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Gerda Potgieter

Restoring lives through gratitude


You will suffer in the long term if you believe you are entitled to better treatment than others or freebies. Entitlement can result in relationship conflict, unhappiness, abuse of many things (because you have money you have not worked for), and a severe lack of gratitude. The world does not owe us anything—we owe the world us all.

The KwaSizabantu Youth conferences gave birth to the CYPSA Restoration Program. This program looks holistically at the socio-economic challenges of young people and helps them if they ask for help. The rationale is linked to the principle of attitude, which implies that a person can only change their life for the better if they are committed to the program. That is the only requirement to be accepted for the CYPSA program:  The person who wants to change for the better and commit to the program will be helped, and then change will happen. Change starts with the individual.

Due to CYPSA’s work, education departments have formally invited them to conduct campaigns within its jurisdiction. CYPSA provides drug and human trafficking awareness workshops for educators. They visit communities and schools to educate and raise awareness for addictions. Through the goodwill of the KwaSizabantu Mission, the services are free to schools. Youth helped by CYPSA include drug addicts, drug dealers, pimps, gangsters, human traffickers, HIV-infected youth, and pornography addicts. They also visit prisons to bring hope to inmates based on reconciliation.

CYPSA runs a Youth Inclusion Programme (YIP) that allows former drug addicts to complete their high school careers or pursue tertiary education. It also provides skills development and employment opportunities.

After in-depth discussions with people who have restored their lives and overcome severe challenges, I found that gratitude makes a difference. An attitude of entitlement destroys a person and society. Many of those I spoke with highlighted that people who receive grants and other freebies are encouraged not to work and to use the money for the wrong things. The vicious cycle of entitlement prevents them from positively contributing to their lives.

Thamsanqua Mpanza is one of the many who came to KwaSizabantu to seek help and now contributes constructively to society. Drugs, alcohol, witchcraft, ancestor worship, criminal activities and many other challenges previously marked his story. He is now a happy man, healed and working at the Mission. He wants others to learn from his story and help prevent them from taking the wrong path as he previously did.

 

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