What do you do when you feel like suffering won’t stop? What do you do when it feels like your pain does not have a point? What does it do when it feels like your weakness continues to worsen? People ask you, “how are you?”, and you are simply saying, “I’m fine”. But in that moment, you are not fine. All you say is, “I’m fine” because you don’t want to express the real emotions which will lead to empathy and people giving you just two minutes of their time to hear you out. We

The Green Mamba they like to call it. Your South African anchor and your South African curse. “I’ve got the Green Mamba”, they say, “there’s no way out for me, I’m stuck here”. They talk about the corruption and they talk about the looting. Load-shedding and Covid are topics of their daily discussions. “Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse - it does”, they say; or an, “ah what can you expect, we live in South Africa”, when things don’t go according to plan. Eventuall

Shine Internship - HOPE Series by Elizabeth Nkoana Hope (definition)- a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen. Throughout the year of 2020 and 2021, I believe one thing that has kept us sane is hope. Hope that the next few months would be better, and as the 31st of December 2020 came upon us, we hoped for a better year. Hope never dies. While you are still breathing, still alive on this planet, hope never dies. Your hope can take you to new height

Shine Internship - HOPE Series by Elané Pretorius, Shine IOP Intern, 2021 It’s been more than a year since lockdown started. Some days we are sad, the news is bad and those around us are somewhat mad. Yet, if we shine the light on HOPE we’ll find it all around. To me HOPE is… THE NURSE holding your hand so that you are not alone or afraid. Sitting with you hours after her shift ended. THE FARMER who continues to farm and pray for rain despite a seven-year drought. THE GRANDKI

Shine Internship - HOPE Series by Thasmiri Singh, Shine IOP Intern, 2021 It's the waking up in the morning and being thankful I am able to breathe. Such necessities can be seen as a luxury in the world we are living in today. In such a whirlwind of unjust and chaos, we are able to smile and persevere. Hope is such an underrated phenomenon because of its perception and multiple meanings. For me, hope is that little safe haven in my heart, that everything will be okay. Growing

Shine Hope Series. by Charlotte Crisp Whilst there is no arguing we live in one of the most beautiful and diverse countries in the world, it’s sometimes hard to look past the daily struggles of living in what is also one of the most unjust countries in the world. This has been highlighted by the recent riots and destruction in parts of the country. For many people not living in South Africa – its an absolute mystery as to why we stay… and whilst trying to make sense of it mys

by Charlotte Crisp In 2005, Gary Chapman wrote the book The Five Love Languages in an attempt to help people understand that what makes one person feel loved does not necessarily make another person feel loved. As this book grew exponentially in popularity, Chapman started to investigate how these five love languages manifested in the organisation. This sparked the publication of The Five Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace by Chapman and White (2011). This book was a

by Thandie Balfour The first quarter of 2021 is over and when you speak to a lot of people a common phrase that comes up is ‘survival mode’. It appears most people just want to go through 2021 with minimal damage. A lot of people are grateful to have survived 2020 and so appear to be satisfied with just the same for 2021. This is all well and good except for the fact that when people talk about surviving there is usually a heaviness and reluctance that goes with it as well. P

by Cilette Harris The time we live in asks for impeccable leadership. We live and work in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. The effectiveness of our leadership determines how well we, and the people we lead, respond to the challenges and opportunities in the environment. It also correlates closely to sustainable business performance. I believe that right now we are learning much to prepare us for leadership in rapidly evolving human and organisational contex

The journey has opened vistas I did not think possible in terms of how relationships, particularly in conflict riddled environments, work.