Turning something terrible into a positive opportunity. 

There is very little that can put me in a bad mood, but one of those things is disrespect and specifically disrespect to our environment.

A few weekends ago, 5FM hosted a #LiveLoud music festival in Cape Town bringing people of all ages, cultures and backgrounds together, adding value to Cape Town and South African musicians. I believe these events are incredibly valuable to our country for many reason but sadly on the 24th September this took a turn for the negative, as a band on stage encouraged a highly energetic crowd to release red balloons into the sky. I’m sure the intention of this wasn’t to pollute our environment killing birds and turtles, but this is the sad reality.

I came across this video on social media of hundreds of red balloons being released and my heart broke. I became angry, along with hundreds of others who raised their opinions on social media. I knew this was an opportunity to create a tipping point, educating South African’s about our impact on our environment and our responsibility to protect it. I took to social media trying to find someone at 5FM to discuss this with, in order to turn this into something positive. It took a few days before Justine, the station manager got back to me. She acknowledged that 5FM had made a mistake and was excited to discuss ideas around running campaigns to educate South Africans about caring for our environment. I sent her a list of organizations I believe are doing great work in this space that included Two Oceans Aquarium “Rethink the Bag”, CleanC and Love our trails.

All these organizations host regular cleanups or activations giving communities the opportunity to be part of the movement. 5FM have now agreed to run a campaign and I believe they have been in contact with these organizations to start rolling a campaign. I salute 5FM for taking this on the chin and wanting to make a difference. I truly believe if 5FM come to the party and everyone involved gives a 100% to this campaign, it could be the tipping point. We could educate and encourage South African’s to care for our environment and give future generations the opportunity to live in a clean and beautiful country. I was reminded that we have to stop pointing fingers and start asking what have I done or what can I do to make a difference. I am just a normal South African that cares for our environment and chose to find opportunity in a place of anger and fault.

Get out, inspire, be inspired and make a difference.