on mainstream and social media, at school and in your community. Critical thinking empowers you to see the credibility, accuracy and value of information. As you analyse and evaluate information, you make rational decisions and take purposeful action. ▪ Solving complex, multidisciplinary, open-ended problems life throws at you. Challenges do not come in a multiple-choice format and don’t have a single right answer. You need to be able to identify
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problems, think through solutions and alternatives, and explore new options. Creativity and entrepreneurial thinking— the 21st century youth’s economic mentality should be that of creating jobs and not taking jobs. It is an entrepreneurial mindset with the ability to recognize and act on opportunities, and the willingness to embrace risk is what is required to grow the economy. Making innovative use of information and knowledge, to create new systems, products, services and procedures. Taking charge of financial, health and civic responsibilitieschoosing to follow healthy lifestyles, being financially savvy and an active citizen to inspire positive changes.
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SOLVING IT WITH PALESA MAKARA The theme of International Youth Day 2017 is Youth Building Peace. PEACE, JUSTICE, AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS:
WHY THEY MATTER Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies Are Necessary to Achieve the Sustainable Deployment Goals. What’s the goal here? Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. Why? Peaceful, just and inclusive societies are necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). People everywhere need to be free of fear from all forms of violence and feel safe as they go about their lives whatever their ethnicity, faith or sexual orientation. In order to advance the SDGs we need effective and inclusive public institutions that can deliver quality education and healthcare, fair economic policies and inclusive environmental protection. What needs to be done to address this? To achieve peace, justice and inclusion, it is important that governments, civil society and
communities work together to implement lasting solutions to reduce violence, deliver justice, combat corruption and ensure inclusive participation at all times. Freedom to express views, in private and in public, must be guaranteed. People must be able to contribute to decisions that affect their lives. Laws and policies must be applied without any form of discrimination. Disputes need to be resolved through functioning political and justice systems. National and local institutions must be accountable and need to be in place to deliver basic services to families and communities equitably and without the need for bribes. How does this goal apply to me, wherever I live? Crimes that threaten the foundation of peaceful societies, including homicides, trafficking and other organized crimes, as well as discriminatory laws or practices, affect all countries. Even the world’s greatest democracies face major challenges in addressing corruption, crime and human rights violations for everyone at home. What would be the cost of not taking action now?
Armed violence and insecurity have a destructive impact on a country’s development, affecting economic growth and often resulting in long-standing grievances among communities. Violence, in all its forms, has a pervasive impact on societies. Violence affects children’s health, development and well-being, and their ability to thrive. It causes trauma and weakens social inclusion. Lack of access to justice means that conflicts remain unresolved and people cannot obtain protection and redress. Institutions that do not function according to legitimate laws are prone to arbitrariness and abuse of power, and less capable of delivering public services to everyone. To exclude and to discriminate not only violates human rights, but also causes resentment and animosity, and could give rise to violence. What can we do? Take a genuine interest in what your government is doing. Raise awareness in your community about the realities of violence and the importance of peaceful and just societies, and identify how you can pursue the SDGs in your daily life. Excercise your right to hold your elected officials to account. Exercise your right to freedom of information and share your opinion with your elected representatives. Be the change – promote inclusion and respect towards people of different
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backgrounds, ethnic origins, religions, gender, sexual orientations or different opinions. Together, we can help to improve conditions for a life of dignity for
all.
To find out more about Goal #16 and other Sustainable Development Goals, visit: http://www.un.org/ sustainable development
READERS ARE LEADERS JUST DO IT DON’T STOP:
A stimulating publication written for all ages. The book consist of 66 pages, written in English and was published by Partridge Africa in August 7, 2014. The book gives a day to day word of encouragement on how to face life and all the obstacles it brings. Well written to help you discover your passion, work on your inner strength and pave your way to success without allowing any limitations to stop your fire. The book is written with a mixture of first and second view points, and motivation is found through the Author’s choice of words. I also appreciate the addition of inspirational quotes by other famous Authors. The author’s choice in the type of paper used to print the book makes it very unique for an inspirational book. Its size and weight makes it easy for the reader to carry it everywhere, her choice of image place in the cover of the book brings about curiosity to the reader and it’s relevant to the content inside the book. “Banishingshing fear to follow in the direction of your dreams and achieve your goals” is evident throughout the pages of her book. Looking forward to reading her next publication.
