MOT SA’s incredible Enthusiast Gathering

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On 27 May 2022, MOT South Africa held its MOT Enthusiasts’ Gathering to over 80 participants, both in-person and online!

We invited one of our local comedians, Dalin Oliver as a guest speaker to entertain us and share his inspiring story through our theme: Courage over Fear! We enjoyed lots of laughs through his story.

The highlights of the day were our panel discussion which revolved around the topic of Understanding Youth Empowerment.

We had two of our MOT Brand Ambassadors, Ayanda Dlamini and Alana James, our MOT Principal, Dylan Tommy, our MOT Researcher, Dr Puni Mamdoo and Chanél Joseph who is a Programme Manager at the Centre for Early Childhood Development present who openly shared their opinions. We all thoroughly enjoyed the discussion as it gave more insight into how we can empower our youth and the different perspectives thereof.

In addition, we hosted a Certificate and Award Ceremony for our Best performing MOT Coaches, MOT School and Organisation in recognition of their valuable contribution to MOT and the positive impact and experiences they have created for the youth in their school and community.

We also announced the winner for our Are Hovstad Award in which we honoured our MOT Principal, Terence Klassen. Mr Klassen was one of the first principals and schools that received MOT when MOT was started in South Africa. He shared in his profile: “In 2006 I was invited by Odd Henning Johannesen to attend the MOT Workshop at Northlink College when MOT was introduced. Fairmount was the only school invited and I was taken in by the philosophy and immediately saw the value it could add to my students. I was hooked. I promoted the programme with our staff and soon we had a team of 12 educators willing to become facilitators and pioneer the MOT programme once they were qualified. I am proud of what MOT has grown into and what it will be!”

When receiving the award, he shared: “Over the moon, honoured and totally unexpected, as I knew the great Humanitarian Mr Are Hovstad was and the difference he made in the lives of so many of the learners and their families through the Norwegian/Wynberg Rotary Bursaries as well as his passion for inculcating value to the Youth at the Colleges.”

In tribute to Are Hovstad’s legacy, the MOT SA Board decided to award a MOT Associate who whole-heartedly displayed similar characteristics to our beloved Are Hovstad.

All MOT Associates have an opportunity to nominate a member they feel should deserve this award. The Top 3 are selected and undergo an interview with the board who then selects the winner.

We are proud to have Terence Klassen as our winner, as we know of all the amazing work he does for this youth and in his community!

The day ended off with Timothy McBride, our MOT partner in research who shared “How well do students participating in the MOT programme perform on examinations in comparison with non-MOT students”.

We are incredibly happy for how the day turned out and how inspiring it was having our all our MOT youth and partners together after the COVID-19 lockdown!

Please read more about the panel discussion and our magical MOT Enthusiasts’ Gathering on our website here: https://mot.org.za/2022/06/mot-enthusiasts-gathering-2022/