Bokamoso Education Trust: Note from the CEO

Bokamoso Education Trust believes that everyone can make a significant difference to the future of this beautiful country. It provides a vehicle in which modest individual contributions are combined and mobilized towards the educational costs of its beneficiary children.

In the note below the CEO of the Bokamoso Education Trust, Cathrine du Toit reflects on the year gone by and shares the upcoming plans for the new year

Hello and welcome to another exciting year ahead with the Bokamoso Education Trust. We look forward to 2019 being a year of accelerated growth as we continue to fulfil the vision of making the dreams of disadvantaged children a reality through education

If we take a moment to look back, 2018 was a critical year for us in terms of establishing all our back office support. We are in the constant pursuit of finding ways to enable us to take on more children, and we feel we are now ready to recruit more children to our trust.

A highlight for us last year was our Bokamoso 10 year anniversary and celebration at Katy’s Palace. We received incredible support and the awareness of Bokamoso created through our event was hugely beneficial to our growth in donors and in mentorship. We raised R80,000.00 at the event. Last year we welcomed 16 new donors and two new children. We also focused on growing our school partner network and have partnered with Pretoria Boys High, SACS in Cape Town, Wynbery in Cape Town and Hilton College in Kwa-Zulu Natal.

With the help of some significant donor growth we are excited to welcome and take on more children to help give them the necessary start to their lives. Following on the success of our 10 year celebration we will also host another exciting fundraising event to create further awareness of our Trust – We would love your involvement and will communicate with you in this regard later in the year.

We are thrilled to welcome all our children back to a new school year of learning, growing and the opportunity of a happy fulfilled childhood. We are so proud of them and love to see them become amazing contributors to society, adding value to this country in a positive and meaningful way. We commit to offering all the support they need to become the best that they can be and just love watching their individual development and see the fruits of what this trust brings to their lives.

The progress we continue to make would not be possible without our incredible donors and mentors. None of what we do would be possible without the funds that our donors contribute monthly. So, a huge and heartfelt thank you to our donors for the continued backing and financial support. This is what keeps us going and growing. We hope you feel rewarded in some way for your contributions. You are making a profound impact on our society and the future of our country.

And of course to our mentors who also devote an hour of their time once a week to their mentees. This is crucial to the healthy development of our children. The time our mentors spend with them invests hugely into their emotional support, and we hear first hand from the children how much they value this input.

We urge you as donors and mentors to please spread the Bokamoso word to your friends, families and colleagues. We are happy to come and present to groups of people to discuss the benefits and the details of coming on board. If each donor recruited just one new donor this year our organisation would double and the number of children we could impact would more than double.

We welcome individuals and organisations alike to come forward and become a part of this worthy cause. To contribute to making a child’s dream a reality, please visit Bokamoso Education Trust website, message us on our Facebook or Instagram pages or contact me, on cathrine@bokamosotrust.org.za.

Thanks again and have a fantastic year ahead.