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GROWTH & INSPIRATION The 6 biggest wastes of time we regret sooner or later By Leon Ho 24hours in a day, 365 days in a year. Time is the same for everyon e, no matter who you are or where you are. Making the most of your time is about what you choose to do. Before you do anything, ask yourself why you are doing something? You’ll be surprised that most people almost never ask themselves this question. Once you are able to understand your own actions, you will realize we engage in pointless tasks constantly that are just time sinks. Now that you know the difference, you can focus on meaningful tasks. We do a lot without realizing they are just a waste of time. 1. Working hard to avoid our problems Imagine there is a line in front of you and you have to cross it. You find it difficult to do so and instead of crossing the line, you walk from one end to the other, juggling along it. But no matter how far down you walk, if you never try, you will always stay behind it. This is like approaching a problem. You can try to avoid
it, but the problem will remain the same. In the end, you end up working harder than if you just faced the problem to begin with. Worse, avoiding the problem just ends up causing bigger problems down the road. Time is precious. No matter how hard you try to avoid an issue, it still exists, and eventually you will have to face it. 2. Talking about our emotions, but not solutions Expressing emotions is important, and it’s natural to express your feelings. That is what makes us human, but it is more important to think about your intention. Are you in the habit of just expressing your emotions over and over again without thinking of actions to solve the issue? This seems like a temporary release of negativity, but the negativity will come back because the underlying problem is still there. Instead of simply expressing emotions, realize how and why you feel certain way to help you reflect and understand yourself. Understanding the “why” will let you figure out the “how” and “what”, empowering you to make changes to your actions. Expressing your emotions constructively can also help others understand you better— but after you express
them, remember to take action towards a solution. Otherwise you might start to sound like a broken record. Emotions can give you the power to push through to make changes, or they can dominate you and trap you within a cage. In the end it’s your intention that can help you break through.
3. Arguing for the sake of winning You are trying to decide on a concept at school, and you think that your idea is the best. Your peers have ideas on how to make the concept better, but you just talk over them to keep expressing that the concept is perfect the way it is. The back and forth goes on for hours, and in the end, everyone just gives up and loses interest. You may have gotten your way, but you have lost everyone’s respect. As we get older, we begin to realize there is not always a right and wrong answer. Everyone has their own perspective, and one single
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story can take on many sides. There’s no point in arguing to try and make people see things your way, especially if you refuse to see theirs. Do you even know why you are arguing in the first place? Arguing in general won’t help your situation, and winning the argument won’t benefit anything but your ego in the end. All that will come out of it are hurt feelings, and perhaps damaged relationships. 4. Far-fetch your worrying Worrying about something that hasn’t happened is like waiting under an umbrella on a sunny day waiting for the rain. It’s normal to worry about something important to you. But over-thinking will never benefit you. It will make you feel anxious and panicky, which only makes matters worse. Have you ever heard of self fulfilling prophecy’s? This is a sure way to make them come true. Imagine you heard a rumour that most of the Grade 10 Learners have failed their Maths exam. Immediately you assume that you are amongst the learners that didn’t do well, and start over analysing anything that could cause you to assume to did badly. You nearly make yourself sick with worry, when it is only a rumour. No one has confirmed your exam results yet, and you don’t even know if it’s true. And yet you are destroying yourself over something that hasn’t happened. Worrying within a reasonable scope helps you
prepare for incidents that may come up and the solutions for them. Prepare enough so that you know you have control over the situation, and there is very little reason to worry.
5. Allow yourself to stay with the wrong person Being with the wrong person is like trying to feed dog snacks to a rabbit. No matter how much you try to give, the other person just won’t be interested. The sad truth is, if you are not what that person really wants, you will never make them happy no matter how hard you try. Your partner seems to have lost interest. They spend most of your time together glued to their phone, scrolling through Instagram. You notice that they like a lot of pictures of the opposite sex, people who look very different from you. So you try to change. You try to look like the people in the pictures to win their interest back. Instead of winning them over, they break up with you because you’re not the person they fell for. Of course you can try and change yourself to be the person they want, but in the end you will just end up losing yourself. And more likely than not, they still won’t like you back. You’ll lose
sight of who you are, and have to put all of the pieces back together again to gain a sense of self. And this hints us to the last thing that isn’t worth our time. 6. Living your life to impress others Imagine you have met someone new and you really want to impress him/her. You pretend to agree with all of their ideals in order to make them like you. They catch on to your ignorance and lose interest in you. If you had instead shared your real interests and engaged them into a discussion about that instead, they may have stuck around. You can’t please everyone and being a people pleaser is pointless. The more people you try to make happy, the more people you will disappoint. What may end up impressing one person, could severely offend another person. So really, there is no point in trying to impress anyone. You are just wasting your efforts and time on people who were never worth it in the first place. Focus on yourself, and work on yourself to be better. This investment in yourself will eventually attract others to you. Time is limited, and our most valuable asset. You should treat time like an investment. Make sure that the tasks you invest your time into now will give you a return in the future peace.
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WORDS TO LIVE BY
“That's what you want to do? Then nothing beats a trial but a failure. Give it everything you’ve got. I've told you many times, 'Can’t do is like Don’t Care.' Neither of them have a home.” – Maya Angelou
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. Marianne Williamson
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If you are a young person and solution oriented write to us, let us know what you are doing as a young person to bring about development to your school, community, country or the world. You might just be on our next issue TheReformist Social Venture Email: info@trsv.co.za Office Number: 0814146195