» Topsy Foundation

In the first week of the 2008 April holidays, 85 senior boys and girls from LV to VI Form, accompanied by staff members, left school each morning in the school buses for Topsy Foundation in Grootvlei, Mpumulanga, to work an 8-hour day for five consecutive days. Funded entirely by donations, Topsy is a centre which partners with the rural communities of Siyathemba, Nthoroane, Grootvlei, Cornelia and Qalabotjha, all of which are situated within a radius of about 70k from the central Sanctuary. The aim of the foundation is to empower people affected by HIV and Aids through medical care, social care and skills development and this is how we provided service to the community.

On a rotational basis, teams painted and repaired facilities; tidied and sorted the Topsy children’s library; upgraded the playground equipment and varnished it; prepared and planted a vegetable garden from scratch – and each day one team went into a township and helped a community member upgrade his or her shack and maintained or made a vegetable garden. The work was physically demanding and most people dropped into bed at night with blistered hands, only to re-appear the next day at 7.30am. Nevertheless, it was an extremely rewarding experience for us and we hope, of some help to the community of Grootvlei. Volunteers also made contact with pupils from a village school, against whom they played soccer and netball and were soundly beaten, and the Matric Dance Committee of 2008 agreed to donate R6,500 of the money raised for our dance to this school for their matric dance at the end of the year.