5 mins with Roxanne

What’s your passion? Children. They don’t often have a choice in the situations they find themselves. And they will carry future generations. A lot of people focus on education of children, but they forget the part were the child is a person, and that’s where my passion is.

What change are you keen to drive? Our social system, it’s not adequate enough, with a focuson children’s homes. We say we’re putting children in places of care but are we really? Often they areovercrowded, not well monitored and children’semotional needs are unmet.

How are you driving change? ‘Hidden Halos’ started in 2011 as a non-profit focused on uplifting children:

  • Children in children’s homes may feel ‘forgotten’.We run birthday parties celebrating each child with abirthday, while doing something educational around life skills
  • ‘My little toy empire’ is about early childhood development, helping impoverished children play with toys in a way that stimulates their development.

How has ACTIVATE! supported you so far in driving this change? I have become more focused and structured in the way I do things, with project planning and models.

What do you think is the priority in setting the agenda for our country over the next five years? Early childhood development. We’re focusing too much on higher and tertiary education, forgetting that most people don’t even have the basics.

How do you motivate yourself? I’m a “this is what needs to be done, do it” kind of person. It just happens naturally.

Final comment? One of my challenges is getting people to respect differences and not to judge. If we can work together through mutual understanding and respect then the community would be a better, more secure place.

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