Home bids farewell to stalwart

DURBAN Child and Youth Care Centre (DCYCC) recently bid farewell to its longest serving and valued board member, Paul Canter.

Paul first got involved with DCYCC while working at Shepstone and Wylie in 1987 and has spent many years dedicated to working with the team at the home.

“A man I worked with knew a Mrs Howard and she used to talk about the children’s home and its problems. She said the home needed legal advice and I was asked to go and meet the board. In the Annual Report of 14 August 1987 I am referenced by her,” he said.

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Paul attended the AGM and was welcomed as the legal advisor in 1988, an involvement which spanned 30 years.

“I was persuaded to become a member of the committee. My one motivation was that my mother and her sister lost their mom in early childhood and they spent several years in a children’s home. The hardships she endured were at the back of my mind, and it was my way of subconsciously paying back something for my mom,” said Paul.

Paul was the chairman of the board at DCYCC for 13 years, serving as the deputy chairperson before this to Peter Hatton. According to Mandy Goble, director of DCYCC, he is the longest serving board member in the history of the establishment.

“I have been a Catholic for many years and faith and service are significant motivators for the time I have spent at the home. I have spent almost more than half my working life serving here,” he said.

Paul grew up in rural Rhodesia and said the poverty he experienced shaped his thinking. He spent his schooling years from the age of six to 18 in boarding schools and another three years studying at university, having spent 21 years of his life in boarding establishments.

He received a grant to study to be a teacher and taught from the age of 22.

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He then went on to study his Bachelor of Jurisprudence, completing his articles between 1972 to 1975 at Coghlan Welsh and Guest Attorneys in Salisbury and then moved to Durban to do his articles at Shepstone and Wylie from 1977 to 1980.

He studied an executive management programme in 1994.

He is currently a professional Trustee and co-Trustee of various inter vivos and charitable trusts as well as the chairman of the board of Maris Stella School and Holy Trinity Catholic Church Parish Pastoral Committee, and has been a member of St Vincent de Paul Society since 1987.

“It’s been a pleasure serving on the committee and seeing the development at the home. I wouldn’t have stuck around so long without Mandy, who had the knowledge and wisdom to take the home forward. To look back on the achievements is great. I have stayed because I have taken pleasure in seeing the vision for the home come to fruition, although it’s still a work in progress,” he said.

Paul said he is happy to continue as a patron of the DCYCC and would never stop supporting the home.

“I could never just walk away. I am however still working and still educating my children and am involved with the Maris Stella board as my daughter is schooling there. I just don’t have enough hours in the day to keep up!” he said.

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