Samara Foundation works together with Parceval in making sure that benefits flow back into harvesting communities and offers this opportunity to other businesses that want to make a greater social impact through community projects.

Samara’s current point of entry is working with under-resourced Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres. Not only has this been recognised as a crucial area that needs strengthening in South Africa, Samara also believes that intervening at this point can make the largest impact within a community. Early childhood lays the foundation for success at school, which in turn leads to higher chances of completing school and being able to break the cycle of poverty within a family.

The support given to ECD centres starts with material assistance: infrastructure is improved and they are equipped with the needed resources to create a safe, healthy and welcoming space. The second phase of support is to work with the teachers and make sure they have the skills and support to run a quality ECD programme.

The centres also provide a good base from which other community projects can be implemented and already we have seen how our involvement at this level can create ripple effects.

Since we have started this work we have also facilitated a visit by a group of Austrian youth to one of our ECD centres, partnered on the fundraiser Africa Run for the year 2019 and created our own network of individuals and organisations across South Africa and elsewhere.