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CITY PRESS, 1 NOVEMBER, 2015 13
news

BIÉNNE HUISMAN The Industrial
bienne.huisman@citypress.co.za
Development
ornelia Sjigaba grew up in Gugulethu, one of three
children raised by a single mother. Corporation’s
She matriculated from Sithembele Matiso
Secondary School in Nyanga social
in 1994, the same year
Cshe queued for enterprise fund
three hours with family and
friends to vote in the first A
democratic elections.
Democracy was dawning PROJECT IN Number of businesses
and Sjigaba was hopeful.
But a year later, her PARTNERSHIP supported: 20
heart broke when she had
to quit her studies in public WITH THE Combined how much
administration at Pentech – the IDC invested since
now the Cape Peninsula
University of Technology – IDC the fund began in
because her mother could not 2013: R50 million
afford the fees.
There were no scholarships, Jobs created
and Sjigaba found work cleaning LEARNING LESSONS Teacher Thandi Mbana engages her class at the Philippi Village Educare Centre
homes and doing hotel housekeeping. PHOTO: LEÁNNE STANDER Permanent jobs: 744
This changed in 2011 when she was Seasonal jobs: 187
retrenched from her job as a domestic worker in the wealthy
Cape Town suburb of Bishopscourt. She decided to return to Lives sustained by
college to pursue her dream of teaching children. Growing those jobs: 4 500
Motivated by her boys – now aged 10 and 14 – she said she
considered teaching as more of a calling than a career. Sectors
She also wanted to address a big challenge facing her
community: parents struggling to help their children with
homework. Agroprocessing
“In 2011, I was down and out, and did a lot of soul-searching.
I realised that what I’m good at is fulfilling the learning needs of Agriculture
children,” she said.
“After all, I’ve been taking care of my cousin’s children since I with Arts
was 10. I helped to raise them.” and
She enrolled for the 18-month Educare course at Northlink
College in Bellville. crafts
In April, Sjigaba (40) opened a small school with two
classrooms, an outside sandpit and a jungle gym in the township Road marking
of Philippi, away from her home in Khayelitsha, thanks to Grow construction
With.
The process started in December when she emailed her CV to Philippi Information and
Grow With education project manager Lisa Voortman. She was
interviewed in January and the rest, she said, was history. communication
At her school – called Grow With Philippi Village Educare technology
Centre – two teachers supervise and play with 18 pupils aged
between two and five from 7.30am to 5.30pm on weekdays for Textiles
R300 a month. and clothing
According to census data, 21% of Philippi’s population are Cornelia Sjigaba is fulfilling her destiny to teach
between the ages of 0 and nine, and 65% of families live in Health
shacks and have an average monthly income of R2 400 a month.
At the school, the children are fed a breakfast of oats, and a children and provide much-needed childcare to
lunch of vegetables, rice, soya mince or pilchards. Furniture
Sjigaba is passionate about cultivating a love for reading in her an impoverished community in Cape Town manufacturing
charges. “It is so important that teachers play with them and
read to them. Be involved. That makes all the difference. Don’t Tradesmen
just put a child down on the floor to play with himself or business support
herself,” she said.
Her favourite part of the Grow With package?
“Where do I start? The curriculum is great. The kids are like How Grow With began to blossom Recycling
sponges soaking it up,” she said.
“I mean, you have to understand that many of these kids
don’t have puzzles or even nice mattresses to sleep on at home.” Where those
City Press interviewed Sjigaba in her office, with the walls Nine bright preschool classrooms with extras like playdough and quality child development in townships, while empowering businesses are
covered with children’s drawings. tiny, plastic tambourines are now open to the toddlers of poor women to start their own businesses.
She emphasised Grow With’s female empowerment parents in the Western Cape at just R300 a month. Female teacher candidates apply to Grow With to open a Gauteng:
component. “For me, Grow With is doing a great job. Helping Grow With opened in May last year and provides early franchise – where they are put through “a rigorous selection
give women the power to run their own businesses is incredible; childhood development facilities for two- to five-year-olds in low- process”, said Chambers. 4
and empowering women to uplift children. income areas. If approved, the women have to pay an upfront deposit of
“You know what our country is like with women always taking The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has contributed R3 000, followed by monthly franchise fees of R500 for small
a back seat,” she said. an investment of R4.9 million over three years. schools (30 children or less) and R1 000 for large schools (more
Sjigaba split from her husband in 2008 and is raising their Grow With provides qualified women with “school starter than 30 kids).
two boys alone. packs” that are aimed at improving existing schooling facilities. The true costs of the kits – about R80 000 each – are
In the classroom next to her office, teacher Lindelwa Kondlo The kits include detailed curriculums for two- to five-year-olds, shouldered by the IDC, which has committed to funding 31 Free State
from Gugulethu was minding a raucous group of two- to three- toys, activity boxes, plastic tables and chairs, mattresses, Grow With franchises over the next three years. This will benefit
year-olds. She said Lego blocks were their favourite toy and they blankets and posters with the alphabet and animals. 620 children by 2018. 1
loved to clamber on the jungle gym outside. Existing school buildings are also upgraded to meet set Parents pay R300 a month to have a toddler enrolled at a
“They are so happy to be here. Of course, sometimes they still standards. Grow With school.
fight,” said Kondlo. The children are fed two healthy daily meals. Meanwhile, Grow With mentors continue to visit and monitor
Judy Abrahams, senior local economic development manager The idea was sparked when Clothing Bank CEO Tracey the schools, and provide training and financial advice to its
at the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), says social Chambers realised her female employees were struggling to find principal, or the franchisee.
enterprise development is key to the IDC’s efforts to support the quality daycare for their babies while they worked. The Clothing The project’s vision is “to work in partnership with families North West:
transformation of communities, particularly in rural areas. Bank is a nongovernmental organisation that helps unemployed and the community to enhance the abilities and skills of the
“This is just great – creating opportunities for women to run a mothers earn money by selling clothes in Cape Town. whole child”, and to “empower qualified passionate women to 1
business, creating jobs, and giving mothers a chance to go to So, in partnership with the Grow Learning Company, fulfil their ambition to nurture and educate young children, and
work while bringing peace of mind to parents who know their Chambers came up with the Grow With model to provide create a real earning opportunity”. – Biénne Huisman
children are safe.”

