Golfers, Vodacom help needy youth

Ndlovu Medical Trust vegetable garden

The five organisations - Project NOAH, Ndlovu Medical Trust, ACFS Community Education and Feeding Scheme, New Beginningz and Women and Men Against Child Abuse (WMACA) - care for abandoned, orphaned, malnourished and abused children.

The 2009 Birdies for Kiddies Campaign was officially launched with a celebratory dinner at the Pretoria Country Club last night, 21 May 2009. Since this tournament marks the official launch of the campaign, birdies scored by both professionals and amateurs will contribute towards the ongoing total.

Mthobi Tyamzashe, CEO of Vodacom Foundation, said, “Following the positive response to the 2008 Birdies Against Abuse campaign, we have increased the number of beneficiaries, as well as the amount donated for every birdie scored. Vodacom Foundation is especially committed to helping vulnerable children, and this campaign will enable us to support organisations dealing with a wide range of children's needs.”

The campaign began on 1 April 2009 with the opening tournament in the Vodacom Business Origins of Golf Tour held in Bloemfontein. By the end of the tournament, 718 birdies had been scored, translating into R359 000.

It is estimated that the golfers will have scored sufficient birdies to raise R4 million by the end of the tour in October. Should this not be the case, Vodacom Foundation will top up the contribution.

Mark Murless, who was the leading birdie maker on the tour in 2008, says of the Birdies for Kiddies campaign: “It's great. I went to Alexandra when Vodacom Foundation handed over the cheque to Women and Men Against Child Abuse from last year's Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour. It was good to see where the money goes and the extent of the needs that the organisation caters for.”

Another golfer, Vaughn Groenewald added: “We have to give back somehow, and Vodacom as a company is probably one of the best when it comes to charitable initiatives such as this. It's a great initiative and I think it makes a big difference.”

Projects supported by the Vodacom Foundation that will benefit from the 2009 Birdies for Kiddies campaign are:

• Project NOAH (Nurturing Orphans of Aids for Humanity), developing a community-based model of orphan care in response to the increasing numbers of children orphaned as a result of AIDS-related deaths in South Africa;
  
• Ndlovu Medical Trust, a project in the Groblersdal area of the Limpopo province that includes a pre-school, a feeding programme, and a project to teach people to grow their own food;
  
• ACFS Community Education and Feeding Scheme, helping 20,000 children every day in centres in Soweto, Kagiso, Alexandra, Tembisa, Daveyton, Tsakane and KwaThema. The Vodacom Foundation contribution provides additional nutrition in the form of a peanut butter sandwich, cheese, milk and fruit for 650 children in Meadowlands;
  
• New Beginningz, caring for orphaned, abandoned, abused and neglected babies and toddlers in Laudium, Pretoria; and
  
• Women and Men Against Child Abuse (WMACA), an organisation addressing the spiralling incidence of child abuse in South Africa.

Last year's campaign, called Birdies Against Abuse, raised R755,100 for Women and Men Against Child Abuse. The contribution was topped up to R800,000 by the Vodacom Foundation, and Vodacom Foundation donated a further R200,000 towards WMACA's new Kidz Clinic in KwaZulu/Natal.