Volunteers from the LoveLight project in South Africa returned from their trip rejuvenated, inspired for more.“I feel as if it’s really taking off,” said Robin Goff, RN, BSN, MAV, Baldwin City, Kansas. “We’re just getting so much interest all the time. The camp was the best ever.” Goff, founder of the LoveLight project, returned this fall after seven weeks in Riviersonderend, South Africa where she and 23 volunteers focused on empowering youth.“They are the born-free generation,” Goff said. “They are amazing. They just want to burst forth with their vision and dreams. Throughout South Africa there is awareness these kids are the future.”

Goff launched the LoveLight project a decade ago to address the AIDS orphans crisis. Today’s children of South Africa are the first ones living and growing up free of the regime of apartheid, Goff said. LoveLight’s mission is to empower the community and its children through sustainable projects such as education, confidence-building activities, arts and crafts, and health care. In the past decade LoveLight has initiated a variety of projects from building a greenhouse, to organizing camps, supporting grandmothers caring for orphans and an internet café for youth. This year’s project focused on a youth camp called Camp Ubuntu at the Blue Hippo, in a partnership with the Riviersonderend Community Foundation, a local South African non-profit. Martin Dowman, a volunteer with LoveLight, said after a weekend of songs, games and trust-building skills, the campers ages 12 to 17 years old returned home more optimistic about their future.

Original article by By Linda Friedel
The Kansas City Nursing News
Posted: Tuesday, November 27, 2012 9:20 am