How to mix business with social reform Limpopo:
1

NICKI GULES
nicki.gules@citypress.co.za

For Stuart Bartlett from the Industrial Development Corporation
(IDC), it is perfectly possible to conduct business and do some good KwaZulu-
at the same time. Natal:
The corporation’s head of development impact support rattles off 5
a list of projects that it has helped fund, projects that aren’t just
providing jobs but a community service – from mobile circumcision
clinics to supplying sanitary towels to poor teens.
“There are so many of these stories, and so many organisations
doing really good stuff, and we can only support them,” he says.
For an organisation or programme to qualify for financing from Eastern Cape:
the social enterprise fund, the IDC applies certain criteria, the first
of which is whether or not the organisation has a social or 4
environmental mission. “It should be focused on making a
difference, aside from just profit,” he says.
The organisation also needs to be a business and has to trade. It
must also be sustainable. “We would like to see the profits
reinvested into the mission. Rather than dividends be withdrawn by
the business owner and spent on a brand-new SLK, we would like GAME ON! A digital hub built by the IDC-funded BARE NECESSITIES A child who is cared for by the Western Cape:
the surpluses to go towards the mission. And to expand and grow Got-Game! Goedgedacht Trading Trust
the business,” he says. 2
In addition, to qualify for social enterprise funding, the business funded with R4.6 million, and which trains young people to weld outgrowers are being supported.”
has to be accountable to the people it serves. “There has to be a and refurbish old shipping containers for a variety of different uses, Bartlett says the main goal of the IDC’s Development Impact
mechanism to account, to assess whether the services they are including classrooms. They also manufacture outdoor gym Support (DIS) department, under which the social enterprise fund
providing are appropriate.” equipment and were recently contracted by Virgin boss Richard falls, is to ensure that marginalised people and communities are
Finally, the enterprise has to practise ethical business. “They have Branson, he says. brought into the centre of the economy.
to practise ethical behaviour and fairness. It’s about responsibility.” Also benefiting from IDC support is the Goedgedacht Trading “DIS is responsible for ensuring the achievement of various Mpumalanga:
Among the businesses the social enterprise fund has supported is Trust, which supports the Path out of Poverty programme in rural developmental outcomes, including broad-based black economic
greenABLE, a not-for-profit firm that hires unemployed previously areas in Western Cape. The programme is made up of a number of empowerment, black industrialists, youth and female empowerment, 2
disadvantaged people with disabilities to dismantle old printer projects that focus on pregnant women and future parents, others township economy, spatial inequalities, worker and community
cartridges into their plastic and metal components, and sell them to which create safe environments for children at risk, and projects trusts,” he says.
recycling companies. Of their 28 staff, 92% are women. that support them from childhood, their teen years and into early “DIS uses a number of tools, including supporting development
“The company now has great designs on manufacturing and adulthood. agencies; building partnerships between public sector, private sector,
upcycling the cartridges into new products,” says Bartlett. “They generate the money by growing olives. They have 85 communities and civil society; inclusive business development
Another of the social enterprises is Got-Game!, a company the IDC employees on the olive farm and processing plant, and 62 olive practices; and supporting social enterprises and the social economy.” THEUNS KRUGER, Graphics24