Feel like doing some VOLUNTEER work?
So you’re back on track, the year is starting to tick slowly by, you’ve broken the heath regime, nearly spent your January salary already and are wondering what will make a real difference to your life this year? What about becoming a Volunteer and getting amongst the people… What about volunteering your skills, energy, time and talent? What about giving back and making a real differen…ce to the community? Today we present you two programs that we know about – the first is for individuals called Twenty30, they are looking for working professionals, who want to contribute 6-8 hours a month to making a difference in SA, through being part of a meaningful and structured year-long program. The second one is VOLUNTEER WEEK which is a corporate-focused week in March that challenges employees to get their company involved. See the details below: TWENTY30 Twenty30 aims to grow the concept of Skills Volunteerism in SA, bridging cultural divides to solve first order socio-economic challenges. To this end, Twenty30 facilitates ways in which business professionals can volunteer meaningfully by using their own skills in institutions requiring them. Background Information Twenty30 has run a successful project in 9 schools around Soweto, Eldorado Park, and the Inner City in 2005. Prior to that, Twenty30 also ran pilot studies in the HIV/AIDS sector. All projects utilise skilled ‘volunteer consultants’ who carried out necessary skilled interventions, under management’s guidance. Interventions focused on improving school management, strategy and leadership and included workshops and training sessions for educators and school governing bodies. Some examples included: – Strategic Planning Sessions – Computer Training – Team Building Workshops – Budgeting Training – Proposal Writing Sessions – Facilitation of Learner Outings – Counselling Sessions Volunteers participate in a year-long program, which entails 5 conferences/ checkpoint days where teams are able to report back, hear how each other are performing, and network around relevant issues identified. Participants are also exposed to guest speakers and extra material and resources as a part of this process. Additionally participation on the program utilises volunteers’ professional skills, knowledge and experience and plays towards the strengths that each individual brings to their team and ultimately to the school within which they volunteer. Commitments and Requirements We welcome a range of volunteer consultants to apply for this program. General guidelines include the following, about the kind of volunteers we look for: – Having a tertiary education and a number of years’ work experience – A passion and commitment to South Africa’s future and willingness to make it a better place – Dedication to the program, which runs over one year (timelines below) – Ability to work in...
Dutch ‘no joint smoking’ sign lights up interest
From the New Zealand Herald: AMSTERDAM – Amsterdam’s new street signs banning cannabis smoking in parts of the city have sparked global interest. The sign shows a red circle around a fat cannabis joint in a cloud of smoke sparked by white marijuana leaves. It has been installed …at one square and surrounding streets in Amsterdam where young cannabis smokers are a nuisance. Soon after the installation on February 1, the first signs were stolen after which the Amsterdam council of De Baarsjes decided it would start selling what it believes is the world’s first anti-cannabis road sign. Over 400 consumers have approached the council to buy one of the “no joints” signs for ý90 ($160), excluding shipping, a spokesman said.” About 75 per cent of the requests come from the United States,” he said, adding interest is also coming from Singapore, Australia, Scandinavian countries and Germany. The profits will be donated to a charitable cause that has yet to be chosen. It is legal to own and use small quantities of soft drugs in the Netherlands whose relaxed position on the issue has brought it into conflict with other European countries like France which claims the Dutch undermine the global fight against drugs. Picture borrowed from SKYNEws, Click here to see it on...
Beat the Sunday evening Blues with Arno
You know that dreaded Sunday night feeling… the one that keeps reminding you about Monday morning? Sunday Blues are not to be messed with and in order to be truly dealt with we recommend that you remove yourself from your couch, bed, tv room and get out and about. You’ll come home feeling tipsy and happy and before you know it Monday will be waking you up and Tuesday will be around th…e corner… 88 – that ever-inventive club in Norwood, is kicking off it’s Sunday Night Music Cluc sessions with none other then our biggest rock brand Arno: Easy On Sunday Evening with Arno Carstens at the 88 Lounge The 88 Lounge on William Road, Norwood, is pleased to announce that Arno Carstens will be performing at the re-launch of the club’s legendary Sunday Night Music Club sessions on Sunday 12 February 2006. Arno has just released his second solo album, “The Hello Goodbye Boy’s” and the new single; “Feel It” is getting airplay on radio and TV with a killer video. He will be appearing with Albert Frost, the six-string wielding powerhouse behind the new Carstens sound. In keeping with the relaxed, Sunday evening vibes, doors will open at 5pm, with sundowners of the 88 Lounge Terrace. Arno will take the stage at 8:30pm to play the first of two sets, meaning that proceedings will be over and dusted well before 11pm… plenty of time for beauty sleep before work on Monday! You can’t refuse an invitation like this! Space is limited, so you are advised to phone and book your place, especially if you are not a member of the 88 Lounge. Arno Carstens is no stranger to 88, so expect a great relaxed show in one of the most pleasant lounge-bar environments in Johannesburg. Plenty of parking, a low-stress atmosphere and a great light menu all contribute to a sophisticated and relaxing way to spend your Sunday evening. So come and re-charge for the new week ahead with The 88 Lounge, Arno Carstens and Albert Frost. The Sunday Night Music Club Sunday 12 February Arno Carstens and Albert Frost The 88Lounge 114 William Road, Norwood, corner Grant Ave. (Opposite the Spar parking lot, next to Woolworths.) Doors: 17:00 Cover: R60 for non-members R40 for members (on presentation of 88 Lounge key-ring) Booking is essential as space is limited. Book your seat on (011) 728 8417...
