A MiracleMiracles are occurrences that release the past in the present and give us back our futures, (this is also the working definition of a therapeutic healing process).
This process is often performed and facilitated by: those people who temporarily have more for those people who temporarily have less ... people reaching out and helping people ... helping those who through no fault of their own are simply less fortunate than others.
The Hendrickse Foundation ... (here after called the Foundation) ... is an experiment in the classic sense of Social Order.
An experiment because it involves people coming out of their protected worlds and coming to a place in their own minds or in their own social order where hiding in safe places is no longer acceptable for them and they are willing to venture out into the unknown and take risks with those who are desperate to learn and not nearly as fortunate... this is defined only by circumstance ... not by ability.
Within this facility of the Foundation we are planning to set into motion Mission Experiences ... hands on ... as does Earth Watch in how it treats and monitors the environment ... Those who want to come on their annual holidays and give of their time and experience and provide the hope. Those who want to come and have a Mission experience about reaching out and touching someone and spreading the sense of faith ... a sense of hope ... can.
Where there is specific on going greater need we are going to be asking some of the various Professional Associations, Educational Institutions and Fellowships Associations and Organizations across North America and Europe to draw from out of their midst missions and volunteers to come forward and work either along side of us ... or in conjunction with us ... or simply come and do their thing with kids ... and people.
There is no doubt that all this takes money ... the Foundation is on the drawing board with Carr Buchan and Associates and the charter is being drawn up as you read this: to be a charitable society in Canada and similarly Great Britain and USA ...
We are all just travelers on this space ship called earth and it is time that we shared the burden of responsibility as well as the wealth of the lands and technology...
Giving Kids a ChanceThe United States First Black Woman Astronaut (Dr Mae Carol Jemison) recently told a meeting of top business people in the World at a conference in Sao Paulo Brazil ... that she came to an understanding as she gazed down at Mother Earth from space, Earth would be ok, it would survive ... Who Might Not Survive Is Us ... As A Species ... that is profound.
Coming to understand that each of us has something to contribute to the state of well being of our planet by contributing and participating with the other people who live here, this is paramount.
If we are in fact to survive being ourselves with our greed and our ways of doing things ... we must stop using up our most precious resource ... Our Children. We have to stop creating opportunities for the children to self destruct.
The Foundation’s primary purpose is: To Bring An Opportunity To Those It Touches So That They Can See Themselves Differently ... for those same people and especially children to be able to dream a special dream and have reasonable hopes that their dreams can come true.
In The Founders Own Words:
Jo’Ann HendrickseWHY:• As a child, I was brought up in a strict and protected environment, but what I still found was that I had no one that I could turn to in times of strive, when I needed to speak to someone. Or if I needed a mentor for advice, there was no one to help. There was no one who could provide any sort of comfort in times of stress, it was simply non-existent.
• As an adult and as I moved into parenthood, I decided that with my own children, they would be able to come to me with anything and everything ... not be judged ... be helped to make the right decisions about whatever was in their best interest. That I believe lays the basis of freedom ... freedom to be how you are in moments of un-assuredness.
• Then about 15 years ago I worked for the State Health Department as a family planning advisor and in that capacity I worked in the field with families ... in their homes ... in clinics, schools and basically anywhere I was allowed to speak to groups of people ....My Job description didn’t just include Family Planning, but rather many other aspects of health, family and baby care.
• During this time I found a great need, a great lack in the communities ... Issues ranged from abuse to neglect and hunger ... The sad fact was for these people there was no one ... What I found happening to me was that I had become a sounding board for many... and I had to begin to rely on my personal experience. I found that I could be there. The sad fact was that for so many kids...there were so many that had no one to turn too.
• The nature of doing things in South Africa I found to be most troubling, and at time my hands were tied. I couldn’t do much as I knew needed to be done because there was always so much red tape. We had to follow the right channels to get the work done, and this was compounded in its complexity because there was generally a shortage of professional people. Most cases fell by the wayside ... It is needless to say but my work, although rewarding at times was also very frustrating.
• So my wish, my dream was to be able to help these people and especially the children, because there was no one for them. I know that there is a limit to what teachers and social workers can do ... and I am sure that all who are there are doing their very best that they can under the circumstances.
WHERE:
• Where I was working there is a very high rate of unemployment and therefore all the dreaded social diseases (the whole gambit from social dysfunction to aids) that go along with that.
• Mostly I noticed how the children were affected ... So many have turned to theft, prostitution and drugs.
• I suppose they do this mainly to escape the living conditions they have to face daily. The crux of the problem is these kids have no hope. These kids are so bright and to see them all just go to waste is a shame. Even if they’re not wasted by the drug escape culture, they don’t have a fighting chance of survival to chase after their dreams and reasonably consider that life could be better for them.
• There are gangs (new families of affiliation taken on when families of origin fail the dependency needs as the child grows in an environment that can not support them properly) operating in the schools selling drugs. There are drug dealers on every corner... and to me, all I see, is a whole generation of children who are lost to society and that HAVE NO HOPE.
