Tracy Engelbrecht's Blog, page 6

An open letter! Yes, another one!

Dr Dube @lovelifeNGO doesn’t want to see a lot of schools like the Hospital School in SA. “We need to prevent teen pregnancies,” says Dube

— Talk Radio 702 (@Radio702) August 27, 2013

 

 

Thank you, Dr Dube, for that insightful, supportive and perspicacious lil soundbite. You sure earned your salary this month, well done.

Truly groundbreaking stuff. We do, indeed, need to prevent teen pregnancies. I am sure that the pregnant learners at the hospital school join you in wishing the toothpaste back in the tube. Your helpful pearls of wisdom will certainly go far in getting them back on their feet, back to their studies, and on the path to success for them and their children.  Yay you!

 

But wait! Oh no. It seems I’ve had it all wrong. Talking about girls who are already pregnant – obviously – OBVIOUSLY – you’re not talking TO them. No, of course not! That would be crazy. Unthinkable even. I mean, can teen mothers even speak? Known fact, and I forgot this – sorry, that in the absence of a wedding ring and matric certificate, one’s voice and brain are removed at the time of conception? So there’d be no point in talking to people who are actually affected by it, given that they’re brainless, voiceless futureless zombies with children destined for prison. Like Brazilian street kids, we’ll sweep them under the rug and occasionally drag their pregnant bellies and sad faces out to use in sepia-toned stock photography.

There’s really not much to say to them, except perhaps “YOU SHOULD HAVE KEPT YOUR LEGS CLOSED™”, another dazzling snippet from the Library of Horrendously Unconstructive Shit.

It’s not like we talk to people living with HIV about how to live successfully with HIV, right? Or people with cancer. Or alcoholics. Or people who’ve lost their legs when attempting to mount rabid alpacas, the culmination of a Series Of Bad Choices That Could Have Been Avoided. We don’t do that, do we? We leave all those other people to manage on their own because they deserve it. Right? Don’t we?

It’s not as if we tell ANYBODY that they can be okay after something’s gone wrong. Cos clearly, that would be a big lie, right? Once it’s Gone Wrong, there’s never any coming back from it, yes?

High-profile Alpaca Rampage Prevention personalities come on radio to talk about how nobody should race alpacas because it’s unwholesome and a sign of the moral degeneration of the youth of today and should you lose your legs to that rabid alpaca, dude, you’re on your own – don’t even THINK about a Legless Alpaca Racer Hospital or I don’t know… support group for HIV+ people or drug addicts. What a concept!

People will literally be QUEUING up to get their legs chewed off by alpacas if they think they can get a social grant and maybe a cupcake out of it.

Can’t have that. Taxpayers money and all that.

So thanks, Dr Dube and all your buddies. It’s a crazy thought, but I just know that if pregnant teens had brains or voices, and if you were actually talking TO them (in a conversation about teen pregnancy) – I’m sure they’d tell you exactly how grateful they are for your razor sharp observations and helpful tips for moving forward as a young mother.

What would we ever do without you.

 

How your organisation can help

We’ve had the opportunity lately to speak to a number of organisations regarding funding opportunities, and people wanting to know who we are and what we do.

So I thought I’d share our proposal here – please have a read, and if you, your boss or company would be interested in getting involved, please pass it on to them.

We have some interesting plans for fundraising coming up, including a Cape Argus Cycle Tour team for next year and a 2014 ladies golf day (more on this later)

Young Mom Support Proposal 2013 - please download and share!

Someone out there somewhere must be wanting an opportunity to do some real good in our community.

Join our Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour team

To raise awareness and funds for young moms in our community,  a team of cyclists will be tackling the  Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour in 2014.

Young Mom Support is inviting keen cyclists who would like to ride and raise funds to enter even if they are already entered as an individual into the race.

We have ONE more spot open our our team. Could it be yours?

Team members will receive a free entry into the race, a Young Mom Support shirt to ride in, as well as an earlier start on the day. Each team member is requested to raise a minimum of R3000 in funds for Young Mom Support, by the end of March 2013. YMS will where possible assist riders with fundraising, by supplying them sponsorship forms and letters of permission. Riders may also reach their targets through corporate fundraising and/or straight donations.

To help raise funds, or to find out more about Young Mom Support, please contact Tracy on Tel:  0729863105 or email info@youngmomsupport.co.za

Driftsands Meeting: August 2013

Second Driftsands meeting yesterday. I did a presentation on child abuse in SA – sexual, physical, emotional and child neglect. It was a sobering conversation, discussing news headlines from the last week, how to protect your children, and how so many cases of missing, abused and murdered children could be avoided if their children were paying attention.

Morphed into a conversation about discipline and other ways to discipline besides corporal punishment. Skeptical at first but the moms listened and asked questions about alternatives.

There were lots of little neighbourhood girls waiting outside – they offered to do a dance demonstration for us. Was awesome. The beat and the singing – was joyful and beautiful. The drum they used to keep the beat was an upturned bucket and a pair of flip flops. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Zuko Mnukwa, the brainchild behind so many Driftsands initiatives joined us again and it was nice to have his input as an uncle who is helping to raise his nephews.

We’ll be back on 14 September and I can’t wait.

 

Father is spelled…

For those young single moms I speak to every day – let this be your child. Your child will become who YOU make them, never mind who else should have been there.

Clarins’ Most Dynamic Woman of 2013: Help Young Mom Support win

Thank you to Wendy Robb who first nominated me for this. I feel a bit weird asking for nominations but it’s NOT ABOUT ME AT ALL. The prize is R200k for your charity – we can do so much with this. At a time where funds are extremely low, we’ve expanded our meetings to Driftsands as well and everything feels like it’s getting too much – we could really really do with this cash.

If you want to nominate, please visit:

http://clarins.fairlady.com/enter/

You will need the following info:

Nominee: Tracy Engelbrecht

Phone: 072 9863105 (for me and organisation)

Address: 16 Cockburn St, Glencairn Heights, Simonstown (for me and organisation)

Email: info@youngmomsupport.co.za

Website: http://youngmomsupport.co.za

Banking details: Standard Bank Fish Hoek, Account number: 072106298

Facility directors: Tracy Engelbrecht, Linda Engelbrecht

Facility size: 2 members

Year Founded: 2010

How will the money be used:

To fund our meetings throughout the year at 2 venues: Masiphumelele & Driftsands. To purchase a storage shed for our donations, to save money on offsite storage fees. To print informational material for mothers on parenting, pregnancy and social issues. To provide short training courses for mothers in computers, childcare etc to improve their chances of employment. To fund emergency food parcels for destitute mothers.

Backup director: Linda Engelbrecht

How many children have we helped: we have helped at least 60 mothers and their children through our monthly support group meetings, as well as hundreds of pregnant and parenting teens online.

I know it’s cheeky and weird but we could so use this boost.

If you feel like it, please enter us and share with your friends.

As always, love and appreciation.

Masi Meeting July 2013

Was good to see our moms again after skipping last month. President Obama visited the centre that weekend so we were unable to use the venue.

Tholakele brought her newborn Nonjabulo – 3 weeks old and a beautiful, delicious little thing. He has a mommy who loves him very much and is determined to do the right thing for him. Am proud of her and know he’s in good hands.

We were lucky to have some lovely blankets donated to us, as well as several donations from kind supporters over the past week, including baby clothes and ladies clothes. We always welcome donations of clothes or other household goods in good condition.

At the moment we’re raising funds to buy our own storage wendy house, which will save us R700 a month which we’re currently paying in storage fees. A wendy house will cost about R10 000 or so – we have a long way to go!

To help us out, have a look here http://www.gofundme.com/2gsaqs or visit our Support Us page for bank details. Every little bit helps and is appreciated more than you know. 

 

 

Thought for the day

Thank you Aunty Joan

I’ve mentioned my neighbour, Joyce Cutter, who has made us beautiful handmade baby quilts. She is from the UK and visits home every year. Before she goes, she gets her daughter-in-law’s aunty Joan (that’s a mouthful) to make gorgeous baby clothes and then brings them back for us when she returns to SA.

We handed out the gorgeous knitted goodies at Saturday’s Driftsands meeting and they were a huge hit.

Thank you Aunty Joan, for the love and support you show for moms and babies on the other side of the world. It’s appreciated more than you know.

Baby Anita wearing many layers of Aunty Joan’s clothes!

Young Mom Support in Driftsands

On Youth Day we were invited to Driftsands to join in their community celebrations by Zuko Mnukwa, a 21 year old student passionate about serving his community. Driftsands is a small community close to Khayelitsha.

He believed that the young moms of Driftsands would benefit from what we do, so yesterday we held our first Young Mom Support meeting at their community hall. Zuko invited young moms from the community and we had a small group join us. They were shy and a bit awkward at first, but soon loosened up, talking about their motherhood challenges and achievements. Was interesting to hear that most of them were studying – either at school or some form of tertiary education. Most also reported having good support from their mothers.

It was lovely to meet some new moms – they all said they’d like to have us back… so we’ll see how it goes.