‘People just want to feel good’
The #ImStaying group on Facebook was founded by Jarett Petzner, It’s a group that allows like minded people to come together with the same positive outlook of South Africa.
The inspirational group was not expected to be as successful as it was Jarett has stated “This whole thing was sort of accidental, I created a video and it caught attention of someone and they recommended it to their group. It was just a positive video about my country and how grateful I am”
The group focuses on the positivity in South Africa and the goal is to sway the negativity aside and make room for the positivity that exists in the country, Negativity sometimes outweighs positives on social media as people like to see ‘shocking’ news and discuss that further. However, this time around that is not the case; Members have united as one to share positive news and stories all over the South African social media space.
The group’s creation was on the 7th September and has grew at an exponential rate, on the day of writing this we see figures of 680,000 members, that is a growth of almost 17,000 members per day! Impressive right?
Jarett Petzer also said “Never did we imagine that the group would inspire a nation as it has, and move from a Facebook page to a powerful movement that seems to now carry the hopes and dreams of our great people. As we move forward it is essential that we take this positive sentiment and turn it into inspired action that seeks to reduce unemployment and help grow our economy.”
The inspiration of the group has grasped the nation and people have now started to get tattoos to show their support and further push the positivity onto others.
#ImStaying has now been formalized into an NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation) – We believe this will further increase the credibility of the group and help achieve the new goal of inspiring and helping to grow the economy in a positive way.
The group have now started to put their words into action with helping to improve the economy through small, medium and micro-sized enterprises and also job creation.
The group has a three way approach to achieve this and that is national events, crowdfunding and merchandising.
#ImStaying have now started to use South Africans very own BackaBuddy to receive donations through crowdfunding and this money will then be put back into small businesses in the country.
“operational expenses and creating our own funds to help start and power small business in South Africa.”
Donations are coming in fast and from writing this article they have already achieved R43,104 of their R100,000 target, many messages have been left with their donations and they can all be seen on the platform but here are a few
“Thank you bringing so much SA positivity into”
“#Im Staying – proud to be a #Stayer family and business” – Lekker fireplaces, braais and decor my life”
If you want to help build a positive South Africa be sure to check out their group page
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