“I never knew of a morning in Africa when I woke up that I was not happy” — Ernest Hemingway

“the future belongs to those people who see possibilities before they become obvious” – Theodore Levitt

South Africans are a diverse grouping of various people groups and yet in diversity there can be found a unity of purpose. The past month of September, often referred to in South Africa as Heritage Month, provided the opportunity to South Africans to reflect on their heritage, and then on Heritage Day to celebrate their various cultural traditions and their heritage in their own way. While there seems to be an overload of important days in most months that can be observed and used to raise awareness of some cause, two notable days in October stand out.

The first is World Habitat Day that is observed on the first Monday of October each year. This day is meant to serve as both a global and local platform to raise awareness, as to the state of one’s countries vast range of habitats as are found here in South Africa. The greater emphasis is however on the fundamental right of every individual to have access to adequate shelter, which is safe and with access to basic services. This is especially an issue in our urban areas which face a huge growth in the urbanization of the main cities of our provinces as the major economic hubs that should be creating job opportunities. However, this growing demand for adequate housing from those arriving to seek work and opportunity places massive pressure on the existing services and provision of clean water, electricity, and road networks.

Days like World Habitat Day provide those of us who live in safe and secure gated or non-gated community schemes and suburbs, with the opportunity to reflect on the importance of shelter and sustainable urban development, especially for those less fortunate than ourselves. Hopefully this may lead us to seek out areas where we can be involved in finding ways to address the current pressing economic challenges faced by the city in which we live, and more importantly to find active ways to be part of the solution to people’s despair and hopelessness.

In some ways that leads to World Mental Health Day, which is an international day for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy against social stigma and is the initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health, a global organization. One in eight people globally are living with mental health conditions that impact their physical health, their well-being, how they connect with others, and their livelihoods. It is a growing problem among adolescents and young people, especially among those who feel excluded and disconnected from society.

Mental Health is a fundamental basic human right for all people and everyone, whoever and wherever they are, has a right to the highest attainable standard of mental health. This includes the right to be protected from mental health risks, the right to available, accessible, acceptable, and good quality care, and the right to liberty, independence, and inclusion in the community where they live. These are often not a reality for many.

People throughout the entire world have made significant changes to the way they interact with one another in their various societies. This this “new normal” as a way of living has resulted in behaviour modifications in how we may live our daily lives, how we conduct our business activities, and how we interact and care for others.

We may not think that we have too much power over what happens to us, but we do have the power over what we do with what happens to us. There are things we can control and things we cannot control. We should not waste our energy on worrying about that which we can’t control, but rather we can control our values and our goals, and these can be achieved by us embracing the positive emotions we can experience in our everyday living.

At Whitfields we endeavour to listen, care, and deliver, through the services we provide to the community schemes we manage. We undertake to provide informed, relevant, and updated information to the scheme executives on the applicable governing legislation for their scheme, and how it impacts the scheme where they are appointed. Additionally, we will provide them with the necessary direction and advice as to how they can best manage their schemes, and in doing so we will strive to we meet our client’s expectations in terms of the service we provide.

At times we may fail, but we will always try our best to do better and to improve. We have done so for the past 30 years and look forward to doing so into the future!