Inspire change on Mandela Day

“It is in your hands to make of our world, a better one for all” – Nelson Mandela Nelson Mandela International Day was launched on 18 July 2009 by the UN General Assembly to recognise the birthday of our inspirational former president, Nelson Mandela. Inspired by a call Mandela had made for the next generation to take on the burden of leadership in addressing the world’s social injustices, Mandela Day aims to bring people together from around the world to fight...

Ride the Absa Cape Epic 2021 for Anna Foundation

Get your hands on an Absa Cape Epic 2021 Charity Entry!  Public entries for next year’s event sold out in seconds, but you can still enter a team for The Race That Measures All in support of the Anna Foundation. A Charity Entry ticket for a team of two (payable by 15 June 2020) = R92,900 (ticket price) + R50,000 charity donation = TOTAL R142,900. Since the Foundation’s first association with the event seven years ago, riding has become the fourth ‘R’ to our 3Rs...

Vitamin Drive to combat Covid-19

Help us give our learners a fighting chance against Covid-19 during the colder months of June, July and August, by supporting our vitamin drive.   With winter on its way, the Anna Foundation is asking for your help! We have under our wing over 700 school children in rural and farming communities in the Western Cape who attend our after-school projects. This winter, not only do they have the cold and rainy weather to contend with, they’re also faced with the spread of...

Mariska: Grade 10 scholarship pupil pays it forward

“When you learn, teach. When you get, give.” — Maya Angelou You may recall this bright smile, belonging to Mariska Goliath, an Anna Foundation scholarship pupil in Grade 10 at Hoërskool Stellenbosch (Stellenbosch High School). Mariska hopes to study Sport Science after she graduates. With school education moving online due to nationwide lockdown extensions, many South African pupils have found themselves shut out from further learning, due to lack of access to computer technology and/or a reliable internet connection in their...

Lockdown: Accessing Education in Rural Communities

Since 26 March 2020, South Africa has been in national lockdown to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19. With Anna Foundation’s after-school projects closed temporarily, our teams have been working on ways to best access our students in their homes to provide ongoing tutelage despite the physical absence. The majority of learner’ families lack digital connectivity in their homes and tend to access internet on smartphones using pay-as-you-go data. For this reason, we started off by sharing short, low-resolution...

Winter Clothing Drive 2020

“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.” – Edith Sitwell While winter may conjure up feelings of cosiness, warmth and over-indulgence, the stark reality of the upcoming colder months is that many South Africans in vulnerable communities are without adequate clothing to protect them from the chill. Winter 2020 marks an especially challenging time for all South Africans...

COVID-19: A message from Anna

I hope this message finds you safe and well! While we all adapt to a new way of living brought on by COVID-19, you may know that our after school projects are closed, which means that we are not able to reach our learners physically until further notice. These unforeseen circumstances have resulted in some inspired actions from our facilitator teams, who, over and above developing next term’s curriculum, are also working hard to create a library of short, ‘education-based’ video...

Life Skills Report April 2020

Our Life Skills Programme is exciting and fun and this term we have had many laughs together. An important lesson learnt is that “we do not laugh at each other, but with each other!” The concept of using play activities, dance, music and enactment to learn about the world and process life situations is not new. Humans have been doing this through the centuries. Children also do this in a very natural way. Unfortunately the environments in which some children find...

Educational Update April 2020

January The first training session in January started with an icebreaker leading up to educating facilitators on team work and setting goals for the year. The main focus was on classroom management, discipline and the role of facilitators in the programme. Facilitators soon realised their required contribution in making the programme a success and were shown how classroom management and discipline contribute to the provision of a better afterschool environment. They were given an example of a lesson plan and spent...

Sporting Highlights April 2020

This year,  we added new goals to our sports program for both  facilitators and school learners. We are as passionate about developing our sport program, as the learners are at improving in school! While our facilitators have the tools and skills to perform what is required, we all benefit from monthly training sessions to offer guidance to take on any new challenges that arise. The facilitators play an instrumental part in cementing the Foundation’s structure. We supply them with material to support...