A small and inadequate vehicle, severely compromising the Feed the Babies Fund’s delivery of nutritional cereal, the monitoring of training and the assessment of Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centres in Newcastle and its challenging surrounds, has been replaced with more suitable transport, thanks to a R424 000 donation.
The South African Muslim Charitable Trust (SAMCT) sponsored the new and bigger vehicle, with the organisation’s representative, Mr Gaff Osman, saying of its assistance: “It was clear that the Hillcrest-based organisation’s Newcastle outreach and training endeavours were being badly compromised as a consequence of inadequate transport. Learning about the Feed the Babies Fund’s service delivery concerns in this under-resourced and under-served Northern KwaZulu-Natal region, we of the SAMCT were delighted to help, enabling the charitable body meet its obligations to some 75 ECD centres in KwaZulu-Natal’s remote rural areas more effectively.”
First established in 1957 to support malnourished babies in Durban’s Cato Manor area, the organisation has grown significantly. In 2008, it refocused its activities to serve pre-school children attending rural, unfunded ECD centres across KwaZulu-Natal. In 2015, it incorporated ECD training for practitioners, whilst also supplying such centres with resources, such as stationery, educational posters, books, toys, plastic tables and chairs, mattresses and blankets.
Mr Osman stressed: “The larger vehicle has facilitated the more efficient delivery of its services and resources, and has improved evaluations, whilst simultaneously promoting enhanced engagement with both donors and funders. Such transport support will go a long way towards directly improving the nutritional outreach and training impact into the future, so benefiting ever greater numbers of vulnerable children in under-resourced communities.”
The SAMCT was created in 2008, the result of a partnership between Old Mutual Unit Trusts and Al Baraka Bank, for the creation, marketing and distribution of a suite of Shariah Funds. The organisation provides funding, services and other resources to improve the lives of the vulnerable, deprived and disadvantaged. It has successfully delivered sizeable assistance solutions throughout South Africa – irrespective of race or religion – and continues to work to support needy organisations in the fields of healthcare, social development, poverty alleviation and education.
“We were pleased to have been in the position to replace a vehicle which failed to meet the growing needs of the Fund in the challenging outlying areas of KwaZulu-Natal, with a new all-terrain vehicle, complete with canopy and towbar. We are confident that this intervention will greatly improve Feed the Babies Fund’s delivery of cereal and other resources, whilst better enabling the monitoring and evaluation of the many ECD centres its serves in this area for years to come,” Mr Osman said.
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For more information about the SAMCT or its Feed the Babies Fund vehicle donation, please contact:
Rasheeda Motala
Social Responsibility Officer
Tel: 084 506 2280
Email: samct@samct.co.za
www.samct.co.za