Today I would like to remind myself and every person reading this about who our community is. It might be news for you, but I am sure we all need a reminder on who our community is. Just as the Pharisees asked Jesus who their neigbour is, and were given an honest answer (which they did not like), we may as who is the person on our doorstep in our community. Let’s see if we are satisfied with the answer. The community consists of people of all races, economical groups, religious groups, genders, languages and cultures. A community is many individuals who are living and/or working together and who knowingly or unknowingly touch each other’s lives. Many individuals in this community stay forever ignorant to the fact that they impact the lives of others. Other individuals, again, are over-aware of this, become overwhelmed by the needs around them and move to the outer-fringe of the community from where they observe. Another group of individuals in the community choose to live within the community. They rub shoulders with everybody in the community and become aware of individual strengths and weaknesses within the community. They see opportunities where everybody can use their strengths collectively build a stronger community. They understand that the community as only as strong as its weakest link. When we attend to links that need some strengthening, we create a community capable of dealing with any challenge. See, our joint efforts are so much stronger than all the strong individual efforts in the community. Who is our community? The person in the mirror. Yes, you are part of the community. You and your family, your friends, your church and the stranger standing next to you in line at the shop. We need each other. Ligstad is in the business of “being a community”. You are part of our community. As a member of this community, you have value to add, to take away or to withhold from the weaker links in our community. Report to your (our) community and discover the power that exists in community cooperation
Alida Jooste – Social Worker/Manager Community Care