Nelson Mandela’s 94th birthday was celebrated with squeals of delight from learners at uKukhanye Kwelanga School in Chesterville. Many of the needy scholars who walk to and from school barefoot, due to poverty, were given robust shoes by Network Configurations, a Durban IT company.
“It was simply a matter of accepting a challenge from Space Age Technologies in Cape Town that led to us collecting more than R18 000 in only a month of fundraising efforts,” said Iain Emerson, MD at Network Configurations, which is based in Westville.
For this year’s Mandela Day, Space Age Technologies put the challenge to several partners and suppliers within the IT industry to see how many little children’s feet could be kept warm this winter.
The staff of Network Configurations and Tevo in Durban and the Cape Town offices of AxizWorkgroup and NetApp took up the challenge. Thanks to the generosity of these people, over R36 000 was pledged, with the ultimate winner of the challenge being Network Configurations, who collected over R15 800, and Space Age Technologies as runner up with R12 500. Considering that this was donated by individuals from these small businesses, or branches, this is a substantial figure.
The Madiba “dust” that was sprinkled on barefoot scholars was a delight to observe as the children, squealing with delight, tore the birthday wrapping off the boxes and donned their shiny new shoes.
Some very thorough and imaginative fundraising initiatives were undertaken by the 45 staff members at Network Configurations. These included cake sales, boerewors roll sales, chips sales, as well as pledges and other fundraising campaigns.
“We’ll definitely be doing it again next year and hope to make it an annual event. There is nothing better than seeing the smiles on these children’s faces,” said Emerson.
The money collected by the Cape Town participants was pooled and used to purchase boots, beanies and scarves for the almost 200 children at the Nora Tyres crèche in Cloetesville, Stellenbosch.
Lizaan Louw, HR Director at Space Age, who handed out the goodies, said, “It was extremely gratifying to see the appreciation from these children for something so small, and we are very grateful to our employees and all the other companies that took up the challenge. I am very proud to be associated with a company that makes ‘giving back’ part of their culture.”