Kathryn de Bruin started a non-profit called Conexa Int.  https://www.conexaintl.com/ a non-profit that trains mental health professionals to give back to developing nations and communities, by giving them cultural competency, and arranging trips where they can use their therapeutic skills for good. She still works closely with Conexa Int. to provide service projects around the world providing mental health training.

 

Kathryn de Bruin has been instrumental in creating EFT South Africa where she trained hundreds of clinicians. My business partnered with a development program in South Africa called the Boroa Initiative as one way we are giving back. One project that I am especially excited about is the Hold Me Tight seminar in the Vrygrond community, an impoverished settlement in Cape Town. Made up of groups of people from 4 African countries, my team and I will be leading the seminar for 35 days – including couples, mother-daughter pairs, and friend pairs. Under the leadership of Dr. Elmien Lesch of Stellenbosch University, we will be doing a research project on a selection of our participants, essentially to see how EFT works for African couples. To learn more about Vrygrond, please click the link: http://www.dreamstoreality.co.za/vrygrond-the-capes-oldest-informal-settlement/

STAGE 1: We were so thrilled to receive the following news from our South African Director!

“Yesterday seven ladies attended the first class at Ezekiel Christian School. The ladies enjoyed the class and was looking forward to attend again.  They said it was fun and loved the typing program. We started with typing exercises using a typing program which was already loaded on to the PC’s. I just started explaining the layout of the keyboard and basic mouse skills. Some of the ladies showed great aptitude and one lady did extremely well.  None of these ladies had any prior computer training or education, but they were eager to learn. It was an enjoyable experience and I loved it!”

STAGE 2: We are so excited to announce Stage 2 of this project just went live (February 2015). We launched Stage 2 by renting a small building on the main Tweespruit drag as a location for our Wifi room! Our Boroa Information Brokerage International, or BIBI, will promote internet literacy in the poorest communities. BIBI will open to the public on March 1, 2015. We have given Mpo a part-time job where she will be manning the building for 3 hours a day. Mariel is in charge of organizing the space, buying a couple benches, painting the place, and creating a sign. Our hope is that the people in the Tweespruit township will be able to come and use their phones to access the Wifi here. We will challenge their learning and internet literacy by providing a daily challenge on our learning center whiteboard. The daily challenges will include tasks such as “Try to use Google” or “Create an email account.” At the same time, Mpo and the other 8 ladies will be starting a 2 year computer skills program at Ezekiel School. Mpo will be trained to help those who are learning to use Wifi. We hope to move on to Stage 3, furnishing the room with computers and tablets as soon as possible!

STAGE3: Collect laptops, computers and tablets so that we can provide some basic computer training. If you know of anyone who is willing and able to donate something, we have the resources to get it to BIBI.