LIMPOPO – Before he joined the Keep The Dream 196(KTD196) foundation’s Scouts at Bodwe Village in 2016, Ngwenya was on the road that to a life of violence and unhappiness.
“Before I joined the program I was frequently bullied by a lot of my friends. I never knew how to stand up for myself and this made me an easy target,” he says.
He explained that because of the bullying he became a very angry young man and would resort to violence to sort out his problems. “Scouts has changed my life, it taught me how do things in the right way, how to live with other children. It taught me how to respect others and it taught me how to be clean and to look after myself,” he says.
He said that even though he had a tough start in life, when he joined the KTD196 program it taught him to stand up, say no and even help him to help others who are being bullied. “I now have a voice, people listen to me,” he added.
He said the program taught him to follow rules, speak to people and how to lead. “Because of this I have decided that I want to become a lawyer who fights for people’s rights. I want to share what the program has given me with other people,” he concluded.
Emmanuel’s story is similar accept he was the one doing the bullying. He says the Keep the Dream Foundation saved his life.
Having been down a very long road in his few years, he was on his way to become a serious gangster until a near death experience made him seek out the foundation.
His home life was a mess. “I did not have a father as he ran away when I was a very young. Even now I don’t know him,” he added.
He started being a gangster when he was just 14 with the neighborhood kids. “I was drinking, I was in my own world, I no longer felt any pain in my heart. I thought I was the boss; I became a bully and started taking things by force. My mother tried her best but I wouldn’t listen. So I ran away from home.”
He came back to Bodwe as a gangster and two years on the streets attacking people, robbing them, and threatening them with knives and a gun. He had a reputation as a gangster and people were scared of him.
“The Scout program started in Bodwe outside Tzaneen in 2014 but I never joined, I thought it was stupid. The change in my life came one day when I was stabbed by another gangster. It was then I realized I no longer wanted to be a gangster, that I needed to go home, go back to school and to get a job or I would end up dead.”
In 2017 he joined the Scouts. “My life is now good. I am playing games with children, I am a leader, I no longer bully anybody. I am back in school at Gr 10 and I am doing well. When I am here at the KTD196 program my mind is in a better place, I am teaching, I feel useful and do good things,” he explained.
He added that the community now knows he is not to be feared but is a good Christian and a Scout and help help others like him to change their lives for the better.
Emmanuel now also has hopes of studying to become a lawyer. “The Scouts saved me and now I want to help save others.”
