Wednesday, November 19, 2014

StreetSmart SA Annual Handover

This year, StreetSmart has raised an impressive R480 000, all from the R5 donation which is voluntarily added to your bill at the 32 participating restaurants in a few of the major centres in South Africa. Why only 32 restaurants? This was the first time that we had been invited to see the presentation of the cheques, all of which go to support agencies looking after street children (a constant problem in our country) to enable them to get off the streets, get back to their families where possible or to make a better life for themselves. If you are interested in the work that the projects who receive the awards are doing, we have put their website addresses on the blog, so you can read about them and StreetSmart. www.streetsmartsa.org.za/
They currently have a very good Christmas raffle running with over 250 superb prizes and only 1000 tickets for sale at R100 each. do check this out on-line to buy your tickets and make a donation

One question we want to ask of all our readers and those of you who own or work in restaurants. What is holding you back? Diners: please ask your favourite restaurants why they are not taking part in this worthy effort. Restaurants: please look at the scheme. Every single cent you raise goes to the projects. StreetSmart have other donors who support the administration and running of the charity.
The audience filling up the seats
The awards
Nils Hecksher is the Chairman of StreetSmart and he made the presentations fast and fun and engaged everyone there
Restaurateurs and other involved people who helped raise the R480 000, whom Nils wanted to thank. In the photo are Deborah of the Radisson Hotel who also gave the venue, Gregory Zeleny of SecretEats, Caroline Bagley from Savoy Cabbage, Sandra Engelen of the Cape Town Club and Stephen Peterson of the Taj Hotel
This young man, Gregory Zeleny, runs SecretEATS.com  and they raise a lot of money for StreetSmart, both with the voluntary donations and also by holding raffles at the dinners
Pam Jackson of Ons Plek gave us some history on how Cape Town copes with children on the street. Things have changed; they are now better able to identify children before they go solo on the streets and scoop them up, but the problem is increasing. She was awarded R100 000, which will go towards employing a new social worker to work with the children
Some of the cheques that were awarded (the money was transferred electronically, the "cheques" were there to show)
The Cape Town Multi Service Centre also received R100 000 which was received by General Manager Elsa van Huysteen. Nils commented that the children in their care are all very well behaved!
Home from Home also received R100 000 and the cheque was received by Jane Payne 
Learn to Live was awarded R100 000 to go to the Panel Beating Workshop. The cheque was collected by five of the trainees, Rodney their instructor and Madeline Thornhill. You may recognise this as the Salesian Institute, of which they are a part
The final cheque for R80 000 went to TLC Outreach Projects and will also go towards the salary of the social worker 
Glen McKeag then presented a bursary, dedicated to his late partner, to Sintu Quza, Field Director who works for KusasaProject in Franschhoek as the community liaison. This will enable him to continue with his studies
and Stenströms shirts gave Nils a surprise donation of R25 000 for StreetSmart
Some Contribution Awards were presented, including two to The Grand in the Waterfront and Camps Bay
Then it was time to socialise in the foyer and get to know more about the projects and the people involved
Chef Richard Chamberlain of Out of This Planet Catering donated his and his staff’s time and the canapĂ©s for the event. These were scrumptious mini Chinese dumplings. Richard is a well known and popular caterer 
Some “Welsh sausages” with a leek and onion puree
Seared Gemsbok on polenta cakes
Lynne and Richard taking about food and the industry
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

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