On a mission to help local communities
The Small Projects Foundation (SPF), based in Southernwood, has been in operation for over 30 years and continues to pursue its mission helping local communities.
It's core focus is to improve the lives and livelihoods of poor and disadvantaged communities through empowering them with knowledge, support and access to services,” said SPF CEO Paul Cromhout.
SPF, said Cromhout, focuses on four key fields: healthcare, education, social services and small enterprises.
We look particularly at
“primary healthcare in terms of empowering poor people across the Eastern Cape with knowledge and information on how to maintain their health and stay healthy and thrive in their communities,” Cromhout said.
For example, SPF has a number of projects aimed at preventing HIV/Aids transmissions as well as combatting the spread of TB.
In the education field, SPF works alongside Masithethe Counselling Services to provide mental health services to students.
They have also partnered with Norway-based investment company Kistefos to provide a number of projects such as the Kistefos Sinako Academic and Leadership Project, which aims at empowering principals, school governing bodies (SGBs), management teams, staff, learners and the community.
When it comes to supporting small enterprise development, Cromhout said they assisted in offering micro-MBA training to local businesses.
It's a seven-module, five
“day kind of training that helps you identify what your market is, what products you should be selling, how much they cost, what you should sell them for, how to manager your money and all those things,” he said. Many small businesses
“
have actually closed during this Covid-19 time and we're now supporting the restarting of many of the surviving small enterprises.”
Finally, SPF supports a number of programmes aimed at assisting social services. We've got an emergency
“
response team of two social workers who are available 24 hours a day and we've got a call centre that benefits all of our
benificiaries.”
To find out more about the SPF, visit their website at www.spf.org.za or contact their call centre at 080-006-0010.