Volunteering and Internship events in Cape Town

We had an amazing Mandela Day this year, where we joined Breaking Bread Community Development to hand out some hot food, sandwiches, juice and lovely care-packs to the Homeless Community. 
Breaking Bread serve a hot meal every day, but it's always special to join them on an occasion where a lot of companies in the area get involved too. Meeting and talking to our community members makes for a safer and friendly community for all. 

We joined our friends at Breaking Bread Community Development to visit the children and teachers at the Kindergarten in Philippi Township. We took donations with that were kindly donated by friends - these consisted of a new stove, food for the children, new shoes, clothes, books and toys. Tania and CJ were part of the Driving Spirit team that were responsible for the fundraising and building of this kindergarten, so it is always a special place for us to visit, and to see how the children are growing up. There are about 30-40 children that attend the kindergarten and they rely on the school for their daily meals and to learn to read and write. 
We do regular visits to the kindergarten, and we're happy to be a part of this wonderful initiative, which is run by Youth Solutions Africa, and the outreach provided by Breaking Bread Community Development. Education is the way out of poverty, and we will continue assisting these children as they grow. 

Our crew and interns regularly attend this fantastic initiative.  The purpose is to prepare, develop and establish local brands, to provide them with a platform to showcase their latest offerings and new designs to the community of Khayelitsha. Powerful messages are brought to light through fashion.

Khayelitsha is a partially informal township in Western Cape Province, located on the Cape Flats in the City of Cape Town. The name is Xhosa for New Home. It is reputed to be the largest and fastest growing township in South Africa.

We love supporting our friends at the 18 Gangster Museum in the township of Khayelitsha. The Museum is the first of its kind in Cape Town and aims to help South African youth to understand the treacherous path that too many young people in their communities follow into gangsterism and, ultimately, prison. More importantly, 18 Gangster Museum seeks to offer a positive alternative.

Incorporating immersive text, imagery and a replica prison cell, 18 Gangster Museum's installations are curated by ex-offenders who share their real-life experiences of gangsterism, incarceration, and how they turned their lives around. Our interns, students and volunteers get to take part in singing, dancing and even football games when they visit.

Our two Social Work interns Sanna and Jenny were doing their placements at one of the Children's Hospital's we work with. They decided to do a fundraiser to treat the children and staff to a fun day out. Everyone at the hospital works extremely hard, and this was a truly heart-warming event for the interns to organise.

Everyone, including the cleaners and kitchen staff, went ice skating, bowling and out for lunch. It was a great end to their year, and we are so thankful to Sanna and Jenny for not only making a huge difference in the lives of the children in the hospital every day but also to the hard-working staff.

Three of our interns, Evelina, Thanh and Frida, who were doing their Social Work internships at one of our Homes of Safety for Children, held a "School Dance" for the children.

All the children dressed up in very smart evening wear, each one had their photo taken, and they got to feel special for a night. There were people singing karaoke, laser lights and even a smoke machine.

Everyone enjoyed dancing, singing and all the excellent food. It was a night the children will never forget. Our three interns also fundraised to do various repairs in the home, as well as buying much-needed appliances.

CJ and Tania were leading members of a collective called Driving Spirit, and in 2014, their group initiated, ran, and successfully raised over R45, 000 to build a kindergarten in the Olieboom Annex of the Philippi Township. This included clearing the ground, securing the materials, and project managed the construction of three wooden huts that would later serve as classrooms.

After the main building was completed, through our friends and regular donors Tessa James and Andy Stidworthy, CJ was able to invite the Expresso Show to do a feature on the opening of the kindergarten. Their producer Andrew Katzwinkel spent the week at the kindergarten, where they Expresso production team assembled a jungle gym with help from some of the people who live in the township.

When additional building materials were needed, another regular donor Jon Muller and his team at OMSFIN secured them in addition to funds. This was a massive project, and it took a lot of hard work from the Driving Spirit team. The kindergarten has two part-time teachers and caters for over thirty children.

During our time with Driving Spirit and volunteering with other organisations, we've put together at least one soccer tournament every year to raise much-needed funds for various worthy NPOs and organisations. In 2017, we spent a day at the scenic Fives Futbal soccer courts, which was on the rooftop of the Grand Central – one of Cape Town's tallest buildings!

We had teams from all over Cape Town compete; which included a comedian’s team, various NPOs and organisations, local businesses and corporations, and our directors CJ and Tania fielded their own all-female squad.

With live music, a braai, plenty of cool drinks and good times had by all. The event raised a lot of money for Breaking Bread, which went towards their Feeding Programme.