Celebrities giving back!

Sometimes we forget celebrities are people too, they also started from nothing to become the successful public figures we see on television or hear on radio today.

That is why it is always nice to read stories of celebrities giving back to the community - after all it is we, the fans who make them the household names they are.

For instance popular 5fm disk jockey, Thato “DJFresh” Sikwane, every year gives away fully paid Boston Media House bursaries to deserving students. Lastly July, to celebrate Mandela Day he gave away 67 bursaries and short short-courses.

He describes himself as, “a person, trying to change the world one person at a time”, has certainly tried to achieve this with education being his main priority. In 2000, while still working at Yfm, he convinced the station to “adopt” 100 matriculants to give them extra lessons and revision every Saturday until the exams were over.

Cape Town based radio station, Good Hope fm, run’s their “Keeping Cape Town warm” campaign every year for the past decades. This initiative sees Capetonians donating blankets to the radio station, which they in turn will hand out to the less privileged people in poorer communities. This year they have teamed up with ABSA and are collecting non-perishable food items also.

Good Hope fm loves giving, every year at Christmas time they also have a toy drive, where they urge listeners to donate old toys that they can donate to children’s houses around Cape Town to brighten up their day.

Another 5fm DJ, Anele Mdoda, who recently celebrated her 25^th Birthday, asked guests coming to her birthday party to each bring a blanket instead of a gift, this she in turn will give to a charity.

 Other celebrities who love to give back is musician, Emo Adams, using social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to keep in touch with his fans and always urging them to donate to his causes. Whether it is your worn shoes, non-perishable food items, worn clothes or just your time, by helping to hand out soup and bread to the impoverished in the community.

  He uses his celebrity status to lure people to help, when they help they get to work side-by-side with the popular performer, who played in stage productions such as “Cat and the Kings “and “My broetjie my bra” to name a few.

by  Joline van der Merwe

BAe Yong Joon donates over US$900 000

As most people across the globe know, a few months ago Japan suffered heavy losses from the earthquake and tsunami disaster which killed and injured countless amounts of people and resulted in billions of property damage.

This caused many Asian actors to band together and pool parts of their big salaries to put back into Japan, where the majority of them currently lived or had at one stage called home.

This includes south – Korean actor Bae Yong Joon, star of many hit television series’ which broadcast in most of the far – east.

The actor donated over one billion won (equivalent to 900 thousand U.S dollars) to the Japanese people, and sent a plea to all the actors he had ever worked with to help out this nation. The response was immediate, as many actors the world over decided to pitch in.

“After hearing what Japan had gone through, and then witnessing the aftermath with his own eyes, Mr. Joon decided that it was his duty as a successful actor and TV personality to help out the very people who had made him famous by watching his shows.” Said Bae Yong’s spokesperson at a conference held in Japan.

“The money will be delivered to the Japan Tourism Agency, to be distributed to the various organizations involved in efforts to to control Japan’s earthquake and tsunami. Bae Yong Joon is also very concerned with the lack of basic supplies for most victims. Therefore he decided to also send food, blankets, and some other basic equipment.”

Since these contributions, aiding the citizens of Japan has been a much quicker process. The amount of money totaled up from all of these contributions has not been made official, but one can be very certain that it is well into the billions.   

Making a difference through Social Networks

David Santistevan, a worship leader from San Diego is someone who uses the social network (Twitter, Facebook, Blogging) to make a difference.

David reckons that when it comes to the social media most people waste their time and reacts.

"I believe there is so much potential for people to make a difference. It’s one of my passions to see people use the social media to make something happen."

He says one should have a strategy or you will never accomplish what you're capable of.

David recommends 5 things one should do to use the social media as a "tool" of change.

1. Define your goal

My main focus is writing for my blog every day, providing content that helps people. I want to contribute helpful information that readers can apply. I’ve decided my blog is my “home base”. I use my social networks to promote my blog because I believe in what I’m writing. Decide what your goal is for social media – whether it’s blogging great content, an email newsletter, tweeting helpful tweets, or something maybe not a lot of other people are doing. Define your goal and go for it. This is one of the best ways I fight my tendency to hide – hide from doing anything remarkable. Yea, it’s a lot of work. Yea, I feel like I have nothing to say sometimes. But I still do it. So can you.

2. Read other Blogs

I like to read a lot of blogs. All I know about social media and blogging I’ve learned from intense reading. Every day I fire up my Google Reader and seek to deepen my knowledge of worship, social media, blogging, business, productivity, technology, and leadership. I recommend you become best friends with your RSS reader and subscribe to the best content. You’ve heard the phrase, “Leaders are readers”. They prepare for the future by increasing their knowledge today – constantly learning, constantly developing.

3. Comment on other Blogs

I always comment on a few blogs every day. I like to appreciate bloggers for their writing, connect with them, and contribute to their online communities. Not only does it grow my blog, but it enables me to have conversations with some amazing people that I would never have otherwise.

4. Schedule Tweets

When I come across blog posts that I think my followers will appreciate, I schedule them using HootSuite. I have found HootSuite to be the best Twitter app out there, simply for this feature. Scheduling my tweets has kept me from tweeting all day long and wasting a lot of time. Not only does tweeting great blog posts encourage your network, it also blesses the blogger and strengthens your relationship to them. Every blogger loves RT’s and mentions via social networks.

