A Few Words From Our Board Chair
One of the most rewarding aspects of my role as executive director at a private charitable foundation is partnering with wonderful organisations and people that, while focused on different challenges, ultimately share the same goal: to make our world a better place. Raise the Children (RTC) is one such organisation, steadfast in its pursuit of identifying high-potential orphans in rural South Africa who will thrive when given comprehensive academic and psychosocial support. The result: compared to the national average of low-income students, RTC scholars are 15 times more likely to attend university and 190 times more likely to graduate.
I was formally introduced to RTC in early 2018, but had heard about the great work it was doing in South Africa many years prior through professional connections to the founders, Lesego and Neil. I eagerly accepted an invitation to join the board and then, in 2021, I was honoured to be elected board chair. I now have the good fortune of working closely with RTC’s CEO Paul Horn and fellow board members as we strive to help orphans in South Africa access high-quality education, while providing comprehensive wraparound support and setting them on a path for future success. Having board members who are located in South Africa, the UK and the US and working in a range of professions brings a broad perspective to RTC, enabling us to pull many levers in our pursuit of enabling positive transformational change for our scholars and the communities they will go on to serve.
"...our wonderful team in South Africa has shepherded the organisation through this period of expansion without ever compromising on the quality of the support that we give to our scholars, improving their academic results and broadening the employment opportunities that are available to them."
Many milestones have been achieved since the organisation was founded in 2012, but what has really excited me over the past few years is the growth we have realised in terms of the number of scholars in our programme, the number of schools we partner with and the number of provinces where we now have a footprint. Impressively, our wonderful team in South Africa has shepherded the organisation through this period of expansion without ever compromising on the quality of the support that we give to our scholars, improving their academic results and broadening the employment opportunities that are available to them.
And we’re not stopping here! We know that we have a lot of work to do to empower more rural South African scholars through quality education to become thriving leaders in their communities. We also recognise that our graduates are navigating one of the most challenging employment markets in the world. Over the next five years, RTC will implement more-robust tertiary support and work-readiness programmes, as well as an intentional curriculum through which we will develop a philanthropic mindset, thus giving our scholars the tools and knowledge to use their time, talents and resources to change their communities for the better.
We can’t do this alone. Please join us and help open new doors of opportunity for our scholars and their communities. Your financial support is vital if we are to unlock the potential of rural South African orphans. As Nelson Mandela said: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. Help us enable that change.
Phil Giannecchini | Board Chair
