Sharing & Caring

From caregivers to community members, we are all taking strain. We need real connection - with nature and each other - more than ever.

In this spirit, our guides & facilitators are continuing to serve society during these challenging COVID times.

The Masiyembo Association is currently supporting two initiatives:

1. "Care for the Carers" : a grassroots program giving exhausted members/volunteers of Community Action Networks across the Cape essential therapeutic and restorative nature experiences. We all need these selfless givers to keep functioning optimally - firstly for their own sake and that of their family and friends - but for all of society: so that these kind-hearted souls will continue to feel motivated in helping nurture a better South Africa for all.

2. "Wild Nights Out": an annual program providing diverse South African school-leavers (Matrics) a transformative wilderness experience at a pivotal time of life transition. Wild Nights Out consists of a multi-day wilderness trail, along with a year-long follow-up mentoring process that ensures that the impacts seeded in the mountains help grow future leaders for our society: values-based, purpose-driven, and capable of contributing to profound systems change.

Kindly join us in Caring for the Carers and Mentoring our Matrics: your generous donations cover transport costs to nature areas, food, gear, and a portion of the skilled facilitators' (i.e. guides', social workers') time.

For as little as R150/$10/€10, we can give a Caregiver a half-day "nature recharge" to support their health and resilience during these tough times.

(The GivenGain options below allow for credit card payments. It also gives you the option to become an independent fundraiser for this charitable cause)

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https://pos.snapscan.io/qr/AoALqDHk

EFT

EFT / Online Banking

Account Name: Organisation for Noetic Ecology

Bank: First National Bank (FNB)

Branch/Bank Code: 250655

Account Number: 62815892147

Reference: Masiyembo Donation

For International Transfers:

SWIFT: FIRNZAJJ

Address: FNB Plettenberg Bay, Cnr. Main & Kloof St., Plettenberg Bay 6600

Organisation for Noetic Ecology NPC

Secretariat to the Masiyembo Association

Registered CIPC 2019/306713/08

NPO Registration Number 230-712

What’s the motive?

When we first gathered at the workshop that sowed the seeds for Masiyembo, we were all crammed into a residential living room. Our invitees from local townships were unable to attend. This wasn’t how we had planned it. Not at all.

We had instead intended for a weekend in a beautiful nearby National Park immersed in indigenous coastal forest. Where wild nature could be our inspiration.

Yet street riots initiated by frustrated communities over shortage of housing and lack of basic services blocked access to the areas that we had wanted to go. Access that we often take for granted.

This was a watershed moment for us.

With this came the palpable and humbling realisation that while thousands of overseas tourists comfortably visit and soak up South Africa’s incredible wild spaces unhindered, the vast majority of local citizens are unable to access, connect and benefit from their own natural heritage.

We sat together in silence and then shared openly from our hearts.

We knew this had to change and we wanted to play our part in that shift.

It is absolutely imperative that all people have the means to reconnect with their heritage, and to rediscover their sense of identity and belonging through nature.

This helps revitalise the health and social cohesion within our communities. And much more.

Your generosity helps us take concrete actionable steps in this direction.

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"Masiyembo" is an isiXhosa word that simply translates as "[Let's go] back to our roots".

Yet as several elders have shared, it has a deeper resonant meaning - a profound remembering of the human spirit and our origins with nature.

"Come... let’s go there, let’s go back to that special place where we remember our ancestors, our humanity, and where we are warmly welcomed by one another. Let's bring that back into awareness" ~ Mncedisi

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