In the spirit of Christmas and in place of our traditional Christmas Party for our clients, GSD has donated R20 000 to the Johannesburg Child Welfare Society. The money was used for two current projects that are being undertaken by the Society.
The first was to buy uniforms so that underprivileged children could attend school. The fact that the children had no money to buy uniforms and hence felt out of place, was preventing these children form attending school. By providing the funds necessary 25 children are now happily attending school for the first time.
The second project that received sponsorship was the Othandweni Family Care Centre which provides foster care for abandoned, abused and neglected children and babies. Othandweni meaning "Place of Love", is divided into a nursery that cares for 30 babies and the cottages, which offer supervised care in a family setting to 60 children and teenagers. Many of the babies in the nursery have been abandoned due to socio-economic conditions and a large number suffer from delayed milestones, cerebral palsy, nutritional deficiencies and HIV/AIDS. The money was mostly used to provide infrastructure such as stoves, cupboards and beds to the cottages and nursery.