25/01/10

Hey guys! I've been having internet problems recently at the place where I'm staying, but, from the end of this month I'll be living in my own place, finally and will have decent internet access. So! Sorry about the delay in everything, I'm happy to announce that our site has been launched, yoou can check it out at www.buygerine.com tons of great hand crafted products and some insight into what it is we are doing for S.A

On another note, the names of the first intake into the Vuka Mentorship Programme have arrived! BUT...If you want to check them out your'e gonna have to visit www.neosho119.com
show a little interest in Africa! The site contains profiles of the selected few, personal info on the people, not the businesses, more are coming! Things are taking off in a big way, today i accompanied Sharon Reed to a meeting with Mr. Jan Hollenbach, MD for the Maccauvlei Learning Academy. These guys are on board with us all the way, providing us with the facilities and means for the programme while running the courses. I'll be blogging soon on an interview held with him at his offices. The course starts at the end of February, giving us limited time to put the last pieces in place, this is just the beggining! So, check out those sites, as always, we are eager to hear from you! Until Tomorrow!

21 Jan 2010

Myself and Hanolet left this morning to Sharpeville to interview some of the people who we accepted for the first intake into the Vuka Mentorship programme, Unfortunately we're experiencing some problems launching the Buygerine site, sorry for the delay! However you can view the first of the profiles on www.neosho119.com . Tomorrow im back in Heidelberg to get more profiles and pictures, hopefully our site will be opperational!

20 jan 2010

hey there! Today was an office day, Sharon and Hanolet came by and we discussed things coming up and projects to date, the first intake for the Vuka Mentorship programme has been finalised! I will be recieving the list of names tomorrow so you can check it out then! Our website, Buygerine.com, should be up and running by tomorrow night so please, check it out! Let us know what you think about it! My day consisted of touching up the profiles, beautifying and checking the functionality of the site for release tomorrow. I personally feel that things are moving forward, it's a good feeling! Check out the Blog tomorrow and find out whats happening!

2010-01-19

Today was great, we started off by going through to Ratanda and I started taking details from a few of the crafters and business people we've been dealing with, as im creating personal profiles on them so we can keep track of everyone! We interviewed around 5 people all with interesting stories, hopes and aspirations! Once we where done we left Ratanda and drove to Rosebank for a meeting with Gordon Froud at his gallery, we got to see the finished Vuvuzelas from last years workshop, they look great and the guys have come up with some awesome ideas, so far the month has been going well, our new site Buygerine.com will be up and running in just a few days so check it out!! As always, I’d love to hear any comments you have, so feel free!!

14 Jan 2010

Hey there! Let me start off by welcoming the new year! 2010 promises to be full of new challenges and rewards. It’s already been a crazy year and we’re only a week or so in! Unfortunately I haven’t been back to any of the communities from last years blog entries, everyone’s still getting into the swing of things apparently. However, I’ve been allocated the task of web creation and am currently building a website for Tangerine Marketing ( A branch of Neosho Trading ) which has been keeping me busy and pretty damn frustrated for the past few days. Today I was allowed out for some fresh air though, we headed to Pretoria to meet up with Hanolet Uys, a partner from Neosho, where we went through the applications and entries of entrepreneurs from last year and selected 25 of the most promising and qualified applicants. Sadly out of these 25 we only expect around half to successfully complete the training. Obviously we’d love to be optimistic and ensure everyone a pass, but that’s not the reality of it and we have to be realistic, don’t we! I’ll be getting a bit more personal this year with interviews and a look inside the lives of the people we work alongside as we continue on our journey to make S.A a better place, or at the very least a place with less unemployment!! Here’s to 2010 and all the things we aim to achieve!

Thursday 17 Dec

This morning we had some business at the bank. Always a pleasure. Right. After waiting 45 minutes in the queue your'e grateful for the comfy ( ish ) chairs, but can't help wishing they had more interesting articles on the walls. It took us the best part of 90 odd minutes to get out of there! Our next destination was the Sports,Arts dept. at the Ekurhuleni offices, to drop off gifts for the marketing departments we've been working with. We made a quick stop at the Marketing and Communications Department to do the same thing and then headed out to Johannesburg central to drop off packages at Anglo Zimele. Our meeting with Victors wife was cancelled so, once we had made all our deliveries, there wasn't much else we could do! Hanolet's taking tomorrow to finish up the profiles for the people we've succesfully enlisted this year. I'll be continuing with the blog from the 5 January 2010! Looking back over the past couple weeks at what we've achieved helps me put into perspective the work we've been doing! At the time it's frustrating and feels like you're wasting time and energy on some of these people, but it really is worth it in the end! After only a few short weeks I feel that we've accomplished alot..At one stage we thought we'd never get 50 disabled people with a craft, we did! The amount of positive feedback from people we've spoken too is awesome! Even my blog is slowly growing! It's all very exciting but there's way more to be done still, next year promises to be full of new challenges and new faces.. So until then.. Have a great Christmas and an even better New Year!!

Tuesday 15 Dec

The first thing i checked this morning was the weather! Not as bad as yesterday, but still overcast..after a quick cup of coffee it was straight to Ratanda to pick up the last of the forms from that area. We met with Eunice who owns a little shop in Ratanda selling vetkoek and such to the public,we spent some time chatting to her about her business ideas and giving her some new ones, all we had left to do in Ratanda after we'd taken her forms was to get the contact details of 50 disabled crafters. Thankfully we had a load of help finding them, so, while we waited for the contact sheet we relaxed, chatting about random stuff, like how artists from earlier years had lived.. a location can be surprisingly peaceful when you take time to notice. We got the contact sheet and met some of the disabled guys from their office, our list of disabled crafters ranged from paraplegic leather workers to blind people who can sew ( dangerous much?). On our way through to Norwood, the weather now warm and sunny, what had started out as a relaxing day quickly changed as we hit traffic. Joy. We waited several long, uncomfortable moments until we realised it was a roadblock further down! When we finally reached the police cars stationed on either side of the road (which took forever by the way) we where pulled over and asked for the relevant documents, licences etc. We where let go pretty easily though and they continued doing their thing. Finally we arrived at Spark Gallery , we'd given Gordon our catering duties for the day and he seemed to have had a bad time about it! 45 Minutes of trying to explain a lunch order to a clueless cashier can bring out the worst in a person. =) In the end though everyone was fed and the workshops last session for the year was going really well! we wrapped up after a chat with Gordon about next years classes, starting on the 5 Jan and said goodbye to the guys and girls that where there.. tomorrow is a public holiday (Yay!) but if theres anything worth writing about you'll be the first to know!