the Southern Cross, July 17 to July 23, 2013
LOCAL
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Former inmate helps community By ClaIRE MatHIESoN
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FORMER inmate from Oudtshoorn is using his second chance to make a difference in his community. “It is now five years since I have been released and successfully finished my parole,” Jerome Opperman told The Southern Cross. But since being released, Mr Opperman has been faced with a new challenge: “I never knew that finding a job with a criminal record would be the hardest thing.” Despite this, Mr Opperman is committed to staying out of prison, unlike so many in his position that return to crime. “I have done a great deal of harm to the community,” said Mr Opperman, who is now looking for a way to make reparations to the community. “I believe that now is the time to earn the trust and the respect of the people of Oudtshoorn, to show them that I have changed and that I love them just as I love myself. And therefore I am giving myself to them,” he said. Mr Opperman said he wants to give back to the community by focusing on youth development and outreach programmes.
Mr Opperman said there is no infrastructure in his community and nothing for children to do after school. Using his single computer, Mr Opperman helps children do their school tasks. He also teaches basic computer skills to up to ten children a day in a small structure he has built alongside his house. “The demand is high and more children are coming to my house every day,” said Mr Opperman. He now plans to expand and have 20 computers to assist the community’s children. “It’s hard to start something like this without the necessary funding,” said Mr Opperman, who is unemployed but has been given money by his family to help make a difference. But it’s not only the technological skills of the youth that Mr Opperman is trying to help. He has also founded a youth development programme based on morals and values, directed at mending broken family relationships and focusing on the restoration of one’s identity. With his partner, Frank Fransen, Mr Opperman is able to uplift children’s lives. “The crime statistics are high in this area and 40% of the
67 minutes in Bethlehem By ClaIRE MatHIESoN
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ETHLEHEM Catholics are called to serve their 67 minutes at St Kizito Children’s Programme on Mandela Day, July 18, when South Africans are asked to serve their communities in the same way Nelson Mandela served the country for 67 years. St Kizito Children’s Programme, based in Qwaqwa, is a non-profit organisation based within the premises of Tseseng Catholic Church. “The organisation’s main objective is to take care of the orphans and vulnerable children around the community,” said coordinator Johannes Mabuya. Mr Mabuya said the call to volunteer, which falls on the birthday of Mr Mandela, is a way to “celebrate Madiba by spending 67 minutes helping those in need”. St Kizito’s focuses on general and vocational education and interventions in child protection and clinical nutrition intervention. “In the beginning the main focus was mainly on nutritional support for the orphans and vulnerable children, but the realisation soon came that food alone is not enough,” said Mr Mabuya. “The needs of these children are far greater, so the programme was ex-
panded in order to cater to all five dimensions that is needed by every child for development: physical, emotional, cognitive, social and spiritual.” Mr Mabuya said the programme also focuses on general health, HIV/Aids education, psychological care and psychosocial support. Community carers are trained to understand healthy child development and how to work with children holistically, thereby identifying vulnerability or problems in the child’s individual development or environment. Mr Mabuya said he hoped Catholics would use the day as an opportunity to honour the “legacy of Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s former president, and his values, through volunteering and community service.” n For more information on how you can volunteer or make a donation, contact Johannes Mabuya on 058 789 8438
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Jerome opperman stands outside the structure he has a built to house a computer training facility for his community in oudtshoorn. youth are using tik,” he said. Mr Fransen is a retired policeman and correctional officer. “He is my neighbour and he also shares my vision to uplift our community.” Mr Opperman said the use of
drugs has led many of the youth to a life of crime and gangsterism. “Frank and I want to change this and we are primarily going to focus on the drug users and gang members.” Mr Opperman will do this at the same time as assisting children with computer classes. He believes computer literacy is the only way to secure employment, but when the majority of dwellings are without electricity, it is up to those who do have electricity to make a difference. Mr Opperman himself was given a computer while in prison, donated by Thelo Wakefield, the president of Western Province Rugby Union. “While I was in prison I was forced to teach myself to be a computer technician.” He said this helped make the difference in his life. Another contribution was made by the efforts of this newspaper. “The Southern Cross laid the foundation for me getting the finance and sponsorship to finish matric and to graduate in business management,” he said. Mr Opperman said thanks to his exposure in The Southern Cross, he gained a lot of support from the Catholic community, including Fr
Wim Lindeque, Jean Gloyne, and Bishops Edward Adams and Frank de Gouveia of Oudtshoorn. “As a Catholic I believe in the principles of Jesus Christ and what he stood for. We should stand for restoration, healing, upliftment and everything that has a positive impact on the lives of those individuals that are in a disadvantage position,” Mr Opperman said “Catholics showed me that they believed in me and in my capacity for change, although at the time they didn’t know me. They have shown me unconditional love by giving and helping a total stranger. And this is what I aim to do. Not only in words, but in deeds. This has now become my passion and I really want to do that till the day I leave this earth.” To see Mr Opperman’s outreach succeed, he is looking for donations of computers, money, computer hardware and stationary. Mr Opperman has also called on local businesses to help provide the children with a meal a day. n For more information or to help contact Jerome Opperman on 076 628 6354 or 074 605 9276.
Eastern Cape grows family ministry StaFF REPoRtER
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CCORDING to Toni Rowland of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference’s (SACBC) Family Life Desk, the Eastern Cape is the region in the country that is most interested in parish family ministry at the moment. “Training workshops have been held in Aliwal, Queenstown and Mthatha to introduce the programme, orient diocesan animator teams and parish teams,” Mrs Rowland told The Southern Cross. “The Church is a Family of God as was presented to us in the first 1994 African Synod and the family is the little church of the home.” “Concretising these concepts and their interrelationship is the more difficult part and in the workshops, using the manual developed by the Family Life Desk, the teams were provided with information, formation, experiential activities, faith and scripture sharing, all aimed at bringing faith and family life together,”she said.
a diocesan animator team from Mthatha, Eastern Cape practise their steps. In a planning exercise most of the teams selected the Family Life calendar theme for July—Faith and the Elderly for an initial activity in their parishes. “A grandparents blessing, a thank you, and a cup of tea or soup, make the oldies feel loved, but highlighting the plight of many older people living alone and in unsafe environments also needs to be
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brought to the attention of the parishioners,.” Mrs Rowland said. The Parish Family Ministry programme is available to all parishes and includes resource materials for family enrichment and education. n For more information on the Parish Family Ministry programme contact Toni Rowland trowland@sacbc.org.za or info@marfam.org.za
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