Giving Hope To Children
Category Durban Property Market
Wakefields Real Estate’s 75th year of operation in the Kwazulu-Natal property landscape was a fitting one for the R75 000 cheque they handed over to Focus on iThemba. What is this organisation, and how will the new Wakefields Foundation make a difference here?
iThemba means ‘hope’ in isiZulu, and by donating R75 000 to Focus on iThemba, that’s just what the Wakefields Foundation did for vulnerable children who live and learn under the broad iThemba umbrella.
Focus on iThemba is a non-profit, public benefit organisation established in 2003 by Danie and Judy van den Heever on a site overlooking the Valley of a Thousand Hills in Hillcrest. The couple saw communities ravaged by HIV/AIDS, where child-headed households were common, and grandparents struggled to raise grandchildren. They saw how education took a back seat, and they determined to reverse that cycle and provide hope where there was none.
They established the iThemba campus, which today houses foster care homes, the iThemba Academy (the school), chapel, workshop and Waterfall College. The pillars are iThemba Schools, iThemba Homes, iThemba Community, iThemba Campus, and iThemba Friends and Donors.
iThemba is all about children, and this independent school on the campus, iThemba Academy, offers quality schooling with dedicated educators in small classes for children from Grade R to Grade 3. Vulnerable children are offered bursaries.
The current vision is to build iThemba Preschool as an additional facility, and the iThemba team is fundraising to ensure that this school for 130 children aged 6 months to 5 years becomes a reality. The model for this will follow that of iThemba Academy, with each child being supported by a bursary donor.
This is where Wakefields Real Estate stepped in, and for 2015, committed R75 000 towards building the preschool. In January next year – and annually thereafter - the Group will donate a further R75 000 to sponsor five children. These funds will pay for all their necessary schooling equipment, including uniforms and stationery. In addition, a number of Wakefield’s staff around the province, have committed various amounts from their registered property sales, and the intention is that even more children will be able to be sponsored.
A number of Wakefield’s staff put up their hands, believing that even small amounts go a long way when it’s a team effort. George Enslin, property consultant at the Shelly Beach office South Coast, didn’t think twice about contributing: “I’ve always been community minded, and I think, if I’m blessed with a sale, the least I can do is share.” Likewise Clinton Pieterse of the Malvern branch: “If I can assist in supporting a young South African child, giving them the skills to build a satisfying life - perhaps keeping him or her off the streets – my contribution is totally worthwhile.” Yasmin Dawood is based at the Pietermaritzburg branch: “Education is what gives a child stepping stones towards a better life. I’m a great believer in teaching a child to fish, rather than handing over the fish, and if I can contribute to that process, I feel I’m not only making a difference to that child’s life but to the future of our country.” There’s something immensely satisfying about sharing, as Sharon Wilson at the Umhlanga Rocks office acknowledged: “Speaking from the heart, it’s such a nice feeling to know that I can contribute towards others being able to achieve something good or successful in their lives.” Wendy Ritchie, too, from the Hillcrest office, has put her hand in her pocket. She wants to support the children in the local community where she lives and works: “I believe in empowering children through education, and through that, improving communication and increasing respect for each other.” By helping a child to realise their potential, that child will in turn, do likewise for others, and make their own contribution to society. Contributing Wakefields staff believe they need to pay it forward.
Focus on iThemba is not simply a school; iThemba Homes are not simply foster care institutions. These are all places of excellence. The Homes each cater for married parents, and up to six foster children. It’s a family environment buoyed up by hope and filled with love, coupled to a quality education which nurtures the potential in each child.
The Wakefields Foundation chose a local NPO - Focus on iThemba – so the community in which the Group operates would benefit. They chose Focus on iThemba because the organisation embraces family values, cherishes, nurtures and nourishes children, and understands the inestimable value of a loving, caring home for vulnerable children.
The reach of iThemba is vast, as they work to assist the greater community by uplifting crèches and building partnerships, by creating an indigenous haven for flora and fauna on the campus, and by fund-raising internationally to assist their quest to provide hope to more vulnerable children.
Focus on iThemba – place of hope. And you’ll feel it.
www.focusonithemba.org
Author: Anne Schauffer
