© 2018 South Africa - The Good News No Images? Click here SA man pays tribute to friend through school refurbishment programme Duncan Alfreds, News24 Contributing to a school refurbishment programme seemed like the perfect way for Rob Broster to honour the community service legacy of his friend. Even more so when he roped in several good Samaritans along the way. Broster’s friend Ian Macdonald, affectionately known as Fella, died in an accident in February, the day after he turned 44, and Broster put some thought into how he would pay tribute to him. “Ian didn’t just talk about what must be done. He just did it. When Ian passed, I found myself asking: ‘What would Fella do?’ Besides his career he has always strongly argued for making a difference and for using privilege and network for positive change,” Broster said. Macdonald spent the last two years of his life working to uplift Hillwood Primary School in Lavender Hill as part of the Partners for Possibility Programme. Ostensibly, this is a book about an inter-continental photographic safari to identify and photograph 1000 birds. In every respect it has been well written and beautifully designed. There is no shortage of books with nature as their theme, written by eminent naturalists who have a singular mission – to publish and sell a coffee table book that can be proudly displayed. Josh’s Big Year is, in every respect, completely different. Josh Crickmay, in a beautiful Foreword written by Ernie Els, is described as having OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and Asperger’s Syndrome (an autism spectrum disorder). In his Prologue to this magnificent 300 page book, written, photographed, designed and published by himself Josh writes “at the age of 15, I fell into a deep depression, the pressure of falling behind my peers, the stress of OCD and the calamities that come with Aspergers finally overwhelmed me, and I dropped out of school. But that was just the beginning.” joBerg2c –‘C’ ing is BeLiv – ing (1100 eggs later!) joBerg2c is an epic South African MTB event, starting in Heidelberg and ending in Scottburgh. It hosts 750 riders including 185 internationals, as well as 320 crew. The route goes through four provinces, 135 landowners and 220 farms and is approx. 900kM, +/- 100km per day. But it is more than that. All race villages are hosted by schools and communities. All 25 water points are hosted by farmers associations, churches, Lions/Rotary clubs, retirement villages and nursery schools. This is a deliberate move by the organisers, who, rather than contracting outside caterers, provide these ‘communities’ with opportunities to raise funds for important causes. Working: According to Stats SA‚s Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), as at the fourth quarter of 2017 there were 13.9 million people working for someone else for pay, 900,000 people employing one or more employees, 1.5 million people working on their own account (not employing anyone else) and 91,000 people helping without pay in a household business. Source: Eighty20 Follow us: |