A Working Vision for the Future At Last
An inspirational morning breakfast with Vision 153 when a workable solution to unemployment was presented. Change mindsets and teach people to actually WORK for a Living. Instilling an attitude for Excellence in any job is producing astounding results.
In the NPO sector, the endless pit of desperate need volunteers deal with on a daily basis can be a daunting cross to shoulder each day. For the volunteer team at Vision 153 who have undertaken to assist child-headed households with weekly meals, the pit is growing larger and more desperate each day. Currently, the organization is feeding over 1300 (mostly children, but with some elderly) each week. Over 4 tons of food is collected and distributed among the neediest of the needy.
I feel so desperate for those children. I crawl into my warm comfortable bed each night, my tummy full and my husband and children safe with me and I can’t help but think of those children trying to feed and look after other children without any help or means…” – Nelia Hulin, Vision 153
A ray of hope has recently begun lighting the way forward. American born charity worker, Ruth Jopson has undertaken to manage the newly opened Ballito chapter for WORK 4 a Living. In sharing her heavenly guided journey, she addressed the Vision 153 Fundraising Breakfast group at Delish Sisters, Litchi Orchard.
After working enthusiastically as a charity worker in Australia for four years and even attending Tsunami disaster relief efforts in Thailand, Ruth Jopson arrived at a point of overwhelming inadequacy when faced with the extent of hopeless poverty in South Africa. Married to a South African and determined to embrace her new nationality fully,she spiraled into a depression of loneliness, deeply aware of her singular lack of ‘identity’ from the exalted lady of energetic charity and achievement she had been.
The birth of twin girls proved the gateway to her current position as managing liaison for the Ballito Chapter of WORK 4 A Living based at the Linc Campus.
My intent was to teach my girls the importance of helping the less fortunate. What they taught me was that helping the less fortunate was to teach them they were NOT less fortunate, but equals in their own right!
At three years old, her girls had established a connection with the homeless, the destitute and the unfortunate. When confronted with beggars at street corners, her girls would joyously offer the un-eaten sandwich from their lunch box, winding down a window to chat with the person as a PERSON. At four years old, they had determined to spend Saturday mornings preparing picnic lunches to share with the squatter camp children in the nearby neighborhood.
Today, Ruth Jopson has found the ideal medium to HELP without a HANDOUT.
“The premise of Work 4 A Living is to teach an attitude shift,” she shares. “Over twenty years into democracy and their is NO reason why a person is ENTITLED anything without working for it first.”
The workshop courses offered at the Ballito Facility train learners of any age or background the fundamentals of being EMPLOYABLE.
“We teach our students to have an attitude of excellence in their work. A person who takes pride and strives to do the absolute BEST he can is an asset to an employer. An employer does not retrench his greatest assets, but promotes them higher and higher in the organization.” She said.
The Work 4 A Living program covers a number of disciplines including hospitality training (waiters, barista’s and barmen). Financial literacy is an important component a person of any financial status can grasp. More than 30% of graduates have already found employment simply because their ATTITUDE to work is in such marked contrast to the majority of job applicants who want the paycheck, but are not prepared to do the minimum work required. Many graduates go on to start their own entrepreneurial outlets. Once they have understood the premise that No Gain can be expected without personal effort, attitudes of entitlement, poverty consciousness or beggar handout syndrome disappear.
WORK 4 A LIVING provide a FREE recruitment service to prospective employers. If you or your company are looking for an employee candidate, please contact Ruth Jobson for relevant CV’s.
If this initiative appeals to you, WORK 4 A LIVING are looking for facilitators to help candidates in basic business English, Interview Skills or other.
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