RISA CHARITABLE TRUST
email:info@risafund.org
web: www.risafund.org
TEL: 774.276.0202
9120 173rd Ave SE
Snohomish, WA 98290 USA
In the summer of 2004, RISA provided a small business capacity-building grant to the Pastoral Center Preschool and Crèche located in the Station Squatter Camp in Soweto, South Africa. RISA's grant provided the Center's Executive Director, Pam Mfaxa, with the management training she needed to grow the business and offer key day care services to even more families in this low-income community.
The Pastoral Center is located in one of South Africa's largest township communities. Families living in the Station Squatter Camp suffer from high levels of unemployment, domestic violence, alcoholism, and HIV/AIDS. Despite these obstacles, the Pastoral Center provides much-needed childcare to low-income families, many of which are headed by single mothers. Safe, reliable day care allows parents to seek employment outside of the home and provide their families with much-needed steady income.
The Center also offers unemployed individuals in the community, many of whom are HIV+, with income-generating projects such as sewing, shoe making and beadwork. The clothing, shoes and jewelry are then sold in the local community and to the growing tourist market developing in the area.
RISA's grant helped Ms. Mfaxa gain the management, financial and marketing skills she needed to expand the preschool and offer valuable childcare services to even more working parents. Ms. Mfaxa's new skills are also helping her manage the Center's income generating projects more efficiently and grow the number of adults who benefit from the steady stream of income provided by this program.
In 2005, RISA received an update from Ms. Mfaxa, as required by RISA, describing her accomplishments, some of which are leading to long term projects such as a much-needed new security gate for the Center. Thanks to Ms. Mfaxa's initiative and commitment to taking advantage of the skills provided by RISA's grant, the Pastoral Center's future is much more secure and promising.