Our Club's Local Community Projects
Cresset House in Midrand, Gauteng, is a registered NPO that provides residential and work facilities for some 60 adults with intellectual disabilities.
Water is a significant cost in the running of Cresset House, despite some eight million litres of water per annum being recycled via wetland reed beds for use in garden irrigation, municipal water for domestic use and vegetable garden irrigation.
To reduce their dependence on Municipal a plan to install a ring water main pipe connecting the Cresset House property’s three boreholes to a water treatment plant has been executed with an anticipated saving, after water treatment costs, of some R240, 000/annum.
A generous donation of three 5,250 litre water tanks for the water purification plant was a great help in contributing to the cost of this water project.
The water project is complete and delivering ample clean water to the Cresset House village for their needs. With this success, the potential to deliver the anticipated savings and improve the financial situation of this essential organisation is on track.
The Rotary Club of Kyalami is working with the RC Knights Pendragon on this long-term project. It is co-supported by five Rotary Clubs from five Rotary clubs of the Ebersberg / Grafing area of Munich, Germany.
Our local community radio station Mix FM 98.3 Legendary Radio ran a series of appeals to raise funds for this water project. With these funding resources and the appeals, we raised almost R50,000 for the Cresset House water project.
New Life Centre for girls is a registered Non-Profit Organisation and Public Benefit Organisation that provides a safe and non-judgemental environment, to rehabilitate children and orphans who are vulnerable, as well as who are commercially sexually exploited and trafficked in South Africa.
It was established in April 2005 as a response to the high influx of children and women who are involved or at risk of being involved in prostitution due to child sexual abuse, trafficking, poverty, unemployment, lack of family structure and orphans.
The purpose of the New Life Centre is to free children and women who find themselves caught in a web of prostitution, who are trafficked, orphans, neglected, and those at risk of such exploitations, to develop them with the view to reunite them with their families and to re-integrate them back into the society as productive, responsible and dignified members of the society.
The concept is to create opportunities to realize their full potential in breaking the cycle of poverty and abuse and working with their parents through structured programmes.
More than 60 girls have been re-integrated with their beloved families. Thirteen girls have passed their matric and three have completed their university course studies.
The Rotary Club of Kyalami has provided assistance in various ways for the improvement of the centre. The contributions include various goods, equipment, appliances and furnishings.
The centre was in a rather dilapidated state and in serious need of repair of infrastructure and facilities. This need is ongoing. Provision of electricity is an urgent requirement.
Witkoppen Clinic is a South African non-profit organisation. We provide comprehensive, high quality primary healthcare and social welfare services. It has been operating since 1946.
Some of the essential services provided by Witkoppen Clinic include HIV, Covid-19 and TB screening, testing, treatment and support; pregnancy screening; as well as the screening, testing and treatment of chronic medical conditions such as hypertension and diabetes mellitus. We also offer services for mental health, maternal and child health, dentistry, and we have an in-house pharmacy. We care for and support more than 600 orphans and vulnerable children.
Witkoppen Clinic provides healthcare services to more than 7 000 patients each month.
The clinic’s processing fee is R70 for adults and R50 for children under 18 and pensioners.
All the activities of the Witkoppen Clinic rely on donor funding.
However, it was recognised that access to primary healthcare in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg is inequitable and does not address the South African government’s vision of “a long and healthy life for all South Africans”.
Residents in informal settlements in the area have insufficient medical clinics catering for the large communities.
Together with Rotary Club of Copenhagen, a joint project undertaken in 2018.
From the funds raised, a mobile clinic was established, enabling the clinic to take health services to patients who are unable to travel to the clinic’s premised in Fourways, norther Johannesburg.
As such, Witkoppen takes the clinic to its patients! The mobile clinic goes into communities to ensure that those who cannot afford transport still receive medical care.
The clinic is fitted with fully equipped consulting rooms and is entirely self-sufficient. It takes three trips per week to Diepsloot, and Msawawa informal settlements.
On average, 40 patients are seen by the mobile clinic a day.
The following services are offered by the mobile clinic:
- Child immunisation
- Emergency management of chronic diseases
- General adult and paediatric care
- HIV testing and counselling
- Social services
- TB screening
- Women wellness
The mobile clinic significantly increases Witkoppen Clinic’s ability to provide medical and social services directly to communities.
The AEC is a secondary school bursary scheme as well as a support programme for children in and around the Alexandra Township. The AEC focuses on providing quality education as a means of enriching the children’s lives and helping them build a better future.
The AEC was founded in 1996. Itis a registered PBO and NPO.
The AEC exists primarily to provide bursaries for academically promising learners from low-income families in Alexandra for the full five years of education at well-resourced high schools. The learners attend weekly Saturday School lessons in key subjects.
The AEC sponsors 193 secondary school children and provides not only for their school fees but also uniforms, field trips, transport and one meal a day. It is our aim to support as many children from the community as is financially possible, hence we also hold Saturday school programmes, holiday programmes as well as Maths, English and Science workshops for primary school teachers from Alexandra.
It is a proven and well-managed school bursary scheme, where promising learners from Alexandra, Johannesburg, are provided with quality secondary school education. In addition to being put through high school, learners are given extensive support through the Saturday and holiday programmes, counselling and mentorship, as well as extra lessons in subjects they find challenging.
The AEC also runs monthly maths and English development workshops for primary school teachers in Alexandra.
The AEC is constantly looking to grow and expand our reach to more children in need in and around the Alexandra Township. With your support we can fulfil not only the dreams of the children who will one day lead our country, but also the dreams of their parents and families as well as the community at large.
A joint project with Rotary Club of Copenhagen, undertaken in 2018. Funds were raised to provide facilities for the ongoing education programmes.
The Jungle Tots Mother Touch Academy was born out of a need to provide pre-school and educational services to children in the impoverished Diepsloot community. We opened our doors as an NPO on 3 August 2009 with an overwhelming response and need from the community. We have over 120 children attending pre-school and numerous children on the waiting list for our Sponsor-a-Child education programme.
Besides pre-school, we also intend to offer remedial education, extension education, a lending library and mom and dads workshops. We have been blessed with the Jungle Tots methodology, which is an established playgroup franchise (pre-school / creche) that gives young children the opportunity to learn while having fun. Emphasis is placed on a positive, safe and caring environment that encourages children to reach their full potential!
We believe that every child is a flower waiting to blossom, and we will ensure their seeds of greatness are realised.
Some of our children come from child run homes or have a single parent battling to make ends meet or have parents without jobs.
Many parents receive grants that barely cover their living expenses and schooling is an expense that seems out of reach. Our goal is to provide pre-school education opportunities to 150 children in Diepsloot and beyond and to develop them mentally, physically, socially and emotionally.
School fees are paid per learner per month by parents that can afford it, however many parents can’t. The school relies on private and corporate donations for the remainder of the funding.
The school employs qualified teachers and uses the Jungle Tots methodology for teaching the children.
Dolphins Acre is a licenced psychiatric care home for intellectually challenged youths.
It is a long-term facility for persons with intellectual disability. It is a semi-private residential, fully licensed, psychiatric facility.
It was established 2003. It is located in Blue Hills outlying areas, surrounded by equestrian properties. Community members live in very attractive log cabins.
Dolphins Acre provides the following services:
- Residential Home
- Collection of medication
- All meals
- Arts and crafts
- Outings
- Highly structured day
- Lifelong care if needed.
A joint project with the Rotary Club of Copenhagen, undertaken in 2018.
The Rotary Kyalami Anns Club also contributes generously to Dolphins Acre.
