"PAYING IT FORWARD"
TO
"To pay it forward simply means to repay a kindness received with a good deed to someone else."
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of our graduation, I think that Alex Moll's suggestion of a donation to SHAWCO makes the most sense and will be easy to do. We all know the organization from our time at medical school and many were actively involved. In addition the donation will help multiple people as opposed to just one medical student.
SHAWCO was started in July 1943 by Andrew Kinnear, a University of Cape Town (UCT) medical student, who spent the vacation driving an ambulance to earn money to pay for his medical training. He was appalled by the poverty, lack of hygiene and lack of medical facilities in areas like Kensington and Elsies River, and became determined to do something about it.
Andrew Kinnear asked Dr. Golda Selzer of the Pathology Department at Groote Schuur Hospital, to assist him in establishing a clinic. Dr. Selzer became one of the cofounders of SHAWCO and remained SHAWCO’s honorary life president until her death in 1999.
What started out as a one-person initiative has now grown into one of the largest student volunteer driven organizations on the African continent; attracting hundreds of UCT and foreign students on an annual basis. SHAWCO's sectors now include health clinics; education/academic interventions and various social entrepreneurship initiatives.
Email from Dr. Jackie Stewart to Alex Moll
May 2, 2022
Dear Alex,
I was very happy to read your email last night as we really are in need of some assistance. I think it would be useful to set up a call where we could maybe discuss some options in more depth once I have had a chance to look at the links below. The first thing that came to mind though was a minibus to transport our students to the mobile clinics and other projects. I’m not sure how much you know about the 2019 crisis that SHAWCO went through but in order to pay off its debt SHAWCO had to sell all it’s assets, including all minibuses. In 2020 we lost more of our funders (despite the fact that our Health Sector continued their work) due to Covid. RAG being an example as UCT had gone into full lockdown. GrandWest is another example of an anchor funder loss as their CSI moved away from health initiatives into their new ‘ Adopt a School’ programme.
I came on board as the Executive Director in January 2021. My key mandate was to get SHAWCO up and running again while simultaneously handling governance and SARS compliance issues. Last year we completed the two outstanding audits from 2019 and 2020, and are now fully tax compliance and in good standing once again with SARS.
In October each year a new group of student leaders gets voted in, the standard of this year’s recruits has honestly been extraordinary. They put plans and budgets together for 2022 and have been implementing them since UCT started back in February. If you look at any of SHAWCO’s current budgets, whether it’s a Health or an Education project, our biggest cost is always transport. This is because we no longer have our own SHAWCO minibuses. We have to make use of external service providers or hire UCT’s buses, all at a tremendous cost to us. Hence me saying that the biggest contribution your class could make would be a minibus.
With our 80th birthday coming up next year we have working on some fundraising campaigns to generate donations from alumni, our tag line in the video we shot last week was ‘Help us continue your legacy’. We could put SHAWCO’s logo on the minibus and an acknowledgement that this was a gift from your class. SHAWCO has been through some tough times over the past three years but we are back, out there making a tangible difference! We are however low on funds and need our extended family’s help in bringing us back to full capacity.
In answer to your question about how the funds could get to SHAWCO, we have our own bank account so it could come directly to us.
Thank you so much for thinking of us, SHAWCO needs your help now, more so than ever. My big dream is to enter SHAWCO’s 80th year with enough funds to bring us back to full capacity. Covid has ravaged our country, especially in the most resource-constrained areas that could least afford it. SHAWCO’s services are needed and our students willing.
Kind regards
Jackie
Dr Jackie Stewart
Executive Director of SHAWCO, UCT
Braemar Cottage, Medical Campus, University of Cape Town, Anzio Road, Cape Town
|www.shawco.org
So I (THK) asked her the question as to why their financial situation took a nosedive and below is her response:
The biggest downfall of SHAWCO seems to have been the social entrepreneurship endeavors that we brought in to make SHAWCO more sustainable. In order to get them up and running a large staff contingent had to be brought on board. Unfortunately the personnel costs on their own far exceeded any income generated. The SHAWCO payroll was being run through UCT with the expectation that each month SHAWCO would reimburse UCT. This didn’t happen for years and by the time the flag was raised indicating that there was a massive debt owed to UCT it was too late.
UCT did not want to see SHAWCO close, so agreed to cover the debt, but in order for them to recover some of the costs SHAWCO had to hand over it’s assets, as explained in the previous email.
These were the findings of a thorough and independent review conducted to understand what had happened and why. It essentially came down to poor management.
The Board has also been completely overhauled with us currently have a vice chancellor rep, a UCT council rep, the Deputy Dean of the FHS, a top finance expert etc. etc. We also have a new Constitution and tighter governance and financial policies and procedures in place. Another big change is that SHAWCO runs its own payroll.
Dr. Jackie Stewart
IF YOU WANT TO MAKE A PERSONAL
CONTRIBUTION DIRECTLY TO SHAWCO
SEE IMMEDIATELY BELOW
IF YOU WANT TO MAKE A JOINT CLASS CONTRIBUTION
THIS CAN BE PAID BY CREDIT CARD AND THE TOTAL WILL BE SENT TO SHAWCO
Payments so far, using this method: US$ 1,400
Number of donors so far, using this method 8
- SENT MARCH 7, 2023 BY WIRE TRANSFER ZAR26,000 -
OTHER WAYS TO GIVE BACK
TO THE MEDICAL SCHOOL
IN THE UK:
http://ucttrust.org.uk/cause/stuart-and-anita-saunders-bursary/
IN THE USA:
http://www.health.uct.ac.za/fhs/alumni/offices/uctfund
IN CANADA:
http://www.health.uct.ac.za/fhs/alumni/offices/uctcanada
IN AUSTRALIA:
http://www.health.uct.ac.za/fhs/alumni/offices/ucttrustaustralia
http://ucttrust.org.uk/cause/stuart-and-anita-saunders-bursary/
IN THE USA:
http://www.health.uct.ac.za/fhs/alumni/offices/uctfund
IN CANADA:
http://www.health.uct.ac.za/fhs/alumni/offices/uctcanada
IN AUSTRALIA:
http://www.health.uct.ac.za/fhs/alumni/offices/ucttrustaustralia
