Cape Town - A birthday celebration unlike any other, Woolworths’ MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet celebrated its 25th anniversary, with MECs, business partners, non-governmental organisations, beneficiaries and environmental and animal organisations gathering.
The event, held at the Christel House School in Ottery on Tuesday, had every chair filled.
Shoppers contribute to the programme by swiping their Woolworths’ MySchool card at selected retailers, with a percentage of their spend going to their chosen causes at no cost to the shopper.
The MySchool programme has since supported over 7 500 schools, charities and organisations nationwide with almost R1 billion contributed.
Woolworths Holdings Limited Group CEO Roy Bagattini said: “What started out as a small home-based initiative by two parents who wished to provide better education, not only for their children but for every child in South Africa, has since evolved into a pioneering, award-winning programme that is truly unique and truly South African.”
Bagattini said the investment has gone towards building early childhood development centres, implementing remedial therapy programmes, providing access to clean water, supporting feeding schemes, sponsoring teacher bursaries, and leadership development for principals and teachers.
With a strong emphasis on a sense of hope, guest speaker Gift of the Givers founder Dr Imtiaz Sooliman painted a severe and devastating picture of food insecurity in the country, forcing children and adults to go days without food or, in some parts of the country such as Peddie, being forced to eat wild plants to fill their empty bellies.
He thanked the original founders and said it was active citizenry which started the programme 25 years ago.
MC and media personality Jo-Ann Strauss said: “I now have four young children and I realised how hard it is to be a mom with quite a lot of extra hands and with privilege, I mean essentially I have privilege, and I realised how hard it is for me to raise these young children.
“It made me realise that we live in a society in which we are part of a community where some have more and some have a lot less and it is important that we realise that it takes a village to raise a child and we are all part of that village.”