IN PICTURES: Making a Difference celebrates success throughout the year
HURLINGHAM – Domestic workers and gardeners who attend the Making a Difference programme were celebrated for their achievements over the year.
Making a Difference (Mad), a programme which teaches safety tips to domestic workers and gardeners, hosted a celebration in Hurlingham for all attendees who committed themselves to attend the programme.
The Mad campaign was started by Penny Steyn 17 years ago, after facing various instances of violent crime in her life. Now, she hosts monthly meetings in a dozen suburbs around Johannesburg teaching a variety of lessons including how to report crimes and how to take care of health.
The end-of-year party is meant to celebrate all the attendees for their commitment throughout the year and reward them with an exciting goodie bag and lunch. The guests were also treated to a musical performance by Tebogo Twin.
Steyn said, “My whole aim is to get more and more people who will make a choice to work with the police and not against them. I’m teaching you to help them by preventing crime from happening to yourselves first. When you look after yourself, you look after everyone around you too and when you spread the lessons to your family and friends you can help them too.”
Members of the police and community members also attended the event to offer their support for the programme and each of the people who attended the classes was given a certificate to recognise them for their efforts.
One of the programme’s longest attendees, Gladys Mohale, has been attending the lessons since they were started. She highlighted that as domestic workers, they can play a very important role in preventing crime in their homes. “At my home, I manage to do everything you taught me to do.”
Sergeant Dipuo Maphanga, the coordinator of the of the Social Crime Prevention Unit, from the Randburg Police Station said, “The type of work that is being done on a monthly basis is very important to work. I personally am someone who comes to the meetings to do presentations on domestic violence and they are very informative meetings.”
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