‘If I think that I can remember my life on the streets as a tiny child, it makes me realise where I have come from and how strong I am,’ says Caitlin, 17, from Cloetesville, Stellenbosch. She lived on the street with her alcoholic mother until age three, when her grandmother took her in. When Caitlin was 11, her neighbour’s husband tried to rape her but she managed to run for help. She had to face him again in ... Read more

It lifts school principal Grantham Jansen's heart to see youngsters running down the school passage to the computer lab when it's time for their Reading Eggs class. Established in 2012, The Click Foundation runs this online phonetics-based English literacy programme at Vlottenburg Primary School near Stellenbosch. Mr Jansen enthuses about the positive impact the programme has on his pupils, who start the programme at the end of Grade R to promote their English reading, writing and speaking skills. The ... Read more

When Maranatha Trust established Onse Skool in an old cellar in rural Aprils Kloof near Malmesbury in 2013, the pre-school began with 14 children from the surrounding grape farms. Says Trust co-founder Delana Sadie, 'Parents initially complained about having to pay R200 a month to send their kids to a crèche when they could stay for free with a grandmother.' But informal childminders, often unemployed, had exposed many children to abuse, and positive change was needed. It came. ... Read more

Today Tashwell Baartman, 26, is an award-winning firefighter with a ready smile. Yet he might have become a school drop-out had he not encountered The Pebbles Project, which supplies crèches and after-school care to needy Winelands farm communities. From Grade 10, Tashwell attended a Pebbles After School Club on the Stellenbosch farm on which he grew up: 'I'd do my homework there every afternoon; the staff would help us. And we'd go on outings with them. It was lekker,' ... Read more

Christopher Hendricks is a learner at Wemmershoek Primary School in the beautiful Franschhoek area. Christopher and his supportive parents live humbly, but a lack of resources at home and school has never dampened his will to succeed. His school does not have proper sports facilities but Christopher uses the tarred road that leads up to the school entrance as his running track, measuring the distance and his times diligently. Despite this lack of facilities or coaching assistance, he won ... Read more

The SPARK Lynedoch School is a CWA Trust beneficiary that has fast become a case study within the Trust funding model. The CWA Trust model is unique in that all the Trust beneficiaries get to meet each other, learn about the work each is doing, and grow through the networking experience. Instead of traditional “silo” models, we believe in collaboration - that the whole is so much stronger than the sum of its parts. Nowhere is this better put ... Read more

As planning commences for possibly the most anticipated auction event on the social calendar, it is my pleasure to share with you what has transpired since the last auction in February 2016. As Trust Facilitator my primary responsibility is to ensure that every Rand raised at the auction ends up in the hands of beneficiaries creating genuine change and opportunity. These beneficiaries are subjected to a stringent screening process as we understand that donor fatigue sets in when funders do ... Read more