As an organization Evah’s Spirit firmly believes that children should not be destined to experience hardship and disadvantage by accident of birth, for children to fail as a result of the poverty they grow up in is grossly unfair. Every child should be given the opportunity to fulfil their innate potential regardless of their circumstances. Every child should have the same life chances regardless of their parent’s means.

In partnership with Manyeleti Community Trust, Evah’s Spirit initially visited schools in the villages associated with the Manyeleti land claim. Liaising with Headmasters and assisting the schools to complete applications to Biblioneff for book donations to build their poorly resourced libraries. Evah’s Spirit were also instrumental in brokering commitment from schools to engage in a number of community projects within their specific locality, building greater social cohesion. Evah’s Spirit also assisted in the delivery of a program of education to the youth and children of Manyeleti a displaced community in South Africa. The Manyeleti community was forcibly removed from their land in 1962. However, through signing an agreement they were eventually given back the rights to their land.

As part of a development plan, Evah’s Spirit, via a third party organisation, carried out research during May 2017 with a group of individuals 16 years and over from the UK, residing within a 16 plus (LAC) residential facility. They were asked, if completing a voluntary project abroad would be something that would interest them and if so why?

The responses were thought provoking and heartfelt: One young person said; “If I did something like that it would change my life. I would know that I would cope with stuff and I have a lot of stuff to cope with. It would be a challenge and if I managed it I would be like yeah, look what I’ve done! It would make me feel good about myself’”

There were many other responses of a similar nature that echoed the same sentiments, as a result of its findings Evah’s Spirit decided to create a pilot project, its core aim, to take a group of youth from (LAC) services and marginalised communities in the UK to Africa, to serve as volunteers, to achieve a number of specific outcomes motivated by the findings.

Aims

The pilot project aims to: –

1. Help young people realise their own innate potential to affect change in the lives of others and in turn, their own. Working side by side with local people, in rural and underprivileged communities, they are given the opportunity to build their capacity, confidence and self-esteem.

1. Provide a Traineeship and Rising Stars Development program with Qube Learning to incorporate soft skills and planned structured work placement to increase employability for the young people in the UK. The program aims to empower, educate, and build resilience whilst creating a sense of ‘agency’.
2. Provide opportunities to young people from the UK to expand social and cultural networks, increasing social and emotional capital, inevitably improving their life chances.
3. Provide opportunities to build strong socialization with local people in Africa and impart cross-cultural knowledge of western life and African heritage.

Objectives

1. Evah’s Spirit aims to create a bespoke program that empowers disengaged and marginalised young people. Facilitating young people with an opportunity to awaken the humanitarian in themselves, usually only afforded to Gap year students or those derived from higher socio-economic classes. The objective is further to provide a truly unique and life-changing experience.
2. Participating as a volunteer abroad provides a platform on which to develop self-esteem, self-confidence and resilience, discovering creativity, talent and aspirations during the process of transformational learning.

An assessment model specific to funder’s requirements, using strength based approach methodology.

Life story-based methods to be used to explore the volunteers lived experience of the project using Journals, Photographs and Video diary recordings.

Channelling the energy, skills and commitment of a volunteer, their passion to serve and to learn from experiences, to inspire and be inspired, are all essential components to a successful outcome.