Something new...!

Jane filming in Mbekweni Township, S.Africa

'Millions of children and young people around the world live in jungles of lawlessness, violence and oppression*. They have to adapt fast, stay invisible and keep themselves safe, any way they can.

How will these children learn today to become the strong, efficient and courageous leaders that their world will need them to be in the future?

Children will learn how to lead their lives from somewhere....the story of their lives will be written, one way or another. 

Some of them will find a way to keep a hold of their life-pen, but most will learn from a young age to give away their pen to those who are stronger than they are, because they know that it is the only way they can survive in their communities.






They will learn that they can’t possibly survive without being subservient to their peers, to the gangs in their neighbourhood and to controlling adults....and this is the road to a loss of dignity, hopes and dreams.



So, who is growing the leaders of tomorrow, today?




We believe that children can and should be learning the skills of leadership, along with their ABC. Even a 5 year old child can learn the basic principles of good leadership.

Using our new LEAD NOW material in a school

The fact is that children thrive under good leadership. They know how it feels to be nurtured by an adult who believes in their awesome potential and who helps them to flourish. 

And they know when that leadership robs them of their joy & happiness....children know. 

If children don’t learn how to lead themselves and their relationship when they are young, they will not be equipped to lead groups, organisation or even a nation when it’s their turn.

It’s as simple as that....

Leadership, and ONLY leadership will get them over the Impossibly High Walls they will face in their lives. 

The bottom line is this....
There is NO sustainable change anywhere without good, strong leadership and it is only leadership that will help people to overcome and break the cycles of Hopelessness anywhere in the world.

Emerging Leaders wants to see Leadership training in every school and that’s why we have been developing a programme called LEAD NOW, for 8-13 year olds. 

It is a programme that helps children to realise that they can lead themselves and their relations...TODAY...right now”

 - JB


Note: You have just read the script used for the new promo-vimeo for NEW NOW

 *850 million people live in poverty in the world today. 600 million have no clean water and half the whole world population of 7 billion survive each day on $2.5 a day (the price of a Costa coffee).

Dolce far Niente

Let’s Celebrate

...What am I celebrating?

We’ve spent the past 10 days in the idyllic setting of Jacobs Bay, a shimmy-distance from Paternoster, the famous getaway, beach-haunt for Cape Town dwellers. Here we’ve continued to work from our delightful B&B, but also made the most of walking the isolated beaches for hours each day and using the space to think new thoughts and map out what the next stage of our time could look like.

Jacobs Bay, west coast of S.Africa 

Making space to climb into a different hemisphere in my head is something I’m learning to value more and more. Our brains get so easily locked into one way of thinking and then they crown those thoughts as truth. If you need to feel the fresh energy of creative thinking then the beach certainly seems to have an almost magic effect on brain chemistry (If you’re interested in learning about the brain and how it’s effected by water & the oceans especially, then read BLUE MIND by Wallace Nichols, about the remarkable link between these two vast, unfathomed, unchartered mysteries).

When we step out of the familiar,  away from the mundane and the known…into a different, unfamiliar space, the brain can allow itself to explore fresh thoughts and free up fixed ways of thinking….it’s truly remarkable

And we’ve noticed that the South Africans really get the need to switch off and make time to play. And WOW…that’s certainly something I need to get better at.

Walking for miles, for no reason, without your phone, without a reason and without trying to sort a problem or save the world….just walking…just allowing yourself to feel the sand between your toes, just for the sheer joy of it….that is when you feel yourself entering a new zone, a new sense of BEING.

And that’s worth celebrating…CELEBRATING LIFE…the beauty of just being. Celebrating the beauty and the joy of doing nothing, BEING in the moment and savouring the bliss and the pure pleasure of life.

The Italians have a wonderful phrase that some of you will remember from the EAT, PRAY, LOVE film. In it the exasperated Italian guy tells Julia Roberts,

“Why do you Americans need permission to enjoy yourselves, to enjoy Dolce far Niente – to enjoy the sweetness of doing nothing?”.

So we’re making time to celebrate THE SWEETNESS OF DOING NOTHING and allowing life to teach us about the things we are missing in our haste…. the things we are not noticing, the things that need to change in our lives and the blinding beauty of the world around us; the stuff right under our noses.

    JB

...a beach angel

….and I also want to celebrate Mother’s Day today...

I celebrate the life of my mum and honour her for all she gave to me, to shape me into who I am today.