Youth shower Jeppestown with love
JOHANNESBURG – Social entrepreneur Thando Bam started the Showering Jeppestown with Love 182.5 project, a locally-driven street cleaning campaign.
The movement saw hundreds of community members and Heroes of Fox, a youth-based organisation founded by Bam, along with concerned youth on his street, gathering in Jeppestown to clean up trash and rubble.
Bam said, “I am passionate about empowering people in my environment, for they unknowingly form part of the global community, and some fail to recognise how small the world has become and how many opportunities await them.”
The project aims to promote individual, community and social solidarity in order to address the social challenges in and around Jeppestown. “We firmly believe that it is vital for one to be in a healthy environment in order to have a healthy mind and body,” Bam said.
The Heroes of Fox hope to change the face of their community through a number of programmes that empower the youth and still benefit the community. These programmes include street cleaning, refurbishing deteriorating walls with colourful graffiti, creating vegetable gardens and providing skill development programmes for the youth along Fox Street and surrounding communities.
“Seeing that it is a six-month campaign, I hope it will slowly gain momentum and residents will use our existing Facebook page to display their acts of goodwill,” Bam added.
Bam claimed that the launch was made possible thanks to the support of a Somali spaza shop owner along Fox Street, even though this was one of the areas affected by recent xenophobic attacks. “We’re hoping that this initiative will set a precedent for other communities as well.”
The clean-up events happen every six months and those interested in helping or participating can keep an eye on their Facebook page for more details.
