November 2009

The November issue of South Africa's Soul magazine presents four woman doing extraordinary work in the Northern Cape. They stand a change to be chosen as the 'Soul woman of the year'.

Irene, the founder and president of BAF is one of these four women. The magazine writes about her:

Irene is a police officer and the founder of a group of young people in her community teaching them song, drama and dance. The group, called the Rising Stars, was formed and consists of 50 young people between the ages of 14 - 25 years. The group meets twice a week where they focus on issues relating to abuse, alcohol and drugs, peer pressure, relationships and family.

From this initiative also came about the Action Team which is a group of kids aged between 6-13 years. They are offered play activities after school twice a week. At the end of each year if all have passed, both groups go on tour to different cities in the province.Throughout the 13 years it's been running, Irene has maintained this project out of her own pocket.