25 October 2021
Immediate release
The Bishop Lavis Changemakers, in collaboration with NICRO, hosted a Youth Development Fun Day on the 23rd of October 2021 at Roome Park Bishop Lavis, Roome Crescent. The event was aimed at addressing the issues affecting our youth and families in the community.
"The goal was to bring families together, to engage in activities, as well as to raise awareness among community members about the organisations that exist and are rendering services within the community.
"We expected around 270 children to join us but ended up receiving close to 300 little guests on the day, along with 80 volunteers who turned out to support the event," said Dori-Anne Erasmus, a Social Worker at NICRO who facilitated the event along with the NICRO Changemakers.
A live band engaged and entertained the community and there were fun activities for the children such as face-painting. There were also talks on more serious issues like domestic violence, gender-based violence, mental health awareness, as well as Covid-19 regulations.
We are thankful for the support of the many organisations who are a part of our Changemakers network, that contributed to this initiative, to help in our efforts around crime prevention and awareness. These include NICRO, BADISA, Usapho foundation, the Healing Heart Foundation, Beacon of Hope, Dogmathree, the Center of Excellence, Women 2 Women, Touching Nations, the Community Policing Forum, the local South African Police Service, Law Enforcement, and our Neighbourhood Watch.
The Changemakers who contributed to this event have also been active in the community in various other ways like giving little boys haircuts, assisting single moms and by ensuring that community is maintained by something as simple as getting the grass cut on a field so that the children can play soccer on it. This initiative aimed to embody the core values of NICRO, which includes striving for excellence, collaboration and being passionate about assisting those who need us most. We hope to have many more events like this in future, aimed at young kids to instill sound values in them and help them grow into the best version of themselves. We also aim to expand on our network of partnerships to reach as many people as we can.
Additional information:
Our donors include Donny's bakery Brockenhorst Farm, the local supermarkets such as Green Market in Bishop Lavis, Shada Butchery, friends of the Park CoCT ensured we got the park and some games and balls, and the ward Councillor also made donations in support of the event. A special thanks to the Center of Excellence for allowing us the use of their facilities
