In March 1998, Catholic Welfare & Development (CWD) was looking for new ways to generate an income and decided to start a second-hand bookshop. They were looking for someone to set it up and Nicky was chosen as 'the one'. She was quite apprehensive as she'd never done anything like this before so off she went to Cape Town Library and found a book on a very dusty bottom shelf on 'how to set up a second-hand bookshop' which funnily enough hadn't been borrowed for 10 years!
Nicky followed the guidance in the book to the letter and, with the help and assistance with a band of 12 volunteers the doors opened in July 1998. The bookshop went from strength to strength and grew to 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.
Left to right: Lolanda Van Romburgh, Edna Titus, Matthew Cheketri,
Nicky Antonie, Dawn Brooks
Left to right: Basil Dyanti, Theo Jacobs, Ashwin Brandt,
Dominic Bruyns