The abuse of power to hurt others has now become commonplace in our schools. Although bullying is part of childhood, it is not usually harmful when done in a playful, friendly and mutual way, and both kids find it funny. When it becomes hurtful, unkind and constant it crosses the line and it must stop. The question is how?

Touching Africa is very fortunate to have amongst our network partners a person whose passion is to help the bullies. His name is Jacques Gombault. He is well-known for his roles in Deon Opperman’s Kruispad and as “Andries” in Getroud met Rugby. He also appeared in District 9 as a “MNU Soldier”, in 7 de Laan as “Kolonel de Lange”, in Hartsbegeertes as “James”, in Long Walk to Freedom and in Winnie as a “Prison Officer”. More recently he played “Kobus” in Generations and is often seen in advertisements of whom the Eno’s one, “Your friend Martin having a good time” is the most famous.

He is also a director, playwright, and producer. He and his wife, Renate, own the company Flutterby Productions. They already produced 5 movies of which Khumbula – I Will Remember is the most renowned. This film won 2nd prize in The USA for best Children Evangelism at the ICVM conference in Orlando Florida in 2015.

Jacques and his team are planning three movies and the process already started at the beginning of September. The target audiences are mainly children and parents, but it can reach an even greater group. The three movies are all about relationships and how to be prepared to face the problems of everyday life and bullying in particular. The first one is Samsung had no muscle, the second one is The Bully Movie and the third one is Popularity.

Currently, Jacques is involved in an outreach program for schools. He visits schools and informs them about bullying. Not only bullying but that there are four kinds of bullies. He also provides them with booklets that discuss the problems in depth at a level that is digestible for kids. It is called the Bully Project and he wants to visit 900 schools within 3 years. He also wants to start men groups where fathers can come together to encourage each other and to find the strength to handle the matter. Experience has shown that bullying mostly starts at home in distorted family relationships.

Adding to this he is also supporting Brian Molitor of TV4 Dads in his Nehemiah Project. Together they try to inspire dads to build walls around their houses and children. They need that to enable them to protect the hearts of their wives and children against the negative tide in our land and its people.

Last but not least he is training young people how to act in front of cameras. This will hopefully spill over into a new project addressing the growing unemployment figures in the Film Industry. In doing this, he took hands with Juan de Meillon, in Welkom, to address the unemployment problem.

There is also the possibility for the filming of two American movies in Welkom. When asked what legacy you want to leave behind his, almost instantaneous, the response was HOPE! “I want to make eagles out of chickens. There are too many people walking about as chickens (while they were actually eagles) because nobody showed the men how to get there. They feel useless and that is what I want to change!”

All the mentioned projects and films need funding. If you want to support any of these projects, please contact us:

ddeklerk@touching-africa.com/ 0842004450 or visit our website: www.touching-africa.com