Building a Community
How does one person build a community?
How does one person change the mindset of that community?
Not a morning goes by when I don't ask myself those questions. Last year, I moved into the town of Fish Hoek, along the Cape Peninsula's stunning False Bay coastline – an area that could easily match the French Riviera for beauty and tourism – to find a dreary, neglected little town through which passes enormous amounts of traffic.
In April, I put forward ideas to "revamp" the town, to bring it to a point where the massive economic opportunities being missed because Fish Hoek is sandwiched between places people would rather visit, are turned around. Enthusiastic community members suggested that there were other areas in the Fish Hoek Valley that also needed attention, and the name changed to the more inclusive, 'Revamp The Valley'. Those I met all told me the same thing: something has to be done about the place.
There is no shortage of ideas – I receive them frequently either via Facebook or email – but herein lies the crux of the problem: everyone is waiting for someone else to do it. Someone said to me last week, "We've seen other enthusiastic people, and we're just waiting and watching to see where this goes."
I was stunned.
How is any improvement of a town, any kind of upliftment, supposed to succeed if people are "waiting and watching"? If the community is as desperate for change to happen as so many have told me they are, what is "watching" going to achieve?
The community must step up to support those ideas in actual, tangible ways in order for anything to work. If that real support is not there, and the community sits back hoping the ideas will work without actually getting involved, it will fail. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The mindset that must change is this: if you are a member of a community (and unless you live in a remote cabin in the mountain, you are), then step up – for yourself, for your children, for the next generations to come, for your neighbours. Change happens at the grassroots, not at a national level.
Change begins with YOU, the individual currently yelling at the useless politicians on television.
Change begins with YOU, bemoaning the filthy street, the homeless, or the drunks urinating in the alley.
Change begins with YOU, the parent asking why there is no safe place for your child to play.
Change begins with YOU, but it will not happen if you're sitting back, watching.
Every human being- even the laziest person among us- is part of the solution ~ United Nations
UPDATE: Our first Thundafund crowdfunding effort raised over R7000. To see how that money is being spent, visit the Financials page on this website. Grateful thanks to all who contributed.
