Plans to help revive the Miriam Makeba Centre for Girls are under way after being shut down in 2018.
Established in 2002, the huge piece of land in Glen Austin, Midrand, was left vacant when the centre shut down due to “non-compliance” by the old board that allegedly mismanaged the place.
Fast forward to 2022, with a new board in place, a charity golf day event will be held in August to raise funds to get it up and running again.
Speaking to TshisaLIVE, the chair of the Miriam Makeba Centre for Girls, reality TV star Thato Mokhothu, said much restoration was needed and that had fuelled them to fundraise.
“We want to restore the centre which is currently not operational, we've done quotations to get it up and running again ... we need funds, as much as we're writing to the private sector, we also don't want to come empty-handed.
“We have to fix the staircases in order for the girls to access their bedrooms upstairs ... once the staircase has been fixed and we've renovated and painted the place the social development will give us the go-ahead to open the centre again.”
Thato said they decided to partner with actor Thato Molamu who has an initiative to get young township girls involved in golf.
“We believe Mariam Makeba has fought for us women to be involved in such sport that was considered to be for white people. Now we can proudly say we are golf players. She used her voice to sing and to alert the world about the situation in SA.
“The aim is that even when the girls are staying at the centre, they are still exposed to golf. Mariam Makeba was very passionionate about young girls, especially those that come from abusive environments. With the centre, she wanted to give them a home environment, provide the girls with professional counselling ... life skills development services to enable them to be self-sufficient.”
Besides the golf day event, Thato says there are more events in the pipeline to help raise funds.
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Charity Golf day set to help revive the Miriam Makeba Centre for Girls
Plans to help revive the Miriam Makeba Centre for Girls are under way after being shut down in 2018.
Established in 2002, the huge piece of land in Glen Austin, Midrand, was left vacant when the centre shut down due to “non-compliance” by the old board that allegedly mismanaged the place.
Fast forward to 2022, with a new board in place, a charity golf day event will be held in August to raise funds to get it up and running again.
Speaking to TshisaLIVE, the chair of the Miriam Makeba Centre for Girls, reality TV star Thato Mokhothu, said much restoration was needed and that had fuelled them to fundraise.
“We want to restore the centre which is currently not operational, we've done quotations to get it up and running again ... we need funds, as much as we're writing to the private sector, we also don't want to come empty-handed.
“We have to fix the staircases in order for the girls to access their bedrooms upstairs ... once the staircase has been fixed and we've renovated and painted the place the social development will give us the go-ahead to open the centre again.”
Thato said they decided to partner with actor Thato Molamu who has an initiative to get young township girls involved in golf.
“We believe Mariam Makeba has fought for us women to be involved in such sport that was considered to be for white people. Now we can proudly say we are golf players. She used her voice to sing and to alert the world about the situation in SA.
“The aim is that even when the girls are staying at the centre, they are still exposed to golf. Mariam Makeba was very passionionate about young girls, especially those that come from abusive environments. With the centre, she wanted to give them a home environment, provide the girls with professional counselling ... life skills development services to enable them to be self-sufficient.”
Besides the golf day event, Thato says there are more events in the pipeline to help raise funds.
Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.
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