5. Engage with people

The best part of social media, by far, is the connection you have with real people. As I mentioned in this previous post, it’s so great when Twitter friends become real friends, when social networks become ministry partners in spreading the Gospel. It’s special. Don’t just throw your content out there and ignore everybody. Build community.

Follow David on Twitter: @dsantistevan

By Murilla Mary Titus

Ludacris' Epic Book Drive

“Fast Five” star Ludacris is helping launch an effort serving the students in the Recovery District of New Orleans.

Global bookstore Better World Books and teen not-for-profit Dosomething.org are launching an “Epic Book Drive” initiative, which will empower young people nationwide to run community book drives to re-stock libraries in New Orleans’ Recovery School District. 

Better World Books will provide free shipping to all groups organising drives and will schedule a pick-up for any group that collects over 150 full cartons of books.

“Our partnership with DoSomething.org and the New Orleans’ Recovery School District is a perfect fit for us. Our mission is to support literacy initiatives worldwide and our operations are large enough to handle a national program of this scale. We look forward to seeing students all over the country band together and make this book drive as EPIC as the name implies,” says Chris Johnson, Vice President of Better World Books.

The initiative launches with a new Public Service Announcement (PSA) from actor and Grammy Award-winning recording artist Ludacris. In the video, Ludacris invites viewers into his library to talk about the need for universal access to books. The versatile artist, who stars in the upcoming film “Fast Five,” challenges teens around the country to step up and collect books for the students in the New Orleans’ Recovery School District.

“I am proud to be a spokesperson for this initiative as it’s in line with my dedication to empowering young people,” explains Ludacris. 

"The campaign is giving something as simple as a book to a student in a much needed area like the Recovery District so they can have the opportunity to read, communicate and be inspired. Sharing in this way will have an incredible impact on the confidence and abilities of the next generation of leaders and I’m excited to be leading the charge."

In New Orleans’ low-income neighborhoods there is 1 book per 300 children. With over 80% of schools damaged by Hurricane Katrina and a high correlation between high school graduation and literacy rates, the need is greater than ever. 

The Recovery School District is designed to take underperforming schools and transform them into successful places for children to learn. 

The District currently serves over 30,000 students in 69 traditional public and public charter schools.

Better World Books has re-used or recycled over 53 Million pounds of books to date.

For More Information Regarding the Drive please visit -EpicBookDrive.com

by Shaakira de Vries 

South African Universities Goes Broadband

All main campuses of every university will have premium broadband connection by the end of the year to the South African National Research Network (SANREN), announced science and technology minister Naledi Pandor.

“The connection of all the University of South Africa (Unisa) learning sites will also assist the university to offer better tuition support to its students though e-education. The potential impact is significant as over 30% of all students registered for university studies are at Unisa.” Pandor said.

Funds ranging to R200 million have been set aside to be spent while expanding access to Sanren in this years’ budget speech to get all universities connected by December 2011.

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has also put aside R2.5 billion to research and development in science and technology. 

The department has, in general, put the total amount of R4.4 billion to research and development and about 58% for public institutions engaged with the DST.

Among the funds allocated R433 million will go to the Technology Innovation Agency and R1.089 billion to billion to the National Research Foundation. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) will receive R687 million with Human Science Research Council getting R206 million. 

R93 million is set for South African National Space Agency (SANSA) and R32 million for the Africa Institute of South Africa. R11 million is set for the Academy of Science of South Africa.

”The South African Research Chairs Initiative is a flagship initiative designed to attract and retain excellence in research and innovation at South African universities,” added Pandor. 

She said that the DST invests more that R200 million a year while supporting about 92 research chairs. “The research conducted includes basic and fundamental research in all fields of science, as well as applied sciences fields, technology development and innovation.

“The expansion of the initiative means that we will have a total of 154 research chairs by 2014, making this a R428 million-a-year initiative,” said Pandor.

“A mere R60 million is spent on the biologics focus area at the CSIR, a pittance compared to the monumentally wasteful R10 billion spent on the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor about which there remain awkward questions,” Said Democratic Alliance (DA) alternative member Wilmot James.

James added that Pandor should put more emphasis on the Academic science development, and to those people who graduated and have no jobs. 

by Mpendulo Thubani

Ed's Note

It is our responsibility as human beings to care for one another. But with the trying times we live in today where everything is rushed and money scarce, it is sometimes deemed difficult.

Giving back does not have to be in monetary terms, you can give back by giving of your time, energy, resources, ideas, the list goes on and on...

So let's start today and adopt some of that extinct culture of giving, whether its sharing your apples with your neighbours or giving the guy at the traffic light a R1.

You've guessed it by now, the theme for our latest Zine is 'Giving Back' and we look at celebrities and companies who use some of their time and resources to give to those less fortunate.

Shaakira takes a look at rapper, Ludacris' Epic Book Drive while Mpendulo writes about the South African Research Network (SANREN) aim to provide every tertiary institution with broadband Internet.

I hope you've found reading our articles as informative as we have.

Until next time!

Joline van der Merwe