Everyone from families, friends, presidents, workers, Jesus and celebrities have used meals as a symbolic act of relationship building, even cross-cultural exchange — a way to bring together diverse groups of people in a harmonious environment. Sharing a meal together offers the opportunity for deep conversation, a thousand and one laughs, easy as well as awkward interactions — experiences that create lasting memories.
Everyone from families, friends, presidents, workers, Jesus and celebrities have used meals as a symbolic act of relationship building, even cross-cultural exchange — a way to bring together diverse groups of people in a harmonious environment. Sharing a meal together offers the opportunity for deep conversation, a thousand and one laughs, easy as well as awkward interactions — experiences that create lasting memories.
We hosted an incredible men's conference in honor of international men's day.
We were so honored to have the Gauteng GBVF coordinator in attendance as a speaker and the Co-Founder from The Institute for Social Development and Justice from Cape Town in attendance as a speaker.
The men enjoyed the event and really enjoyed the Beef Stew,Samp, Chicken curry and Rice Prepared for them.
We hosted a community peace Workshop where young and old engaged in conversation about current social ills impacting our community and what resolutions they proposed.
What an insightful morning with such awesome food.
Warm Vetkoek from the pan amd chicken curry and rice for lunch.
I Matter
This activity and project caused parents and children to communicate. Not only about the tables they set or the food they prepared, but explore their communication with each other.
We found that children felt excluded and that parents so were so focused on the task at hand, that they deliberately excluded the kids. It took time and practice but the overall experience was indeed empowering for both the children and the parents.
We look forward to continue hosting events such as these where parents and children prepare their meals, discuss their food, explore new food, play and talk to each other.
We are incredibly grateful to LEGO, Change X and OpenSeats for this great blessing.
Our NPO is committed to driving change and play therapy is proving to be extremely impactful with both children and adults. THANK YOU
Our community feeding scheme. Once we have premises and our building setup we will not only feed them a meal, but also add some learning.
We are finding more men coming for a warm plate of food
We cannot wait to offer skills training so the men can become self sustainable
Thank you to Change X, LEGO Foundation and Open Seats for the seed funding.
We had such a lovely time and the parents and kids have already said they cant wait for the next event and have also shared what they're really struggling with and how today was a new beginning for them.
We had to change our venue last minute due to the rain. Thank you to Opelweg Primary for accomdating us 30 minutes before our event started.
What an awesome time
Only 1 day left. We look forward to our event tomorrow.
We had a our team team building session today and we did 1 of the activities we will be doing tomorrow.
Communication is the key to success in this activity. Everyone must be on the same page.
Friday 22 September, our team did a sanitary towels drive to 3 schools.
60 learners were blesses with 2 packs of sanitary towels each.
Thanks to our partner Trish from Vunani for making it possible.
No girl should have to miss school because she has no sanitary towels
We have received our box from Open Seats and are now ready to host the event.
Every Monday, we cook a warm meal and feed over 100 children. Today, we are expecting more children to come for food due to the water outage we are experiencing in Eden Park, Alberton.
Action plan:
Timeline: When will you be able to start your project? How often will your team meet? Are there any key dates to share for the project?
Budget: You don't need to share exact prices, but please share how you're planning to spend the seed funding & what costs you're anticipating to get your project up and running:
Impact: How will your community benefit from this project? Do you have any measurable goals for your project, such as the number of people that will participate? Are you hoping to spread knowledge or increase interest in a specific subject?
Location: If your project requires physical space, have you decided the location? Do you have all necessary permission and permits to carry out your project at the chosen location?
Remember to plan to post about your event on social media, ideally two weeks before you host it, and send a link to the event to anyone who you think might be interested in attending. Ask friends in your community to do the same in their social networks.
We find that the initial guests are people who know you, and then as soon as others see that people are attending, they will join too! Once you’ve posted on your preferred social media channels, let us know and our team will release an instagram post 5-7 days beforehand to help fill up the remaining open seats. Remember to use the tag @openseatlife!