SPAR International is once again running an end-of-year, Seasonal Greetings Card campaign aimed at supporting a local children’s charity in a country in which SPAR operates. Last year, the charity of choice was a voluntarily manned migrant family school foundation located in Guangdong province, China. This year, the charity receiving support is the Gozololo Day Care Centre in South Africa.

Launched in 2016 for the first time, the campaign encourages children from the chosen charity to enter an art competition to design SPAR International’s Seasonal Greetings Card. In return, the charity receives a financial donation from SPAR International.

The Gozololo Project & SPAR South Africa’s support

The primary site of Gozololo is situated a few miles away from the SPAR KwaZulu Natal Distribution Centre (a division of The SPAR Group LTD of South Africa). SPAR has supported Gozololo with the provision of both dry and perishable groceries for over 13 years as part of its community involvement programme.

In 1997 at the height of the HIV Aids epidemic in South Africa, many children were orphaned and left destitute and homeless. Mirriam Cele, a retired community worker who lives in KwaMashu township outside of Durban, became involved in trying to find foster mothers and a home environment for these abandoned children. She also identified the need to create a day care centre so that these children could get educational, emotional and nutritional support. A piece of land (previously a rubbish dump) was donated to her, which resulted in the birth of the Gozololo Day Care Centre.

Gozololo, which is the Zulu term for ‘stay a while’ or ‘rest a while’ has expanded to three sites in the greater Durban area and currently provides support for approximately 600 children. The Centre has broadened its focus to support not only orphaned children, but also children from destitute households. The Centre has a creche and preschool facility for the youngest children. Once the children are of school-going age they attend a local school and visit the Day Care Centre in the afternoons where they are supplied with a hot meal and assistance with their homework. The Centre is based on the concept that destitute and orphaned children should be supported within their communities and form part of a family unit.

SPAR International’s 2017 Seasonal Greetings Card

This year’s Seasonal Greetings card was designed by Sthobile Mpanza, who was first brought to the Gozololo Day Care Centre as an infant. Although she has graduated from junior school and is now attending high school, she is still provided with after school support and food by the Centre.

We congratulate and thank Sthobile for the wonderful design of this year’s card. In return, SPAR International has donated €3,000 to Gozololo, which will be used to provide children with early educational materials.

We would further like to thank SPAR KwaZulu Natal for supporting this initiative.

Responsible Retailing at SPAR

To read more about SPAR’s focus on responsible retailing click here or see more Responsible Retailing Partner initiatives in our pressroom.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from SPAR International!