There surely can’t be a better way to be welcomed to South Africa than by the pulsating rhythm of a marimba band.
This is exactly how 15 members of the MasterPeace organisation were welcomed to Caledon during a recent visit.
It is a global, multi-award-winning, positive grassroots network of NGOs, social enterprises, partner organisations, active citizens and artists that make a difference locally – at school, in the streets and in communities.
Before embarking on a six-day walk the 15 members (from various European countries) of MasterPeace visited Caledon to meet with members of local community projects namely South2TrueNorth, CoLegacy and Maranatha Healing Centre.
MasterPeace Foundation programme manager Dorothee Meijer from Utrecht, Netherlands told Hermanus Times: “We are an international youth organisation working in 45 countries. When there is a successful project, we share it. The MasterPeace walk as a concept peace walk started in Kenya with the Maasai. We wanted to connect people from Europe with Maasai youths. Because the walk was so successful, we then did a peace walk in Nepal and now we are doing it in South Africa.”
Through a social franchise model local organisations are licensed as MasterPeace clubs. There are currently 60 such clubs in 45 countries. StreetBizz Foundation is the licence holder in South Africa with Dr Nico de Klerk the club leader. De Klerk told Hermanus Times: “The MasterPeace members will over six days walk through the Knysna forest and then along the coast from Mossel Bay to Still Bay. A group of 21 young township leaders will join the walk in Mossel Bay.
“These leaders are from 20 townships from across the country and are part of the ‘Be a Nelson Movement’, which is a project of my StreetBizz Foundation. This walk will give these young leaders the exposure to leadership development.”
De Klerk is the author of No fit: My 1,700-Mile Walk from Apartheid, which documents his 2018 walk from Pretoria to Cape Town through more than 100 townships, giving workshops along the way.