Those days are NOVA! Bye Bye NOVA
And here is that information – thanks to BizCommunity for the news and YFM for the scoop. We actually got to really enjoy some aspects of NOVA but found that we could never find it except in some shops… It felt like there needed to be more vendors selling NOVA – particularly if they really were after the targe…t market they wanted. Buppies and Yuppies drive cars. They don’t have time for shopping. So take it to them during peak hour traffic… anyway… click here for the full article from BizCommunity. Publication of Nova, the four-and-a-half-month-old experimental daily newspaper based in Johannesburg, will be suspended. Nova was aimed at young, high-income urban professionals and although positive comments were received on its editorial content, sales figures were not up to expectations, said publisher Deon du Plessis. “In terms of content and style the paper was well received; it was seen as innovative. Research showed that most people in the target market enjoyed it when they got it. Some advertisers were beginning to value the paper. But circulation remained flat. “As to distribution, we had not yet succeeded in reaching sufficient numbers of people in the niche. Converting our target market of high-income non-newspaper-reading metro people to a regular newspaper-reading habit proved difficult.” ********************************************************** 9 Feb 06 Are the rumours true? Have we lost another newspaper to the land of failed start-ups? Remember This Day? Rumour has it (YFM) that NOVA has officially been closed today… we await more information. ********************************* 2005 About two weeks ago we had a whole bunch of buddies over for pizza’s… being the lazy gits we can be on a slow Thursday, we ordered a home-delivery from our favourite monsieur. The person doing the deliveries must have thought that we were an entire call-centre making the request (little did they know we are a bunch of gluttons) and the pizzas arrived along with ten mysterious white envelopes. Inside the envelopes we discovered ten copies of Joburg’s latest newest sizzling daily tabloid, NOVA, with a note along the lines of “We know you guys are working hard, here’s something to help distract you.”. Nice one. We tend to judge a book by it’s cover and we can be quite harsh – so we’ll give you our first impressions (which may change as time goes by) – Don’t take it personally!: 1. Nice name. But there’s a magazine in London with the same name (is it still going?) 2. K*k layout. Feels very chipile and low-brow 3. Enticing streetlamp headlines. If you’re in constant lust of wrist-slitting news and human tragedy, this is your panacea. 4. Cheesy print...
Donna Kukama – come and celebrate her art
I first met Donna Kukama just over a year ago through a mutual friend, she was so excited about moving to Switzerland to do her Masters that one couldnt help but be caught up in her bubbly enthusiasm for life… Speaking to her about ART showed a commited and integrity-based artist, searching for answers and always looking ahead. We’re delighted that SAartsEmerging are featuring her at th…eir launch and even more so that the launch takes place in Melville – our favourite hang-out. SAartsEmerging launches this month with a feature on Donna Kukama. In celebration, we’ve planned a cash bar hootenanny for emerging artists and art appreciators, alike: 9 February, 2006 Berlin Bar in Johannesburg, South Africa 7th street, Melville (across and down from Xai Xai) 18:30ish til whenever Features a site-specific installation by our own Bronwyn Lace! SAartsEmerging.org is dedicated to featuring emerging South African artists, curators and arts personalities who are not generally, or have not yet been, written about – but who should be. SAartsEmerging lacks any pretense of objectivity, and preference is not only given to Gauteng locals and friends, but also to early-career non-stars working conceptually, and across disciplines. We’re always looking for writers who want to feature burgeoning artists… More information on us or contributing? Visit the site! Click here. Hope to see you at the party! Donna Kukama Donna Kukama has been on a trajectory of exploring and performing the boundaries between inside / outside, flesh / self, and the relations and investments we have in objects and social status. She is currently studying for her Master of Arts in Sierre, Switzerland; we had a discussion about her work mid-last year. At that time, Kukama was struggling against being defined by her peers – she was “an emerging, black, female, South African artist,” full stop. Feisty and considerate, she was attempting to rebel against what she called a mis/use of identity politics in order to circumvent the politics of the art world. Ironically, in her quest to break out of a boxed in and imputed singularity, Kukama was putting herself smack in the middle of this very dialogue – sometimes with very successful and beautiful interrogations of body and character, and sometimes with works that are very different from what she intended. Rather than trying to “unfold the spaces of her gendered and raced body, to find the stigmas of social inscription,”1 Kukama explored and shared an intimacy of personal experience, simultaneously daring her onlookers to find the lack and the excess, of confinement and of humanness. Click here for more on...
Proudly brought to you by:
