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Change Makers - Do what inspires your heart

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  Change Makers - Do what inspires your heart By Sunyata Choyce According to Lao Tzu, “A leader is best …when people barely know he exists, when the work is done, the aim fulfilled, and people will say: We did it ourselves.”   That is the goal, maybe of many well-intentioned leaders trying to bring some good into the world. When asked about my leadership style for a changemakers - women in philanthropy presentation, I realised how greatly I had to adapt my leadership style with the ever changing restrictions and the international logistics of aid work. My true leadership style is at its best when working directly one on one or with small groups of youth. Helping them discover how they can be positive agents of change themselves in their own way.  I have seen the best results when this is done through volunteering together on projects,  talking about community issues and setting the youth up to job shadow other leaders.   I see my role as a leader as ...
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This Moment in Time will Never Come Again

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The Guilty Observers Rumors started flying around about a marshal law lockdown, then possibly barricading off the informal settlements where I work, and maybe even evicting foreigners from the country. So here I am in South Africa with a looming feeling of panic starting to come over me. I'm sitting down to write this story and have no idea where it should start…but have a very clear idea about the ending because I’m living in it. It is January 2020 and even from early on it was very clear from day one that my time here was not going to go as planned.  Even though I’m from Nova Scotia, Canada, I also work half the year in one of the many informal township settlements in the Western Cape region of South Africa called Thembalethu. One of my first days of work I was driving on my own into the township. Out of nowhere a massive bull stormed full force over a hwy gate and landed directly in front of my moving car on the turn-off. It easily could have flattened my...
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Location: Unnamed Road, South Africa
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Annie’s Gift – Finding the children

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Annie’s Gift  Finding the children from Annie’s foster home in South Africa By Sunyata Choyce “Are these all your kids?” the woman at the sales checkout asked.  I looked at the five foster kids with me that I just picked up from their new home.  They were all staring at me with big smiles on their faces as the lady asked her question.   What was I supposed to say?  These kids just suddenly lost the only mom they ever knew a few months ago.  Her name was Annie. I called her Auntie Annie. I winked at the kids and said to the teller, "Yes these are my kids, all Annie’s kids are like my kids”. Tears welled up in everyone's eyes.It was then the woman in the shop realized she hit a nerve with us all. Perhaps I should have somehow given her a heads up that these were children with no parents, whose foster mom just died. I mean what was I supposed to say “No these are not my children, there nobody’s children” ? ...
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