Reasons to celebrate 2016 - Highlights of the year

The year 2016 had its fair share of disappointments, tragedies and many crises of national proportions. But there were also quite a few moments that we as the Heartlines team were incredibly excited about. Here are a few of our reasons to celebrate in 2016.

The money values train steamed along

Already in its third year of implementation, our Values and Money campaign continues steaming along. This year we visited eight communities, hosted 173 events and reached 36,822 people. Lives continue to be touched by this campaign that remains as relevant in 2016 as when it first started.

 We won a World Vision Award

We were blessed to receive an award of a different nature in April this year: the World Vision Award for Child Wellbeing. We are privileged to have been selected in a category for promoting child wellbeing in society.

 We turned up Youth Month

As a way of commemorating of Youth Month in June this year, we held a panel discussion with four young panellists in various spaces in society and posed the question; Youth Day 2016: Turn Up or Own Up? The idea was to start a conversation among young people about the relevance of Youth Day in 2016. We were inspired by the debate – you canview highlights of the Turn Up Own Up event here

Our first Leadership Engagement transformed lives

One of the pillars of What’s your Story? is the Bridge Leadership Engagement, an initiative that uses personal storytelling and dialogue as tools to build bridges between key leaders of a system. Once these leaders have gotten to know each other’s stories, they can work together to solve critical issues within their system or industry. The first engagement was held in July, with members of the Association of Communication and Advertising.

Beyond The River became ready for cinema release

Completing a film has so many elements to it and we were delighted when our new film, Beyond the River went into post-production. We’ve hosted a few pre-screenings for the film and have unanimously received comments that this film will inspire and transform lives. Don’t miss the cinema release in April 2017.

Our CEO became a TED talker

Dr Garth Japhet, our CEO, has added to his skill set: he delivered his first TED talk at TEDx Johannesburg ! His talk, ‘We don’t build cathedrals anymore’ can be viewed online here

We launched What’s Your Story?

In September, we launched our latest initiative, What’s Your Story? We also went live with the website whatsyourstory.online, which is a platform where people can read, listen to or watch stories. You can also share your story online with us or via whatsapp.

What’s Your Story? aims to build understanding, trust and reconciliation through personal storytelling.

We have also produced resourcesfor churches, for high schools and Christian youth groups. Keep an eye out for our campus and workplace resources coming soon.

Our champions & funders helped us keep values at the centre

In a time of economic uncertainty leading to so many NGO’s closing their doors, we are incredibly grateful to our funders who have helped us keep the message of values going.

We are also incredibly grateful to our on-the-ground community champions, who have helped us keep values at the centre.  You have been our biggest reason to smile this year and we look forward to another values-filled year with you.

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