16 Days for Youth – Bridgetown Athlone

The purpose of life is not to be happy, it t is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important.

As an individual, you think that you could never make a difference in the world, but you can. It all begins with ideas. They soon become words, which becomes your actions, which then turn into habits that shape your character, and finally, culminates into your destiny.

Team of Hope organisation in Bridgetown in Athlone was nominated for Heart FM’s 16 days for youth initiative. Rowena who lives in the community sent through this message and we needed to come together to help her.

This is a community that is one of many that need youth development, encouragement and care. A lovely lady by the name of Rowena Heuwel started this initiative and is being supported by other members that live in the community since December 2019. Rowena has always had a passion of wanting to give back to the community. She became involved with a group doing community work outside of Bridgetown in 2017 and seeing the children’s happy faces despite their circumstances, really touched her heart to give back in her own community.

Team of Hope is about spreading the message of Hope, Kindness, Love and Faith amongst the children in the community and hoping to spread even further in the future. It is about interacting with activities and inspirational talks. Inspiring and encouraging the children acknowledge how special they are, and that there are people amidst their circumstances that care about them. The aim is to let children learn from the adults who are setting examples for them. During this short time of existence, they have accomplished so much with patience, faith and perseverance and they have big dreams for themselves.

The organisation has many food drives together with motivational talks at least every 6 to 8 weeks.