ANNA FOUNDATION FIRST TERM Highlight
Author: Anna Foundation

Well… 2022 has not disappointed us! It is fantastic to have so many events back, allowing us the opportunity to get the children out of the ordinary and into excitement!
Events have always been an important part of our programme because they inspire and motivate – not just the children, but also the staff. In fact, it is events that offer us all the opportunity to get together and partake in shared moments, to enjoy each other’s presence and take note of one another. This is so important for children to be a part of.
This year we have made our commitment to dig deep and do everything we can to help our children bridge the huge gaps created in the past 2 years. There is no mediocre in this – there is only full blast and NOW! We have taken the decision to start including pre-Grade R learners in our programmes, as we note the significant loss in their development. This is critical in ensuring that they enter formal schooling on the best footing possible.
Under Education
Along with the new year we also welcomed a fresh new face to the Anna Foundation Head Office. Marike Pieterse, our newly appointed Educational Coordinator and Project Manager, has brought along with her a rich wealth of educational experience and a contagious passion for education! This has introduced new energy to our 3 Rs programme.
With the government schools having returned to full-time after last year's COVID 19 disruptions, structure and routine has been restored at our after-schools, and this has brought along a crucial sense of safety and calm for the children. With the after-schools now open again every day from 2-5 pm, we have been able to resume facilitating our uniquely crafted Anna Foundation educational programme in full capacity.
This programme includes helping children with homework, reading and writing about certain topics, as well as various educational games and activities. This first term's topics included "My Body" and "My Family", and allowed us to have conversations around how one's body works and how to care for it, as well as how to understand and talk about family relations. Our facilitators also sought to focus on reading with individual learners, and have reported some encouraging success stories.
Thank you to Wonderdal, we also have Wonderboxes available at more of our after-schools. These boxes are filled with state-of-the-art educational resources that help make education fun and engaging.
Under Sports
With the return to a structured routine and a reduction in social-distancing rules, the children are enjoying that they can expect at least half an hour of sports activities four days week, as well as one extended session per week.
According to our Sports Manager, Fa-Eez Abrahams, the children’s discipline, respect, co-ordination and focus has improved drastically as a result of this structure. Another marked difference is that the children have begun to take more ownership of the sports activities.
Our cycling and running programmes are looking better than ever before thank you to Pep Stores, Versus Socks and Trail Fun! Pep Stores kindly donated vouchers for sports shoes, which the children have used during their cycling adventures on the pump tracks and cycling trails in their areas. Versus socks also generously donated socks to be distributed to all 500 of the Anna Foundation children to keep their feet warm and happy. The children were able to wear their funky socks at the 5km TrailFun runs they have taken part in throughout this first term.
Life Skills
Moving into the post-social-distancing age of 2022, our group drama activities have never been so important. These activities work to instil life-skills such as self-confidence, communication skills, and empathy in the children.
We have noticed a definite increase in self-confidence in the boys specifically, as they are more willing to be involved and invested. We have also noticed that the groups being made up of children of different ages has allowed the older children to develop their role-modelling and leadership skills.
Our beloved Life-skills Coordinator, Leana Claasen, has formed an integral part of the Anna Foundation team for the past ten years. She began as a facilitator at one of our projects, and was then promoted to Life-Skills Coordinator of all the projects. We now say thank for all the love she has poured into the foundation, as she leaves to become the manager of an after-care centre in Jamestown. We are so proud of the way we have seen her grow in her career over the past ten years, and wish her well as she continues to take this even further.
Women Empowerment
We now train and employ 33 rural women to facilitate our 17 after-school projects all over the Western Cape! Our three newly employed facilitators include Melisa Makillie at our Kanonkop project, Ilse Olsen at Leipzig Primary, and Tamanisha Witbooi at Nuy Stasie Primary.
We have successfully completed three of our monthly training days, where our project managers train the facilitators to implement the 3 Rs programme activities for the month ahead, as well as provide crucial resources and encouragement to do this.
For the educational component of the training, Marike has gone back-to-basics by focusing on activities that celebrate 'learning through problem solving', introducing the Key Links book series to implement shared reading strategies, and looking at educational games that test and improve the child’s ability to work with number bonds.
Trail fun in the winelands
The holistic development of rural children is the primary mission of the Anna Foundation, and taking the children on all kinds of outings works powerfully to enrich their worldviews. Thank you to Trailfun, we have already taken part in three trail running events this year !
The children from our Groot Constantia and Neethlingshof projects were able to take part on their home turfs, while those from Kanonkop took part on the nearby wine farm Bellevue. The Anna Foundation girls and boys have thoroughly enjoyed these Saturday morning challenges, and look forward to continuing taking on the trails throughout the rest of the year.
A Trip to the theatre
In this first term alone, the children of the Anna Foundation have been treated to four trips to the theatre! The Playhouse Theatre in Somerset West welcomed our younger children to a magical production of The Little Mermaid, and then later in the term, the teenagers were treated to a groovy rendition of Grease.
The Drama Factory, also in Somerset West, then put on a wonderful puppet show series called “What Did the Fox Say?”, and invited us to enjoy two foxtastic episodes!
ABSA Cape Epic
The Anna Foundation has been an official charity of the Absa Cape Epic since 2014, and this partnership has proudly continued to grow in 2022! The world-renowned mountain biking event took place this year between 20-27 March and the Anna Foundation were thrilled to be apart of it from the start at Lourensford estate, all the way to the finish line at Val de Vie.
The children of our after-schools spent many a February afternoon colouring-in and writing motivational welcome cards to be given to the riders at registration – and the riders loved them! We were also able to bring the children along to cheer on the riders, have their faces painted and enjoy the excitement of the world-renowned event.
We want to say a special thank you to the three teams that bought our charity entries, did invaluable fundraising, and rode in support of the Anna Foundation – Team Gaap, Team Bike2help, and Team Archipelago. Congratulations and thank you! We have five team entries available for the 2023 Absa Cape Epic event, so if you looking to make your Epic ride more meaningful, get in touch.
On 12 February the Anna Foundation had the privilege of being part of the Cape Wine Auction, a prestigious annual charity event organized in support of education in the Cape Winelands. With the help of our partners, we were able to put together the 'Ultimate Adventurer’s Auction Lot', including a team entry to the Swiss Epic, an elegant escape at the Hazendal Manor House, and a Helicopter trip of the Cape Peninsula!
The auction managed to raise an impressive R12 000 000, all of which will be distributed to the various educational charities of the Cape Winelands. We are proud to have been part of the event this year, and thankful to the auction for including us in the wonderful work they do!
Generosity was in the air on Saturday 12 February, as we were part of a second charity event hosted by the Carnarvon Lodge No 1735. It was a beautiful Valentines Ball hosted at the Italian Club of Cape Town, and included an exciting raffle and auction.
Thank you to Mikele Petrini from Victus Group for both organizing the event and choosing the Anna Foundation as the benefitting charity. We also want to thank our partners at Groot Constantia and Neethlingshof for donating auction prizes.