Personal message

Sharné Maritz

Meet our friend, Sharné Maritz, a 23-year-old with a serious love for nature and being outdoors. When Sharné was just 9 years old, she watched as families in her neighbourhood lost everything to an uncontrolled fire. This became a life-changing moment for her, as that was when she realised that she really wanted to make a difference in other’s lives.

 

Later in life, when Sharné turned 18, she decided to use this incident and the many devastating ones that had happened since, to fuel her desire for change. At this young age, Sharné  (after a lot of hard work and determination), was chosen to be a part of the first all-female firefighting crew in SA. Although on paper this sounded like an absolute feat - in reality, these women had to really fight hard to take care of their basic needs in this male-dominant profession.

 

Sharné was ecstatic to be doing what she loved - being out in nature and with that, having the ability to help others and to support her family. Unfortunately, this did not last. 

 

Right now, Sharné is at ends. She and her family are living in a violent gang area, where leaving home can be life-threatening. Even with all of this, she does not intend of giving up on her dream of making her community a better, safer one. 

 

So this is where you come in:

Sharné would love to move to somewhere safer where she can start that community project, aiming to educate and mentor the kids in her area about wildfire and the importance of nature conservation. Her goal is to expose children to the beauty of nature and help them overcome the challenges they face in their everyday lives, whilst fostering a sense of hope and inspiration.

 

 

Her desire is to make a positive impact in her community daily. But with her current environment and lack of resources, it is extremely challenging for her to pursue her goals. We’d love for you to help her on her journey to make her dreams a reality.

 

Take a look at Sharné on CTGN's Embers of Change episode.

 

 

 

Flora Mwatete

This is Flora Mwatete. She is a passionate firefighter from Kenya where firefighting has been her everything-and-all since she was 8 years old. 

 

In Kenya, firefighting is an all-men’s-club, but Flo has been working really hard to change things up. For the last few years, Flora has spearheaded a project called “Female Firefighters Rock!”. This project aims to support female firefighters by imparting confidence, and encouraging them to share with the world that firefighting is a real, and beautiful profession that anyone can choose to do.

 

Outside of her shift work, Flora trains nearly 60 Junior Firefighters (from ages 4–21!). Training these kids is more than just teaching them about fires though. Most of these individuals come from humble backgrounds, and with that, when they are with her at the fire station, she also helps support them in any way she can.

 

Her project includes holiday and weekend camps at the fire station. The kids are taught about fire safety and they complete different firefighter drills. They even assist these juniors with their school work!  All of this is done whilst providing them with meals and a place where they can feel safe. 

 

This is the kind of work that Flo really excels in - as it fuels her passion for humanity, as she works on raising future ambassadors of her profession.

 

Right now, Flora is really struggling to keep both this initiative, and herself afloat. Without the financial support, she is unable to run these holiday and weekend camps, feed the kids and help them develop their love and passion for firefighting.

 

Giving up now would not only be giving up on her and her family’s dreams, but also on the dreams and aspirations of those in her community.

 

We would really love for this amazing initiative to continue without the financial limitations that Flora is currently facing. Please help our fellow firefighter and friend out.

Donations