Togetthere trip to South Africa

Voor de Nederlandse kerkelijke gemeenten: 

A group of 10 young people plus 2 group leaders from the Netherlands arrived in South Africa at Thursday 2nd of August as the guests of Nova and SAFCEI, an environmental activist group based in Cape Town. The Dutch visitors are from congregations in the PKN (Protestantse Kerk in Nederland) and their trip is a project of Togetthere. Togetthere is the international youth programme of ICCO-Kerk in Actie. One of the things they do is to send young people to visit projects supported by ICCO-Kerk in Actie all over the world.

They will be in South Africa until the 16th of August and their aim is to learn about climate change and environmental projects in the South African context. The idea is that they will act as change agents when they return to their churches and spheres of influence, being able to talk about their own experiences. Two young South Africans are also accompanying them on their journey. 

The first days they were hosted by Lux Mundi Dutch Reformed Church, one of the congregations that participates in Nova's People's PoweR project (PPR). Last weekend they visited Mamelodi (largest township of Pretoria) and Sunday they attended the church service at Pahameng Uniting Reform Church of South Africa (URCSA). Thereafter they stayed with host families at Stellastraat Dutch Reformed Church, another "PPR" congregation. Today they have left for a trip to Nova's Improved Cook Stove project in Molati and a Basa Magogo project in Ermelo. They will spend one night in the Kruger Park. Returning from their "overland" journey they will spend another day or two in Gauteng before heading off to Cape Town.

Last Thursday Attie van Niekerk told Nova's story and we had a great discussion as an introduction to their trip. 

Here is a link to their blog: 

http://www.togetthere.nl/site/doc.phtml?p=weblog&weblog=256