A Community project which brings dignity to the poor and gives them a sense of belonging in society again!

When we speak of mini communities being developed all around the world - are they being built to take care of the poor in their basic needs only or do they also provide a sense of belonging in society again and the granting of dignity and self-respect to each individual?

Our South African Organization - Tigadonne', is unique in the fact that we make the disadvantaged feel important and needed in society again.

One example of our uniqueness is that there are 605 000 children involved in our project, some from wealthy families and others who have been brought up in total poverty. In our Centre, there will be no distinction between the rich or disadvantaged children, they will all be dressed in the Centre's golf shirts and jeans with the word 'Member' embroidered on the back. Each child is signed up as a member of the Centre at school and receives a starter pack containing a golf shirt etc.

They each receive a membership card, the parents of the wealthy children deposit money onto their children's cards but we subsidize each disadvantaged child by depositing money onto their cards monthly, so that they can attend the music school or any other facility without having to pay. The card is swiped at each facility for payment, once again allowing the subsidized child total privacy as no one will be aware of the fact that they couldn't afford the lesson, in the same way as the other children do.

There are so many other aspects to our project that are unique, allow me to give you one more example. In the East Rand area (Ekurhuleni) there are many grandmothers who are the sole supporters of young children because their parents have died of aids. These amazing old ladies have sacrificed their entire lives to bring up these children, expecting nothing in return.

Once our project takes off, we would like to ask the very rich communities that live in the North of JHB, such as Sandton, Rosebank etc. to donate their secondhand clothing to our Organization. We want to give these clothing items to these old folks to wear when we collect them in the Centre's bus once a week. They will enjoy a very special day with us in our subsidized but beautiful restaurant. They may select a meal from a small menu free of charge and we will entertain them with entertainers such as one of the highly talented Sowetan bands.

It is one of my greatest desires to wait for our bus to arrive and to watch, with uncontrollable emotion, as I see these old folk disembark with their beautiful outfits, gorgeous hats and high heel shoes and the old men in their good quality suits, finally having a place in society again.

We also load money onto their membership cards monthly, so that they can for example, realize their dreams to play the piano in our music school or for the use of any of our other many facilities. We will provide them with baskets of food for them to take home, most of these items will be grown in the Centre's very large vegetable gardens.

Many believe that the East Rand area is not in need of a community project but our qualified social workers have a different story to tell, 77% of our community lives below the poverty level, our crime rate is escalating daily because there are no jobs available and the youth have nothing to do, resulting in drug and other addictions.

Our Centre's main objective is to keep the youth off the streets and to teach them, for example, computer skills etc.

We have no conditions for involvement in our Centre, we are tremendously grateful for any assistance. We are a team of highly skilled people who have decided to dedicate the rest of our lives to helping others.

Volunteers are always welcome and where necessary, if there is an area of expertise that we are lacking in, we are prepared to appoint the relevant professionals or utilize the skills of consultants, if their salary requirements are affordable.

We currently have just under thirty thousand companies and individuals standing by to assist us.

We are striving for 'Mind blowing' architecture which will put our Centre on the map, after all don't the poor also deserve the best.

There are amazing structures such as 'The Mall of Africa' going up all around us, costing billions of rands and only the rich benefit from them. We want our Centre to be an example to the other Metropolitan areas, so that they in turn, can develop their own community Centres.

We have architectural plans for the two restaurants but only very creative ideas for the rest of the facilities. I am presently communicating with all the CEO's of the companies that are sponsoring us but my next step will be to invite all the architects, surveyors and graphic designers who are connected to us, to get together to brainstorm and to come up with some dynamic ideas.

I believe that everyone deserves the best in life, I have seen tremendous miracles happening in the lives of the disadvantaged youth when we give them an equal opportunity to discover their talents.

We are fully aware of the importance of building schools and hospitals etc. and we are most grateful to the champions who make these facilities possible but there is more to life than these basic needs - our Centre will provide dignity, self respect, talents, a sense of belonging and most of all a way for fathers to provide for their families through our workshop training facilities etc.

It is of utmost importance at this moment in time, for us to correlate a team of highly skilled architects etc. so that the structural plans can be available when we kick-off.

There are so many aspects to this project that we are in the process of printing an eighty page booklet to be presented to each of our attendees at our Conference in 2018, we are expecting at least ten thousand people to be present and it will be the perfect opportunity to network with like-minded people who care for the community.

If you would like an invitation to attend please be kind enough to contact me on [email protected] and I will see to it that you receive one. It is very important to use the reference TIGA01 for all correspondence. Please be kind enough to read my profile for further details regarding our Organization.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post, we would like to encourage you to get involved in our project and to share in our joy of making the disadvantaged feel important and meaningful again.