Help lower the number of children that go missing in South Africa by supporting Lunchbox Theatre in taking Amanda Valela’s play Dream to communities.

“Dream is a play dedicated to all the missing children in South Africa. It promises to make you cry, to make you laugh, and to make you do both at the same time. It’s about a girl who goes missing, and how this affects her family and her community, and how it shifts attitudes and relationships as people respond in different ways to the trauma.”

Renowned Steve Kretzmann from Critter continues: Although the subject matter sounds heavy, and it is, Dream holds it with a light touch, injecting humanity into a situation that almost doesn’t bear thinking about, particularly for parents. Dream is really about people in a heart-rending situation, and because people are funny, there is also humour. And if anyone knows how to balance the fine line between humour and tragedy, it’s director Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.”

When Amanda Valela from Lunchbox Theatre was given the opportunity by Assitej SA (https://assitej.org.za) to write the script, her driving force was the tragedy families suffers when their children go missing. Child abduction leaves families, sometimes communities at large, devastated and paralyzed with fear. Knowing how fear cheats children out of their childhood, Dream was Amanda’s intentional countermeasure to help girls and boys dream again.

Dream is a powerful story that helps families to deal with this terrible loss. The play also gives communities, parents and children insight into safeguarding against child abductions. The message Dream conveys is compelling. It stirs each individual to be vigilant, well informed and pro-active in helping knit communities closer and build stronger awareness to identify and avoid potential danger.

As loving parents and caregivers we know without a doubt that our children are absolutely most important to us. The depth of the tragedy when a child goes missing is endless and almost impossible to fully comprehend as an outsider. To never find any news, to never know, to always wonder, to always look and see if you can’t find your missing daughter…can drive a person to the depth of inconceivable agony. For children like Amogelang Elsa, Katlego Marite, and Bawinile Khoza…and each and every child that gone missing before them or since then…this play is dedicated to you.

The Lunchbox Theatre is committed to taking Dream to communities near and far. Our aim is to educate as many families as possible on how to protect their children. We realize that by ourselves, irrespective of our determination to lower the level of child abduction, it is something we cannot do on our own. We need the help, support and contribution of our supporters, friends and the Lunchbox friends we have yet to meet. Each contributor is a Change Maker, helping us making South Africa safer, and giving it a more positive future!

The Dream Campaign is one of the many programs we run as an NGO and you can choose your level of contribution and commitment. A donation of R 200 can help us reach 200 children, and a R 1000 donation can help us reach 1 000 children. Here are some of the ways you can contribute:

• Firstly, if not so already, become a friend of Lunchbox Theatre by sharing your contact details with us.
• You can subscribe to our newsletter.
• You can directly deposit your donation into our bank account. Banking details are on our friend page, you can also choose the program(s) your contribution should go towards.
• You can click donate
  and set up a recurring donation on our GivenGain page.
• You can become a fundraiser for Lunchbox Theatre, or contact us for a pamphlet and poster that entrench the Dream Campaign Contact us.