JOURNEY FOR CHANGE TO SOUTH AFRICA

09-08-2010

 

NEW YORK CITY TEENS EMBARK ON A JOURNEY FOR CHANGE TO SOUTH AFRICA

 

New York, NY, September 2010….South African Tourism is pleased to support a unique and innovative program called Journey for Change: Empowering Youth through Global Service, which brings thirty youngsters from Brooklyn, NY to South Africa for two weeks of global service, social awareness and spectacular cultural and educational experiences.

 

The initiative is the brainchild of Malaak Compton-Rock, founder and director of The Angelrock Project, an online e-village that promotes volunteerism, social responsibility, and sustainable change. Ms. Rock accompanied the group of teens and their college aged mentors abroad from August 18 through September 3, 2010.

 

South African Tourism arranged a number of cultural and recreational activities for the group.  A full day tour of Soweto, with visits to the Hector Pieterson Memorial Museum and Mandela House, stopping for lunch at Sakhumzi and dinner at Wandies was on their agenda, along with tours of the Apartheid Museum, Constitution Hill and the Lesedi Cultural Village.  Their South African journey also included an iconic safari experience at the lovely Timbavati Lodge in Mpumalanga, and ended with a special reception hosted by the US Ambassador to South Africa, at his residence in Pretoria on Wednesday, September 1, 2010. 

Throughout the journey, the global ambassadors documented their travels by blogging, uploading photos and videos online, and tweeting on Twitter. Follow them on Twitter @journey4change, watch videos by visiting the Angelrock You Tube channel, and view photos and stories at www.angelrockproject.com.

“We are pleased to play a small role in changing the lives of these young people,” said Sthu Zungu, President, South African Tourism. “Travel broadens one’s horizons and the extraordinary experiences and encounters these young people share in South Africa will remain with them throughout their lifetimes,” she concluded.

 

First launched in 2008, and filmed by CNN for the series “Black in America 2: Tomorrow’s Leaders”, the Journey for Change program has since expanded to recruit children from the Bushwick, Brownsville, and Bedford-Stuyvesent Salvation Army Community Centers in Brooklyn, New York.

 

Additionally, fifteen college age mentors were selected through partnerships at New York University, the Pratt Institute, and Medgar Evers College.

 

Along with her husband, Chris Rock, Malaak Compton-Rock also runs The Angelrock Project South Africa, a trust that provides assistance to orphaned and vulnerable children, granny-led households and people living with HIV/AIDS in Diepsloot, Johannesburg. The Rocks have been ardent friends and supporters of South Africa since their first visit to the country in December 2005, and are deeply engaged in a number of community projects.

For more information on South Africa, a world-class destination, the ideal place for both business and leisure, contact South African Tourism at 500 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2040, New York, NY 10110; Tel: 800-471-6256 or 212-730-2929; Fax: 212-764-1980; email: info@us.southafrica.net; or visit www.southafrica.net.

 

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