INTRODUCTION

The Kekana Gardens community is situated on the border of the Dinokeng Game Reserve where ERP is currently working on an elephant monitoring programme. The location and proximity of this community to the privately owned Game Reserve positions it as a classic ERP project – conserving elephants and rhinos, through the alleviation of poverty -, which is why we have concentrated our community development interventions there, in an effort to address the rampant poverty and unemployment in the area.

WHAT HAS BEEN DONE SINCE MANDELA DAY?

Mandela Day on July 18th 2017 saw ERP spending time within Kekana Gardens, particularly at the Botlhokwa Bja Ngwana Orphans Day Care Centre and Seikokotlelo Old Age Home where we were also able to hand out several donations in the form of food parcels and toiletries. ERP gave a commitment that this would not be a once off intervention, and we would continue offering support to these community based interventions. Below, we highlight some of the activities we have been busy with since July 2017.

• AUGUST: Additional donations to the Orphans Day Care Centre

We received additional donations from groupelephant.com’s members of staff based in the United States and in South Africa. These donations covered food parcels, toiletries, toys and shoes and were earmarked for the Orphans Day Care Centre. Magazines were also donated for the kids to use for art, and we were also able to donate some to the local library.

• SEPTEMBER: More donations to the Day Care Centre and Old Age Home

In the first week of September, we were able to deliver yet another donation to both the Orphans’ Day Care Centre and the Old Age Home. This was facilitated through the funds raised by groupelehant.com’s (South Africa Office) Talent Management Team in the days leading up to Mandela Day 2017. We used the funds to purchase utensils, plates, cups and e’Pap for both groups of beneficiaries.  The split, as shown below, was based on the wish lists we received from the two organisations:

Old Age Home

1. 25 plates
2. 30 spoons
3. 30 forks
4. 25 cups
5. 20kg ePap and 1 bucket of ePap peanut butter

Orphans Day care Centre

1. 35 plates
2. 40 spoons
3. 40 forks
4. 50 cups
5. 20kg ePap and 1 bucket of e’Pap peanut butter

It is important to note that we received positive feedback from Mr Ruth Maruma, the director of Seikokotlelo Old Age home regarding e’Pap, which she said has started to invigorate the elderly residents at the Home.  This was the primary reason why we added the e’Pap to both organisations’ wish lists.

We also bought a 20kg bag of e’Pap for the local office of the South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO), seeing that we work closely with them in executing our day to day activities within the community. Images from September’s donations are given below:

PLANS FOR RUNNING TRAINING PROGRAMMES FOR THE COMMUNITY

Over the past 3-4 months, we have been in negotiations with the City of Tshwane, the local Municipality responsible for Kekana Gardens, over a number of pipeline community interventions that we have identified and planned for the area. One of these is setting up and running of a number of training courses at Pfananani Centre. This is an impressive facility that was set up by the Municipality but is currently unoccupied.. We have proposed utilising the Centre to provide a bouquet of basic and advanced IT training programs that will be offered year-round.  Through an incubation program we will also develop an Internet Café that will be managed by local entrepreneurs and supported by the Skills Development program.

REACHING OUT TO THE SCHOOLS IN THE COMMUNITY

ERP, through one of our colleagues is in the process of arranging sponsorship for Rethabile Primary School from Colgate where they will sponsor oral health products for the whole school. The application has already been approved and delivery of these products will be conducted within the next few weeks.