Ward 54 Social Services Committee reaches out
The Committee has been in existence since January 1 this year, and it is now in the process of being registered as a non-profit company so that it can scale up its work and intervention.
MEREDALE – Ward 54 Social Services Committee is a collection of community members residing in Ward 54 of the City of Johannesburg.
The focus of this committee is community development, with emphasis on healthy living and exercise, career guidance, life skills through various means including through arranging holiday clubs and support for the vulnerable. The Ward 54 Social Services Committee has adopted the Amazing Grace Children’s Home in Eikenhof, an impoverished ward just 10km away from Ward 54.
The Committee has been in existence since January 1 this year, and it is now in the process of being registered as a non-profit company so that it can scale up its work and intervention.
The committee is comprised of individuals, including community development experts, entrepreneurs, social workers, lawyers, doctors and engineers. All these people feel that while their education has allowed them to be classified as middle class, their daily lives includes serving those who are worse off than they and their extended families, who reside in the under-developed townships and rural areas. The desire to serve and assist those worse off to move out of poverty, unemployment and the debilitating inequality, is what drives the members of the Ward 54 Social Services Committee.
One of the members of the committee, Motshwanetse Nhlapo, is part of a team of novice mountain hikers. This team will be taking their first great climb as they scale the Kilimanjaro Mountains from August 5 to 13.
The team of hikers is led by Motshwanetse Nhlapo (CEO Velimo Paints) and includes Peter Tlholoe (Corporate Sales and CSI Director at Aranda Textiles), Tlaleng Moabi (entrepreneur), Kgosi Mogotsi (License to Trade Specialist at SAB), Lucas Ndala (CEO of MOGS), Nkekolo Kekana (Portfolio Manager), Ernest Mamabolo (entrepreneur), Sindi Giwu (student studying towards her PhD), Phakama Qoboshiyana (IT Project Manager at Standard Bank) and Pumza Ngandi (medical doctor).
This team of hikers has agreed to join hands with the Ward 54 Social Services Committee and another non-profit organisation called Show Me Your Number to use their expidition on Kilimanjaro to raise funds for Amazing Grace Children’s Home.
On Tuesday August 5 from 15:00 at OR Tambo International Airport, they will gather to send the team of Kilimanjaro hikers to bid them farewell as they set out to conquer this mountain. Members of the media are invited to capture this marvelous deed of South Africans. Show Me Your Number and Amazing Grace Children’s Home will be in attendance as well.
This noble venture needs to be supported by all South Africans. Donations of non-perishable food and monthly groceries based on the needs of Amazing Grace Children’s Home are also welcomed. There is a list of basic infrastructure required, including but not limited to brooms, printing cartridges, iron, packing cupboards, a tumble dryer, a television, toddlers CD/ learning CD, mattresses and more.
These and many more form part of the wish list of Amazing Grace Children’s Home. Your contribution will go towards the unfortunate people who find themselves at Amazing Grace Children’s Home, all trying their best to improve their situation but to do so they need the community’s support.
For more information contact Mabalane Mfundisi 082 5758 471 or Phindi Nhlapo-Kwanini 079 443 0231.
About Amazing Grace Children’s Home
The Amazing Grace Children’s Home is an orphanage located in Eikenhof. It provides a permanent and safe home for more than 80 children, who are victims of abandonment, abuse or human trafficking. Many of the children are HIV positive.
The organisation was established and founded by Ms Busiswe Grace Mashaba during 1989 in Malelane (Mpumalanga Provence). The main objective was to take care of street children in Malelane.
A house was rented at the train station to accommodate the children. In 1997 the organisation was registered with the Mpumalanga Health and Social Welfare Development under section 30 of the Child Care Act.
In 1998 the Centre affiliated with the White River Children’s Welfare Organisation, and the Malelane Child Welfare Society was established. In 2002 the name was changed to Amazing Grace Children’s Home (AGCH) and registered as a Non-Profit Organisation (NPO 005-937).
About Show Me Your Number
Show Me Your Number is an innovative approach using sport, arts and culture participants or heroes and platforms as agents for positive change, contributing towards social cohesion and nation building.
The key issue on social cohesion and nation building they are focusing on is HIV prevention, as well as promotion of social integration, fighting against xenophobia and gender-based violence.
Show Me Your Number aims to provide life skills training to South Africa’s sporting heroes, who in turn leverage their sporting status to advance positive messages about HIV prevention, promotion of social integration, fighting against xenophobia and gender-based violence within their communities and beyond.
