New coaches for youth upskilling programmes
MOT South Africa recently hosted its first MOT Coaches’ Basic Education for the year at Fairmont Secondary School in Grassy Park.
MOT is an organisation that was started in Norway by two former Olympic speedskaters, Atle Vårvik and Johann Olav Koss, who wanted to prevent social problems by setting up programmes in several communities targeting the youth.
The organisation is active on five continents and on March 26 and 27, MOT South Africa hosted 26 participants who included principals, educators, social workers and community volunteers who were trained as MOT Coaches.
The participants came from several schools like Fairmont, Zeekoevlei and Lotus High Schools, alongside three community organisations – JP21 Foundation, Amy Foundation, Mbekweni Youth Centre and Rotary Foundation.
MOT South Africa partnered with The Rotary Club of Wynberg, Haugaland Upper Secondary School, Karmøy Rotary Club and Rotary Districts 2250 and 2275, the Rotary Foundation and the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) to roll out our Courage to Care Global Grant project.
The project was created to invest in future leaders by training educators to empower the youth with leadership and life skills to master their own lives and shape the future they want for themselves. MOT SA aims to develop robust youth to be resilient role models in their communities.
The Western Cape Education Department has fully endorsed MOT’s “values-driven programme” that was created to teach future leaders positive life skills within our community.
Louise Wheeler, a teacher at Zeekoevlei High School, says she admires that the MOT programme focuses on how to prevent challenges such as bullying, violence, teen pregnancy and substance abuse as the focus is usually on rehabilitation.
Gary Speelman, Young MOTivator Alumnus and MOT coach shared his MOT journey which started in 2015 when he was an MOT Youth and Young MOTivator from False Bay TVET College.
He said since he had become involved with MOT, his life has changed positively and that many people around him had seen the changes in him.
Speelman shared that he admired that MOT did not force people to change, but through the tools, activities and group discussions, MOT planted a seed that eventually sprouted and grew when willingly accepted.
“MOT is a way of life. MOT has inspired me to encourage and motivate other young people in my community through its values.”
Stacy Edwards, the Wynberg Rotary Project manager said that she admired the passion, enthusiasm, and drive to invest in the youth that the MOT coaches had shown over the two days. She gave a special thanks to Odd Henning in Norway for his contribution to getting the project started.
MOT SA board member and ex-member of the Wynberg Rotary Club, Brian Dalton, welcomed all new MOT coaches to the MOT family and said that they would not only be contributing to the growth in the school, but in the whole community.
Find out more about MOT on www.mot. org.za and follow its social media platforms for inspiring posts: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, LinkedIn on @motsouthafrica.
“The project was created to invest in future leaders by training educators to empower the youth with leadership and life-skills to master their own lives and shape the future they want for themselves