In the 2021 edition of the FNB Wines2Whales 3-day stage mountain biking race, Team Anna Foundation rode to raise over R100 000 in donations for the local charity to be able to open a new afterschool programme at the Primary School in Raithby – a rural farming community in the Cape Winelands. This November, the team of Six Stellenbosch Superstars are returning to the trails to raise funds to further develop the project and ensure the rural children of Raithby...
On 25 July 2022 we had the delight of opening a new afterschool project at Raithby Primary School in the Stellenbosch Winelands. Up until now, many learners have stood outside the school every afternoon, unattended, waiting for their transport to take them home. Now that we have begun to facilitate our “3 Rs Programme” in the afternoons, however, these children have the opportunity to take part in facilitated educational, sports and life-skills activities that encourage powerful life-long learning. It was upon...
In working towards encouraging the holistic development of underprivileged rural children, one of the Anna Foundation’s top priorities is to empower, equip and employ local women to support the children in their communities through our “3 Rs Programme: Reading, Running, Right-ing”. We currently train and employ 35 rural women to facilitate our professionally developed programme at 17 rural after-school projects. These ladies are the real heroes of the Foundation who pour their love and time into our learners, day in...
It has been an incredibly fast-paced and jam-packed first half of the year at the Anna Foundation. In a way, it feels like we made up for many of the opportunities we could not offer the children in the previous 2 years! This has taken admirable dedication from all of our staff members, going above and beyond what is required of them on a daily basis. I feel incredibly grateful to have this team of passionate people investing so much...
It is a well-known fact that raising and nurturing a child is a job for the entire community. As an organisation whose mission it is to support the holistic development of rural children, this principal is fittingly applicable to our work, and so we are extremely thankful to our community for their support! From winter clothing drives, to book donations, to pillows, puzzles and parenting support – our partners continue to be incredibly generous. Winter in the winelands is a trying...
The Anna Foundation’s afterschool programmes are located on various working farms throughout the Western Cape, and the majority of our learners are farm workers’ children. Having grown up on the farm, the children are accustomed to sights of the surrounding vineyards and the visitors entering the tasting rooms, but many of them have not put together the entire puzzle of what exactly is happening around them. This past term, we collaborated with our agricultural partners to organize educational farm tours...
Community work is a team effort! In the first semester of 2022, the Anna Foundation have had the incredible pleasure of welcoming a handful of students from the University of Stellenbosch on board as helpful members of our volunteer team. These willing students have happily chosen to invest their time, skills and resources into the lives of our learners in a variety of different ways. Estelle de Villiers is a post-graduate psychology student who volunteers every Tuesday afternoon by hosting an...
Mariska Goliath is a member of our scholarship programme who we met at one of our farm projects in 2010. Although Mariska was only in pre-primary at the time, we recognized a resilient twinkle in her eye despite her difficult family circumstances and lack of opportunities. Since then, we have been able to enrol and support her through 11 years of schooling at Stellenbosch Primary and Stellenbosch High School. We have been so proud to watch her grow into a...
The curtains of 2022 have opened to reveal many magical adventures for the children of the Anna Foundation. The wonderful people of The Playhouse Theatre and The Drama Factory in Somerset West have set aside theatre seats for our children to attend four fantastic productions this past term. First off, the younger children from our Neethlingshof after-school went diving into the depths of The Playhouse Theatre to learn the tale of The...
The Anna Foundation has been an official charity of the Absa Cape Epic for almost ten years, and this partnership has proudly continued to grow in 2022! The world-renowned mountain biking event took place between 20-27 March this year, and the Anna Foundation were thrilled to be a part of it all from registration day at Lourensford, through to the finish line at Val de Vie. The children of our after-schools spent many an afternoon in February...