WHEN:• As I see it no time like the present. (Every day we wait to act on this project more children are consumed by the process of being oppressed in an environment that can and will destroy them.)
HOW:
• It is Best (a grass roots approach) at first to be able to go into the schools and have direct access to the children ... arrange through the schools boards, via workshops or study sessions with the kids to spend time with them and simply ask what do you need. (I heard a story recently from Central Africa where the people from right to play went to a school and asked “what do you need?” Of course they were all ready to do sports or build a soccer pitch or what have you but the children asked for water ... why because one young lad had to walk 15 miles to school one way and when he arrived there was no water and he could not get any until he got home that evening after returning over the same 15 miles. So there project at that school was a well.)
• Go into and on to playgroups and ask then simply listen ... spend time one-on-one with the kids and listen and do counseling if necessary, but mainly listen and respond to what we hear.
• Or to liaise with the teachers and principals of the schools, find out what they think is the best way to help those who most need it.
• The Other Option is to approach The Health Department and The Education Department and simply ask “what do they need?”
• In fact I think we would need the blessing of these departments to go in and do the work.
• Finally, to give hope is what I aim to give ... to those who have none ...
• Now the oddity of this is that the opportunity to enjoy success has nothing to do with one’s ability; it has everything to do with circumstance of birth ... but through the grace of God and the fellowship of those who are willing, we can create an opportunity for those with no hope to have hope and to have the life God intended for them ...
No longer at odds with everything.
FUNDING• Needs to come primarily from the private sector ... We need to as individuals, become invested in our future ... Yes public funds will be utilized where possible and all avenues of “grants-men-ship” etc will be used but the concept of the individual becoming invested in the outcome of the exercise is most important ...
DRUGS ALCOHOL ADDICTION AND CO DEPENDENCY • This can be treated ... In North America there are treatment programs that run the gambit from the simple principles of 12 steps to the more complex processes of treatment centers ... setting into motion those necessary steps to set up treatment centers where they are needed is primary ...
•
The Primary Root Cause of the issues of Co Dependency is Spiritual Bankruptcy. When is a child not a Child? When the child lives with despair: People saw you as a child, they never really saw you unless they got close enough to see the sadness in your eyes, or that worried look on your brow ... You behaved like a child ... but were you really playing? ... Or were you an outsider who was just going through the motions? If people were really noticing you then they would have seen that you did not have the spontaneity that most of the other kids had.
Actually no one noticed ...Why? ...They could not notice it unless they got very close to you ... and the sad thing is ... if they did get very close they in all probability would not understand what it was that they were seeing.
It matters not what other saw and said, the fact remains that you never really ever felt like a child. You didn’t even have a sense of what it’s like to have a child’s feelings.
A child equaling a puppy dog make an excellent metaphor.
The child should be able to be like the puppy. Offering and receiving love freely and easily, scampering about, some what mischievously, playfully ... doing things for approval or reward, but at the same time doing as little as possible.
The Most Important aspect of being either the puppy or the child is being carefree...
If a child is like a puppy, then for you, you were never a child!
Drugs, Alcohol and Addiction are the most destructive forces in the universe no matter where we live.
The process of addiction is fed at an unimaginable rate in the face of hopelessness.
• This initially has to be a primary focus ... to get children past the threat and over the influence of all the ugly aspects of Co Dependency. To set into motion those forces necessary to create the opportunity for these future citizens of the world to rise above their original circumstances...
• Co dependency can not be avoided but what can happen is that a sense of hope and joy can be infused into children and they can find the strength to move past their initial lot in life.
• It is our intention within the first decade of operation to establish a treatment center for the issues around Codependency at or near Cape Town. With such a facility in place we can introduce to the various community programs for training and self awareness and recovery ... but this can not happen without a primary component of Hope... The training and on going infrastructure necessary to cope with this problem will be addressed from the get go ... but to give the Foundation a home to work from and a place for people to relate to is important.
It is a given in the business of healing from this thing called hopelessness:
That if there is a rent and/or tear in the fabric of life where people are made to feel they are hopelessly lost in the very process of attempting to have the life they are trying to have ... and there are many combinations of ways to get to hopeless ... drug and alcohol abuse ... violence ... sexual assault ... denial of basic human requirements for survival ... chronic unemployment ... when a soul is injured in that fashion then the healing that comes to people is always a spiritual affair ...
It seems to be a basic rule of the universe ... God’s Law if you like ... but the presence of Spirit and a healthy relationship with God and Spirit is very important ... without the spiritual component hope does not grow... it simply dies on the vine.
172 On Creation and Spiritual Awakening and Acumen EXPERIENCE has taught us that to grow we have to break out of the mould we built to save us from a world we thought would destroy us. We have to come back out into the place we considered so dangerous that it terrorized us.
No longer that lost soul hiding inside trying to grasp at straws and pieces of life’s experience as they drifted by the entrance to our cave.
No longer trying to force the world and what it represents to us into the cubby holes of our minds for safe storage and for our own personal consumption later on, whenever that is.
No Longer At Odds With Everything
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