Young people make a difference in their community through hiking
"Our purpose is to get the community together as one."
Natureviller’s Hiking Club from Naturena is a group of people who love to discover nature.
Group founder Thato Monareng said hiking is something he finds peace in, and it helped him to discover more of himself.
After his walks he would post on social media about how his days were like, and that was when some of the group members started interacting with him to join the club. Monareng said the name Natureviller’s resonated with the name Naturena and also with nature.
“Natureviller’s is like family to me. After posts on social media, Mashudu Lurule was one of those interested to join me on my adventurous journey,” said Monareng.
Lurule said he also saw a gap in their community since there were no activities taking place.
“We don’t have sports grounds in Naturena. I also started to become passionate about hiking, using it as another tool of having the youth start hiking activities on the weekends. It is not really about hiking only, we also do motivational talks.
“Youth nowadays get involved in drugs and there is teenage pregnancy. This was to take them off that mindset and have activities that will also benefit them in their future,” he said.
“Also, our purpose is to get the community together as one. We value one another and we just want to tell the community we are also there when they need help. There is a lot we need to assist one another with and together we can overcome a lot of obstacles,” said Lurule.
Siphindile Sangweni, who is also part of the Natureviller’s Hiking Club, mentioned since they are approaching 16 days of activism, they want to take the youth to a hike camping site.
“We want the youth to speak comfortably about what they come across in life or go through. We also want to help them with what they feel like they need to improve on. “We all come from different backgrounds where there are challenges. The group wants to help with those challenges and change the youth’s mindset on how anyone can improve themselves,” said Sangweni.
Their aim is to make a difference in the community and Monareng added that whoever wants to be part of them is welcome to join the club with no joining fee.
“We plan to have more people in our club. We are eight members but there is a lot to do in the community and we are looking forward to doing great activities with the youth,” he said.
“We would also like to thank Mondeor SAPS for joining forces with our programmes,” said Monareng.
Their first official hike with a group of six people started in 2019 and the group loves the outdoors and hiking, and from them, it has become a free-spirited journey.
They get together every Saturday. Should you wish to join, contact Thato Monareng on 073 586 7981 or check out their Facebook page, Naturevillers Hiking Club.
