4U Rage Festival calls on youth for good

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The campaign aims to create awareness around poverty and the imbalanced distribution of resources in South Africa by involving as many schools and students as possible.

"We are a small organisation that is trying to make a difference. Hopefully we will create a snowball effect onto bigger organisations through speaking to the youths, as well as create a more focused drive by wealthy young South Africans to help those less fortunate than them," said McIntyre.

We fired some questions at him to find out the why, when, who and how come.

What was the catalyst for the Rage for Good campaign?

Will McIntyre : Rage for Good started in 2012 when we decided we would like to give back to youths. We have received so much success from privileged youths and it was time to give back to the underprivileged. We felt that our campaign in 2012 was not enough and we could do so much more with the spend. This year we want our fans to be the ones coming up with the campaign and rolling it out with our support. The youths have some amazing ideas, but lack the backing to execute them. Through this we are able to target multiple campaigns and help a much wider base with our budget.

Why not take that R100k you're offering and launch your own CSI campaign? Why involve the youths?

WM: We have taken part in a few charity initiatives since 2012 and, when we look back, we have always felt that we hadn't done enough. With so many worthy causes looking for support, the decision as to which ones we choose to support is not easy. Almost every school supports a charity; we want to find the charity that needs it most and the school that has the best action plan to help. Majority of our fan base are of the higher LSM demographic category, which does not really know of the poverty that lies beyond their doorsteps. We hope the campaign will open eyes, hearts and spur on multiple CSI campaigns in the near future.

Having said this we are continuing to support our 2012 initiatives. With Chatz Charity we support the Sunrise Thembisa School where we take Matrics on a regular basis to help out with feeding, planting trees and general upgrades. Chatz Charity has invested huge money into upliftment of the school and has already built five new classrooms and a kitchen and eating area where they feed 500 children one meal per day. We have already invested R75 000 in 2013 into this project as well as a great deal of time and effort.

There are so many worthy issues a campaign could tackle - are there any specific ones you think entrants should look at?

WM: We looking for one that will take the financial investment from us, further it and then focus on the sustainability of their initiative. We don't want to limit it to one issue. One that we would like to see come up would be to promote literacy, education and skills development. We feel this will have the best long-term benefit. Really key is how much additional funding they raise and that key sustainability item, as mentioned.

Where do you plan on taking this campaign in the years to come?

WM: We will reassess the campaign after we have executed it and, hopefully, build on it. We may receive some amazing ideas/initiatives that we can share with charities that may have similar issues/problems. Ideally, with the growth of our festival, will hopefully come significant growth and interest in Rage for Good. A long-term dream would be a much larger contribution from us, coupled with multiple projects by multiple schools with a significant knock-on effect.

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It's coming on a month since the campaign's launch and, according to McIntyre, they've had only an average response.

"A handful of schools are taking the campaign head on and we are excited to see what they deliver. We would really like to see more response from a broader spectrum of privileged schools," said McIntyre.

Want to get involved? Read Call for schools to enter Rage For Good 2013, to find out more, or go to www.ragefestival.co.za.