ATHLONE
TUESDAY 15 December 2020 | Tel: 021 910 6500 | Email: post@peoplespost.co.za | Website: www.peoplespost.co.za
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People’s Post
HAZENDAL
Couple named heroes SAMANTHA LEE-JACOBS SAMANTHA.LEE@PEOPLESPOST.CO.ZA @SAMANTHA_LEE121
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tanley and Vivienne Swartz, founders of Breaking Barriers Community Outreach in Hazendal, have been named community heroes by the Nedbank Foundation, in the spirit of Ubuntu. Along with several other organisations in the country, they had been named local heroes, but their work in community upliftment has also bagged them a second title of Community Hero. The awards form part of the foundation’s Mandela Day Community Heroes awards and is a Nedbank Corporate Social Investment initiative which also encourages staff to get involved in community-based projects. Banker Walter Daniels nominated Breaking Barriers Community Outreach for the additional award, of which only five awards were handed out. More than 80 local heros were nominated for the awards. The local hero award comes with a R15 000 prize and an additional R20 000 for becoming a community hero. Daniels says: “Previously this would be done in a gala event, where all nominees would be at one function, but because of Covid-19, it was left up to the bankers who nominated the organisations to do the handover.” This is the first time since 2010, where an Athlone-based community organisation has benefited. Bokmakierie Primary School principal Michele Pinto says the organisation truly is breaking barriers. He says children cannot learn on an empty stomach and thanks to the feeding efforts of the organisation, their children are cared for. Their premises in Jonathan Road, Hazendal was once a night club and later served as the little Athlone Library. Since taking over the premises, it has now become a feeding scheme and hub for skills development, such as welding and sewing. “Nedbank asked us to be the leaders of this initiative. They said that we live in these communities so we know who the organisations are and what the challenges are,” says Daniels. “We looked at organisations who continued their work, despite Covid-19.”
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Stanley and Vivienne Swartz, founders of Breaking Barriers Community Outreach have been named community heroes. PHOTOS: SAMANTHA LEE-JACOBS
Like many other community organisations, often Breaking Barriers founders needed to dig into their own pockets to make ends meet. Vivienne says they would not have been as successful as they are without the support of their team of volunteers and workers. The shock was evident on their faces when they were announced as the recipients of the second award. On acceptance of the award, Vivienne thanked Daniels for believing and trusting in them and the work they do. The organisations were put through rigorous audits of their books and operations ahead of the awarding of the money and titles.
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The team behind Breaking Barriers Community Outreach, with banker Walter Daniels (centre).
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