About Us
OUR HISTORY
Help the Rural Child Charity Shops actually has its origins in Catholic Welfare and Development (CWD). In 1998 CWD was looking for new ways to generate an income and decided to start a second hand bookshop. The perfect location was found in Mowbray: A two storey new restored Victorian building on Durban Road’s very busy corner. The bookshop opened its doors on 1 July 1998 with a shop manager and 12 valiant volunteers. The bookshop went from strength to strength and grew to eventually include the second floor.
In 2006, a decision was made to become independent of CWD and Help the Rural Child Trust was formed to support rural children through the Goedgedacht Trust. By 2007, a second shop had opened. This time it was a clothing and bric-a-brac shop on the ground floor of the Mowbray Bookshop and, this too, became a success.
Help The Rural Child Charity Shops has grown to presently include seven retail shops, a mobile bookshop and an online children’s bookshop. With the continued enthusiastic support of the public, we can continue with this well-loved initiative.
OUR VALUES
Taking initiative acknowledging the accountability structures and systems of Help The Rural Child
At each department and between departments
The saving grace
Expressed in relationship skills such as creating a welcoming environment; openness to diversity; enthusiasm and being articulate
As first response and only after careful consideration and assessment
Knowledge of what we are working towards, our goal and purpose.
Flexibility that can be described as the ability to ‘think on your feet’ or ‘going the extra mile’
Creativity that expresses itself in developing a creative eye for displaying and organising merchandise in the outlets and in thinking about how to draw customers to the outlets.
OUR TEAM
Head Office
Left to right: Lolanda Van Romburgh, Edna Titus, Matthew Cheketri,
Nicky Antonie, Dawn Brooks
Drivers
Left to right: Basil Dyanti, Theo Jacobs, Ashwin Brandt,
Dominic Bruyns
Help The Rural Child funds part of the Goedgedacht Trust
To meet the challenges faced by rural communities, the Trust developed and implemented a creative and sustainable flagship, Path Onto Prosperity (POP) Program, catering to the needs of children at different stages of their lives, starting with the first 1 000 days until adulthood, which include: early childhood development and care – First Thousand Days (FTD), afterschool care, leadership academy, community gardens.