Rays of Hope has taken on a new direction and vision of hope for its project of empowering and developing the children of Alexandra, in which it has been involved for more than 30 years.
This was confirmed by the new CEO of the non-profit company, Muziwethu Zwane, during an interview with Alex News at the Rays of Hope offices at the Rosebank Union Church in Sandton.
Born and bred in Alexandra, Zwane grew up on 11th Avenue close to London Road as well as 6th Avenue though he now lives in nearby Lombardy East. He said his arrival at Rays of Hope coincides with the launch of a new strategy of holistic focus on the township’s children that are in their programmes.
This entails empowering and supporting the entire family structure, not just the single child as an individual, and Zwane’s primary mandate is to drive this new strategy and vision of the organisation.
“There is no point in keeping the children in our programme for years under the guise of empowering and developing them and only to release them back to the toxic environment after undergoing the vigorous transformation.
“What this means is that we are not progressing at all. We need to involve all the siblings and family members so that when we release the child from the programme, we are handing him or her to a new and revamped family that also understands and appreciates the transformation that the child has undergone.”
Zwane added that if there is alcohol abuse or gender-based violence in the home, Rays of Hope will send its social workers to intervene and rehabilitate the entire family environment so that the new values engraved in the child are well received by the newly transformed family.
“This is the best way we can create and at the same time sustain empowered and resilient communities that will live with dignity and hope forever after. There is much more impact in this than trying to do everything for everybody in Alexandra.”
Some of the projects of the NPC include the Early Childhood Development programme, the Roseact Saturday School, the Trailblazers, an anger management programme for boys and many other projects.
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