Community members and supporters of the Synergistic Covenant Network Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) congregated at the Davidsonville Recreation Centre on 5 October.
They were there to meet the NPO’s newest partners and sponsors, as well as to share their long-term vision for the community and the NPO. Synergistic Covenant Network NPO is a skills development training centre uplifting the youth of Davidsonville.
The afternoon began with a prayer by Chairperson Pastor Anthony Sherman. He then introduced Ansley Swartz, who spoke passionately about the plight of young people in Davidsonville and South Africa as a whole. Swartz stressed the need to be “mindful of the country’s socio-economic situation”. He continued “If we imprint negativity on our kids, we can never expect them to succeed”.
Synergistic Covenant Network NPO has been providing children in the area with free end-user computing skills. They have also just received confirmation that their flagship course in End-user computing has been accredited for a further two years through the Media, Information and Communications Technologies Sector Education and Training Authority (MICT SETA). This will ensure that the roughly 70 children enrolled have the continuity intrinsic to successful development.
The Sage Foundation was also present to update the community on the Lego League initiative. Davidsonville has two teams, the Giants and the Titans, competing in a robotics challenge sponsored by the accounting software giant. The aim of the robotics challenge is for the teams to build and code a Lego robot to complete a series of tasks in a given timespan.
Other sponsors and partners on show were Whoopa Cycles which creates a wide variety of electronic tricycles for street vendors and waste pickers, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator NPO which partners with the Gauteng Provincial Government through the Tshepo1Million initiative, and Sabile Human Resources who focus on the transformation and empowerment of small, medium and micro-sized enterprises.
The biggest challenge to giving the youth hope for the future is a lack of role models. This is a challenge that is being taken up by ICT on Heels. They are a networking and empowering platform for women. While they focus on female upliftment, Mbulelo Sochifa of ICT on Heels was keen to stress that they did not want to leave the boys behind. ICT on Heels will be working closely with young people of any gender to provide engaging mentors who offer enlightened guidance.
Ellery Botha of Synergistic Covenant Network also unveiled the NPO’s plans to start a women’s forum. This would provide support, advice and purpose for the woman of Davidsonville through various community projects.
Pastor Sherman expressed his vision of a ‘multi-generational blessing’. “I want to see the NPO provide the type of skills and support that enables adults to lay a foundation onto which their children can build”, he said.
