Conference spotlight on Kenneth Gardens project

KENNETH Gardens will be the focus of one of the talks at this year’s Limmud Durban conference at the Durban Jewish Centre, from 4pm to 10pm on 5 and 6 August.

Monique Marks, who has been working with the Kenneth Gardens community for the past few years, has been invited to speak at the conference and will address the audience on the Kenneth Gardens project, and her work in the low income housing estate.

“Limmud is the Hebrew word for learning and teaching. The Jewish culture is one which believes people should constantly question and learn about the world around us. Limmud opens up this space for learning by annually drawing together people of different faiths in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg,” she said.

Limmud SA is a community of learning where South African Jews can learn and share ideas, regardless of their affiliations or levels of Jewish knowledge. It is exciting, dynamic and diverse. Limmud makes accessible some of the world’s most dynamic Jewish educators, performers and teachers at annual conferences around the country, and is a space for everyone to contribute in their own unique way.

A tzadik box and a community-oriented father influenced Monique’s understanding of being a ‘good Jew’. She initiated the research and outreach project at Kenneth Gardens which includes a wide range of people improving the living conditions in Durban’s largest low income housing estate. At the conference she will explain how the project works, its impact on those contributing to and living in Kenneth Gardens and how this project resonates with her personal sense of obligation to give back.

“I was excited to be given the opportunity to speak about Kenneth Gardens and how people can get involved in the community and be charitable. Kenneth Gardens reflects how one can get involved in the community at a local level. Growing up Jewish I was influenced by the notion of giving. We had the tzadik box, or charity box, next to our door in our house and we would put money in it to assit others. I felt I could keep this alive in my life by giving back to the community. I pass Kenneth Gardens every day on my way to work and I could see the need. As a community people are struggling and I question how we bring to the fore the problems and how we could engage with this. It’s important to know the community on your doorstep,” said Monique.

Monique is a social worker, life coach and professor in the Community Development Programme at UKZN and research association of the Centre of Criminology at UCT. She is widely published in many spheres. In recent years her interest has been in the dynamics of community development and community wellness programmes, such as the Kenneth Gardens Project.

To find out more about speakers and the rest of the programme, visit www.limmud.org.za