Welcome to the latest edition of SAYes news

This month, we discuss declining mental health in the UK and South Africa, and how mentoring could be the key to improvement; we celebrate the success of our Mentees during the Olympics; the UK Team take a trip with mentees to an urban farm. But first, we chat with two long-term supporters of SAYes who organise the annual Ravioli Raffle, to coincide with the birthday of one of founders, Gillian.

SAYes supporters, Crystal and Ingrid, organise a fundraising raffle each August with a proportion of the proceeds going to SAYes. We were intrigued to find out the back story of the raffle, and how they discovered us.

We have supporters all over the world, where do you hail from/live???

Ingrid I was born and raised in S?o Paulo, Brazil. For the last 22 years though, I have lived in South Florida, in the United States.??

Crystal I was born and raised in Southern California. I lived in Washington state for ten years and then moved back to California in 2004.??

How/where did you find out about SAYes???

Ingrid I heard about SAYes through Gillian Anderson. I believe I first saw it on her Instagram page.??

Crystal I heard about SAYes through a friend. While at a convention in 2018, she won a shirt Gillian was wearing and auctioning off after a Q&A panel. At the photo op with Gillian, she mentioned how appreciative she was for my friend's donation to SAYes as it helped very much. So every year, we make sure to ask for donations to the charity.?

How did you come up with the idea for the raffle??

Ingrid During the pandemic in 2020, everyone was in such a difficult time. I had just lost my brother and wanted to see something good and feel better. Crystal and I started chatting and I’m not even sure how the conversation went, but we decided to pull together duplicate items we had of both Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny to do a raffle to raise money and brighten someone’s day.??

Crystal The first time we had the raffle was in December 2020, over the holidays. It was fun and successful and so we decided to do it again. We choose August, seeing as how David and Gillian have birthdays then- just one day apart. So, I dubbed it the Ravioli Raffle, because it’s the day in the middle.

How do you find and collect all the wonderful raffle prizes???

Ingrid After the first raffle, we started purchasing items that we felt other fans would like to add to their collection. We have also received donations from people within the fandom.??

Crystal We have kindly been gifted items, but most of the items are purchased by us throughout the year and added to our collective stockpiles. We like to find the things that others may want to buy, but do not have the ability to do so. It is a lot of fun to see the experience of both the raffle and the prize distribution.

We're delighted to learn that you've been a supporter of SAYes for a number of years - what is it that resonates with you, about our youth mentoring programme??

Ingrid Unfortunately, not all of us have the support and mentoring while growing up. Having a place where these young people can go and find their ‘person’ is amazing. I’m so thankful for the fabulous mentors I’ve had in my life, that I want to pay it forward in any way that I can.

Crystal I agree with Ingrid. I’ve been incredibly lucky in my life to have people who listen, encourage, and support me. Filling in as a mentor for those who may not have that support system at home is wonderful. It creates leaders who will then encourage others to do the same, a chain of help so to speak, and that is always good.?

Dimpho is reaching for the stars

Cape Town welcomed the International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly for the first time last month. SAYes Mentee Dimpho was invited to perform as part of The University of Pretoria Ovuwa Cultural Ensemble. As Lead Dancer in the Ensemble, Dimpho told us it was a great honour to bring an African touch to conference.?

Breaking the Mental Health Barrier

In the first of her new Thought Leadership Articles, SAYes Founder and Executive Director, Michelle Potter, explores how formal mentorship programmes could be the key to improving the growing mental health crisis amongst young people.

Read the article on our website blog:https://sayesmentoring.org/breaking-the-mental-health-barrier/

Olympic Pride for Sandisiwe

Imagine our delight to hear that SAYes/Nike Mentee Sandisiwe had been selected to speak at Festival 24 in Lyon, during the recent Paris Olympics. She crafted a motivational letter to non-profit organisation Altus Sport, describing her passion and enthusiasm for sports. Sandisiwe wrote about her childhood in Witbank; then studying Sports Management in college; and finally what she has learned from participating in sports.

This culminated in her speaking at the conference, to 600 people from 36 countries. Her team also performed a cultural dance for delegates which included Zulu, Pedi cultural dancing.

Sandisiwe credits her mentor who gave guidance before her first ever trip on a plane abroad. Her mentor supported her through the travel process; including checking accommodation and travel checklists together. A huge well done Sandisiwe!

An Oasis in the Heart of London

We had a really interesting trip with a group of mentees, when we visited Stepney City Farm in London. Here, we learned about how a piece of land - destroyed by bombing during WW2 - was adopted by Bangladeshi and other communities, and turned into a working farm.

The farm is now community-centred: with allotments; a weekly market; a cafe; artist’s studios; meditation classes; horticulture qualification training; and volunteer programmes. We gained new perspectives and learned so many new things: you can have a farm in a city; you can eat fennel right off the plant; mint can be dried into tea; some pigs like belly rubs; a newt is like a long frog; and a ferret is like a long hamster! We got to feed the ferrets, too.?

One Mentee told us: “I really enjoyed the tour and getting to learn the history behind a lot of the plants was really interesting. It was quite a peaceful environment to be in, and it was also great to get to feed and pet some of the animals, which was a first for me, especially not having seen many animals in real life before.”