Grade 12 pupil at Maragon Private Schools Karli Coetzee was awarded with Lead SA’s Youth Leader Award on 10 February for her charity Hands from Heaven.
Karli started the charity when she was just 15 years old, and said she wanted to do something that would assist the underprivileged children in the Krugersdorp area.
“The children are extremely poor and I just felt that if I can do something to help, then I should. I used a lot of my mom’s help, I kind of initiated the whole thing but my mother is real estate agent and has a lot of contacts with contractors and builders.”
The charity is in aid of the Mug and Tree nursery school and Karli helped them build a new school. The school has all the facilities, including sanitation and has a small classroom that is used as a soup kitchen in the afternoon.
Amanda Coetzee, Karli’s mother, said she felt incredibly touched the minute she saw pictures of the children at the Mug and Tree Nursery.
“I saw an email from a photographer who took pictures at Mug and Tree and I was so touched. I met the founder, Trudy Naudé, and she shared her story with me.”
The day-care facility is already being used by the children in the area. The pupil said they started building when she was 15 years old and it was near completion when she was 16.
About her award from Lead SA she said, “It caught me off guard because I did not know that my aunt had entered me for the award. I had updates on Facebook to try and get resources but it was not for attention or for myself, I just wanted to help out. I am very honoured and it is really a big thing.”
Karli has shown that she has stellar leadership skills as head girl of the high school. With a bright future ahead of her, she admits that she is torn between medicine, veterinary sciences and law as career prospects in tertiary.
“I play netball for school and participate in the presidency award and I sing in the choir,” she added.
Karli has also obtained the bronze and silver certificates for the Youth Leadership President” Award and is currently busy with her gold certificate which she will complete by the end of this year.
Proud mom Amanda said, it is important that young people have self-confidence to instill a positive change in their communities.
“I am very proud of Karli, that is a given. No matter the children’s age, they need to realise the potential they have in making a difference. With the youth of today, they lack such confidence and this is a great example for everyone that it is about what they can do in their communities. We need to teach our children to do things for other people.”
Karli said, she hopes the school will continue to provide food and clothing to the kids and that their education is furthered. She adds that the owner of Mug and Tree, Trudy Naudé, is hands-on with the day-to-day running of the school.
Maragon’s marketing manager Belinda Espag concluded, “The fact that she is so humble about everything makes this so special. It would be great if people out there were aware of the school’s needs and that we could use more participation and more sponsors for the children to go further.”
