MOT Refresher
On Friday, 24 March 2023, we held our first MOT Coaches’ Refresher training for the year to 39 MOT Coaches gathered at the College of Cape Town’s Crawford Campus for the year’s first MOT Coaches’ Implementation Review and Refresher Workshop.
Our MOT Coaches were reminded of their responsibility to the young people and the role they play as MOT Coaches as educators, and volunteers to continue being P-YIS – Passionate, Youthful, Innovative and Sincere. These characteristics enable them to develop resilient and inclusive youth and are essential to creating active citizens, role models, and leaders.
The passion and energy displayed by our MOT Coaches give us hope in bringing out the potential of the youth. We are excited about the future and confident that our MOT Coaches will continue to inspire and motivate the youth they serve.
The feedback received from our MOT Coaches in attendance is a testament to their commitment and dedication to the youth they serve. Some of the comments included:
- Let’s not stop making a difference!
- Thank you for your many ideas for implementation!
- MOT makes me young, and I’m ready!
- I feel refreshed!
- I feel inspired!
- I love that we are a part of a big family and have a network to connect with
- Keep sowing; you may never know what will be reaped!
- Let’s continue to work collaboratively for the future of our youth and don’t forget to have fun in the process!
These comments highlight the importance of MOT in the lives of both the MOT Coaches and MOT Youth. It emphasizes the need for ongoing support, motivation, and inspiration to continue positively impacting the youth.
Our MOT Coaches left the workshop feeling refreshed, inspired, and ready to make a difference in the lives of the youth they serve.
We look forward to seeing the positive impact of the MOT programme on the youth and the communities they belong to.
MOT SA Courage to Care Global Project Report
This month, we had a lovely visit from Odd Henning Johannessen, Past District Governor from Karmøy Rotary Club who initiated the project.
We hosted a feedback session on the project as well as an event to pay tribute to the project’s success and the collaboration between MOT, the schools involved and Karmøy Rotary Club over the three years that the project has been running.
The partnership was founded as a humanitarian project aimed at creating safe schools and local environments where youth can grow and develop in peace and harmony, and learn self-acceptance and self-respect. The project was identified with the following shared goals:
- Develop and strengthen youth to be robust, self-aware, courageous, and resilient.
- Empower teachers, community leaders and role players with the necessary skills to develop youth holistically
- Develop a community culture of respect and “ubuntu” which will result in a warmer and safer environment for all. “Ubuntu is Nguni Bantu” a term meaning “humanity”. It describes the South African culture as being that of “oneness” expressing compassion, harmony, and dignity and working together to maintain the spirit of community and taking care of one another.
The feedback from the representatives from each school was overwhelmingly positive.
Teresce Klassen, former principal and MOT Coach, and Audrey Hendricks, both from Fairmount High School, were among the first MOT coaches trained when MOT started in South Africa in 2008. Audrey shared a testimonial about a moment when a student who bullied a girl apologized to the teacher, saying, “Ms. Maasdorp taught me the courage to care,” demonstrating the programme’s impact on solving conflicts.
Julleen Goliath, Deputy Principal from Zeekoevlei High School, was trained as a MOT coach in 2021 and shared that more educators at the school have shown interest in becoming MOT Coaches. She emphasized the importance of programmes like MOT for the youth, as it helps them say no to negative peer pressures and take charge of their lives by having the Courage to Live!
Adrian Maxwell, an educator and MOT coach trained in 2021, shared that the values he learned during training align with his own and empower him every day, allowing him to grow.
Odd Henning Johannessen also accompanied the MOT Team to the three MOT schools that are a part of the project.
Overall, the Courage to Care Global project has had a tremendous impact on South African schools, and its success is a testament to the importance of programs like MOT in developing the next generation of leaders. The values of courage to live, courage to care, and courage to say no are essential for our youth to thrive and MOT is making a positive difference in the lives of many.