We have spend quite some time on screening many organizations doing great work on the ground in South Africa.

Today we are happy to announce a far reaching partnership with the South African organization Sonke Gender Justice. This is a milestone for Ubuntu Now / South Africa Project since we consider Sonke Gender Justice an excellent partner for our rape & HIV/AIDS prevention program. They have an amazing team and their programs, including One Man Can, are simply outstanding. Read More…

Posted under Project Progress

Desmond Tutu was in Denver last night as part of the Insight Speaker Series. Thanks to the organizer Elizabeth Weiland I was able to score a front row seat and access to the reception after the event.
Mr. Tutu appeared still very dynamic and energetic at the age of 76. Stil a force to reckon with. Mayor Hickenlooper introduced him as one of the most inspirational speakers of the 20th century. Read More…

Posted under Everything Else

I just read another article full of disturbing facts in the German magazine Der Spiegel and have to share this with you:

The new Health Minister in South Africa, Barbara Hogan just stated: “We know that HIV can cause AIDS”. It is hard to believe but this an almost revolutionary shift in South Africa’s official policy. She also stated that the “policy of our government has failed”. FINALLY! Read More…

Posted under Data, Info, Research

Doing research on South Africa in support of my wonderful husband, Klaus’ vision, I came across the following:

In the United States, women have led most efforts to prevent domestic violence, this despite men playing
a critical role in setting social norms for other men and thereby being in a unique position
to influence subsequent generations. They have researched men’s views, feelings and
experiences about gender based violence and while most had been affected by it in some way, men only
showed a real willingness to intervene when it came to communicating with children –
perhaps finding them less intimidating. Read More…

Posted under Everything Else

South Africa Project launched a fan page as well as a group on Facebook.

Here is what we will do and won’t do with the group and the fan page:
We will act responsibly and will never send you any spam mails.   We will keep you posted about milestones for South Africa Project and let you know about major initiatives - including fund raising and awareness campaigns.

All other news will be communicated via our blog RSS feed or our Twitter feed. They will also be posted at our fan page & group but we won’t send you another message for that. Read More…

Posted under Project Progress

Tomorrow will be my first trip to Silicone Valley - ever! I just had to wait for a valid enough reason - BarCamp Africa seems to be an event not to be missed. Attendance is limited to 175 people and the event is hosted at the Googleplex.

I have received numerous requests from people that can’t make the event to send them pictures and tell them all about it. So I will try to play reporter as good as I can. But fortunately the organizer have already published many ways how to follow the event. Read More…

Posted under Everything Else, Project Progress

We found another great voice from South Africa for you. His name is Mario Olckers and he is not your average kind of guy. He is a webdesigner / programmer (we met online of course;-),  and he is also fairly outspoken about political issues in his country. Mario lived for three years as a Buddhist monk in Myanmar (Birma). He belongs to the sometimes forgotten fraction of “colored” people in South Africa - belonging to neither other ethnic group.

Note:
We are using the term “colored” repeatedly in this article. South Africa’s old regime established this term for everyone that was not “black”, “white”, “indian” or “asian” during the segregation days of apartheid. We are trying to tell the story as it is an therefore decided to go ahead with this odd convention. Please learn more at this Wikipedia Article.

We are certainly not trying to hurt or offend anyone and thank you very much for your understanding.

Let’s move on to what Mario has to share with us: Read More…

Posted under Meeting South Africa

We would like to introduce you to Sarah Boden-Dawans. Sarah is the founder of Represent.co.za, a very resourceful lifestyle “blogazine” covering the arts, culture and technology scene in South Africa and abroad. Never heard of a blogazine before? Represent was coined a ‘blogazine’ as it is a hybrid between a blog and a magazine. 
In 2008 Sarah started Jova.co.za, an online community with a focus on creativity, culture, innovation, and social intelligence (often within an experiential marketing context)  in the digital and global era, that bridges South Africa with Europe and the world.

With so much understanding of the arts and cultural scene in South Africa we were of course very interested in having Sarah answer a few questions for us.

Beware: This is a long but real worthwhile read.

What led to the creation of Represent?
I had been back living in Johannesburg post a short stint in Europe, and during this time I was extremely motivated by the rapid societal, developmental and cultural changes I saw around me, particularly in my city of birth, Jozi (this is what we affectionately call Johannesburg). I have always been a kind of ‘conduit’ between different cultures and I found myself happily taking friends, family and visitors around to atypical places, promoting a multi-cultural and open-minded approach to living and loving in the transforming city. Read More…

Posted under Meeting South Africa

According o a report by BBC news, “a female born in South Africa has a greater chance of being raped in her lifetime than learning how to read”. The number of child rapes in South Africa is so embarrassing that the government has placed a moratorium on government crime statistics, stating that they needed reassessment. There are many reasons contributing to this issue.

One is the belief in the “virgin myth”; that sex with a child or baby will cure AIDS. Virginity testing is growing and often occurs in schools, where the girls must lie on their back with their pants and underwear off and legs in the air. Poverty and lack of access to AIDS drugs is another reason for these atrocities. The median income for Blacks and mixed race in South Africa can be as low as $300 a year, and the cost for AIDS drugs average $40 to $50 per month. Desperate people seek desperate measures.

As a woman, a mother and a human being I am beyond disturbed. While our children are worried about cliques and fitting in at school, those in South Africa are concerned about personal safety and whether their teacher, classmate, uncle, neighbor or stranger on the street will rape them.

How can a country with so many natural resources watch their people become so desperate?

How can we as a nation with so much luxury look the other way?

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Posted under Data, Info, Research

This is the beginning of a series of interviews with bloggers from South Africa. SA Rocks covers a wide range of interests and serves as a great way to learn more about “New South Africa” .

The name SA Rocks serves as its mantra. Nicholas Haralambous makes sure his readers catch the many positive stories from South Africa. He represents what South Africa needs: People that believe in themselves and in their country, guys that will not take the easy route and pack it up.

SA Rocks became a leading blog in his home country in less than 2 years. You can also find Nic on Twitter at @nicharry or check out his personal blog at nicharalambous.com.

Nic has agreed to answer a few questions to fill us in about his intensions and to give us his local perspective. He has also agreed to serve as a guest blogger for South Africa Project when his busy schedule allows for it.

If you’re a South African blogger and would like to participate, please drop me a note via the contact form on this site!

Q1. What inspired you to start SA Rocks and what are you trying to accomplish?
SA Rocks was a kind of knee-jerk reaction to a very racist, negative and ignorant website that expat South Africans started. I read it, argued with the cowardly creators and then decided that I had to do something to counter their blatant lies. And SA Rocks was born.

I am trying to show the world and more importantly, South Africans that South Africa is a country to be incredibly proud of and passionate towards.

Q2. What was your initial reaction to South Africa Project - Time for Ubuntu?
I think it’s a fantastic idea. Ubuntu is one of the most precious, incredible and sacred African concepts. The idea that everyone is linked or connected is astounding. The concept that everyone’s humanity is only visible through the humanity of others blows me away. It’s about time the world learned what it truly means to be African and South African.

Q3. What are the biggest misconceptions about South Africa in your eyes?
One of the biggest misconceptions is that South Africa is a country on it’s newly found last legs. In fact South Africa is a proud, passionate and successful nation that is in its infancy. The world needs to know that only bigger and better things are coming out of SA! Read More…

Posted under Meeting South Africa