Nine Cape Town organisations have benefited from the StreetSmart initiative that raises funds for street children projects through participating restaurants, accommodation establishments and wine tasting centres.
The organisation has raised over R1 million for 2020 to be distributed nationally to 36 programmes working with children at risk.
Collecting R5 at a time, through donations from participating businesses, a total of R495 000 was handed to organisations caring for Cape Town’s most vulnerable children.
Among them were Home to Home, Learn to Live and Ons Plek who were each handed a cheque for R65 000 at the Salesian Institute in Green Point.
“With the help of our generous supporters, StreetSmart continues to stand out as an important conduit of much-needed funding for our beneficiary organisations. In spite of our financial pressures making it harder for people to donate, we’re grateful to be disbursing over a R1 million for the sixth consecutive year,” said chairperson of StreetSmart SA, Melanie Burke.
One of the 34 Cape Town businesses which support StreetSmart is Gold Restaurant in Green Point whose managing director, Cindy Muller, said they supported the initiative because they believed in the work that they’d been doing for the past 14 years.
“The organisations that benefit from our donations have a direct impact on our community. Our staff are fully committed to engaging with the guests in our support for StreetSmart and this often results in our guests contributing more than R5 at a time,” she said.
Speaking on behalf of the beneficiary, School of Hope, Adekunle Oyewo, said StreetSmart funds had changed lives in their school. He said the funds helped pay the salary of a Computer Application Technology (CAT) teacher. “Through this initiative, most of our learners have access to quality computer training, which we believe is needed now more than anything in the fourth industrial era.
“It gives our learners an opportunity and finish school with hands-on computer skills to forge their path,” he said.
