Media Release
For immediate release
18 March 2009

Thomas Says "Change4ever"
Grab the opportunity to change one school FOREVER!

Through the Southern Africa Trust's innovative anti-poverty campaign CHANGE4EVER, Thomas Msengana MetroFM presenter - and Ambassador- for Change will host a family fun day to raise funds for a palisade fence for the Yeoville Community School.

The family fun day which will be held on Saturday, March 28, 2009, at the University of Johannesburg, Soweto campus aims to raise R200 000 for a palisade fence around the school grounds.

Thomas says, "providing a learning environment that is secure is paramount in building future leaders of this country. They need a learning environment that will instill a sense of confidence, self achievement, exposure, aspiration and as a sense of hope."

Activities for the fun day will begin at 9am and end at 9pm, and will include soccer, netball, basketball and cricket with entertainment by Jozi alongside DJ's Fistaz, Naked, Milkshake, and Jah Seed. There will be a dedicated children's section with jumping castles. Other activities to look forward to are a free session on sport development with local sport stars, raffle prizes, a school fete run by the Yeoville Community School, and an art exhibition.

90% of the 950 Yeoville Community School pupils come from disadvantaged families who cannot afford to pay school fees. The school was formed to accommodate children of returnees who were exiled during the apartheid years. With the deterioration of the Yeoville area over many years, the school fence has been destroyed and the playground is unsafe for both the pupils and teachers.

For more information on how to register your netball, basketball, cricket or soccer team please visit http://www.change4ever.org/Thomas_20090328.html. Entry tickets will be sold at the gate.

The change4ever campaign targets a newer generation of South Africans who believe that we need to address the causes of poverty, rather than just the symptoms - to give for a solution rather than to a problem.

The campaign urges the public to respond to the question: If you could change one thing forever, what would it be? By sending an SMS to 36545 at a cost of R5, funds are raised to support projects that are working for lasting solutions to poverty in southern Africa.

Thomas is among a host of South Africa's premier personalities, including singers, television and radio personalities, fashion designers, and editors who have all publicly declared their support for the change4ever campaign as 'ambassadors for change'. ty reduction initiatives that are evidence-based rather than just politically driven.