Hopeville inspires change

Find yourself in Hopeville and define who you want to be in life.

This was the call from actor and comedian Desmond Dube at the launch of Hopeville, HEARTLINES’ new television series, in Sandton, Johannesburg today.

Airing on SABC 2 on 3 March Hopeville is the inspirational story of a man who despite the odds has the courage to live his values and in so doing changes a community.

Dube, who plays the role of the corrupt mayor Patrick in the series, said, "I know I don’t want to be Patrick. Every South African should watch Hopeville and ask themselves which character represents them, and more so, which character do they want to be."

Hopeville is HEARTLINES’ latest television series aimed at inspiring people to act on their good values. During the screening of the six episode series a campaign, 6 weeks of values in action, will take place calling on South Africans to take action and do good for change, not just talk about doing good.

Speaking at the launch, HEARTLINES Director, and social change expert Dr Garth Japhet explained that in order to build the society South Africa wants to be, we need to rebuild healthy relationships at every level of society. The building blocks for healthy relationships are good values lived out every day.

"In this six week period, we are calling on people to do random acts of kindness; doing acts of kindness in a way that is unexpected such as clean up the area outside your neighbour’s house or look after the child of a single parent for the day; or to organise with others to undertake projects that will affect one or many people, such as restore a public place children used to play or paint the walls of the local school" explains Dr Japhet.

Also attending the launch were actors Fana Mokoena (The Lab, Generations, Yizo Yizo) Themba Ndaba (Generations, Streaks Ahead), Wilmien Rossouw (7de Laan) and Leleti Khumalo (Generations, Yesterday).

Said Dr Zolile Mlisana, HEARTLINES chairman, "We will only restore the broken relationships across our country if we are persuaded to act differently. To move beyond our everyday way of living, to reach out to others and connect in a way we have not done before."