Daily life for Rainmaker Solutions CEO, Jan Joubert in London is far removed from the dusty streets of Kaymandi, but that doesn’t prevent him from doing all he can to help raise much needed funds for songo.info. While spearheading a recent charity drive in the UK Jan managed to raise £33 000, which when converted to South African Rand equates to R734 000. This will go a long way to helping songo.info improve the lives of the children in the programme.
Photo by: Justin Sullivan.
The funds were raised through ticket sales to attend a gala dinner on 5th May 2016 in London, where an auction of kindly donated items was conducted. Going under the hammer were two of Richard Scott’s Cape Epic prints, race entries to the Wines2Whales mountain bike race and the Cape Rouleur road tour, a Maurice LaCroix watch and a double magnum of 2011 Tenuta di Biserno. No songo.info charity event would be complete without support from Specialized Bicycles who, along with M1Performance donated to the auction a Specialized Epic Comp Carbon mountain bike and a performance training package. A raffle also took place but undoubtedly the event which stirred up the most excitement and raised money was the pre-gala dinner ride with songo.info co-founder and mountain biking legend, Christoph Sauser.
Photo by: Seamus Allardice.
The songo.info programme is entirely reliant on the generosity of companies and individuals to fund the day-to-day running of the programme. As such songo.info would like to heartily thank everyone who donated their time and money to support Rainmaker Solutions’ songo.info UK charity drive. In particular songo.info, and the children in the programme, owe Jan Joubert a massive debt of thanks. Without the kind donations of people like Jan and companies like Rainmaker, songo.info wouldn’t be able to introduce the children of Kaymandi to BMXs and mountain bikes, or provide them with a safe place to study, volunteers to help them with their homework, and guidance and assistance in their search for jobs or in their quest to obtain higher education.
Sadly, due to the worsening security situation in Kaymandi, not all the funds raised by these generous donations can be allocated to improving the needs of the children of the township. songo.info has recently suffered from a renewed spate of criminal activity directed at the clubhouse. As such the decision has been made to erect palisade fencing and beef up security around the clubhouse and the BMX track. It was never the intention of songo.info to physically limit access to the facilities, but criminal activity is a sad reality of the poverty stricken community within which the charity operates. songo.info strives to improve the lives of the inhabitants of Kayamandi though the education of the youth, it is a gradual process and one which is not achievable if the programme’s facilities and bicycles are damaged or stolen.
Photo by: Seamus Allardice.
If you would like to contribute to one of the songo.info initiatives or if you’d like to find out more about the work that songo.info does in the Kayamandi community please visit www.songo.info or click here to donate directly. The donations page features a detailed breakdown of the costs of the programme so you see where your donations will be used to support the youth of Kayamandi.
Photo by: Seamus Allardice.
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