Last week, six Cash & Rocket ladies and I, Julie Brangstrup, travelled to Johannesburg in South Africa then embarked on a long drive to the province of Limpopo bordering Botswana and Zimbabwe to visit Sumbandila, one of the three charities we support.
The focus of this year’s visit was to award five new, full scholarships to five amazingly bright children that have gone through extensive testing and achieved incredible results to gain their award. Each year, Sumbandila tests 400 children and their full scholarship will support a child’s education from age 12 to 14 all the way through University. The scholarship requires them to leave home and become weekly boarders at the Sumbandila site and provides everything for them from bed linen, blankets, toiletries, clothes, uniforms, books, transport back and forward, healthy strong nutritional food and a well-balanced pastoral and academic education, which I can confidently say is comparable to the standard of education my own children have received in the UK. It’s a truly immersive experience for the children who not only blossom academically but are given the broader life skills and outlook to allow them to utilise that education in the real world.
Cash & Rocket has supported Sumbandila since 2013 and has, throughout the years, awarded scholarships to hundreds of children. Furthermore, we have built a permanent school facility, provided transportation, clothing and educational materials for children and housing for our boarders and more recently our university students.
When we go and give the news to the students that have been awarded the scholarship it is just incredible – all the hard work we do throughout the year with Cash & Rocket is captured in that moment. The kids we have helped are all incredible in their individual ways, often bewildered and humbled by the experience and the opportunity, but always hungry to take the chance they’ve been given.
Each year I have brought one of my children with me when visiting the charities we support. I want them to see and understand what I do and why it’s so important for all of us to give back. While it’s a full-on trip and the schedule is seriously demanding, it’s an incredible adventure. I feel lucky to be able to give my kids the opportunity to meet these children, many of whom are their own age from completely different backgrounds, and to realise how lucky they are to have grown up with a roof over their head, food on the table three times a day and both parents alive and caring for them.
Six women, all participants from the Cash & Rocket Tour 2019, and their children followed the trip this year and I believe it was a genuinely life changing experience for mothers and their children alike.
Sumbandila
Sumbandila aims to transform the lives of exceptional children from the backgrounds of extreme poverty. Through its educational scholarships and mentorship program, Sumbandila aims to create entrepreneurs and leaders who will one day make a significant contribution to their own communities and to Africa. So far, 287 students have received full residential scholarships and 232 have received the Saturday school program, but our goal is to have 350 full residential students on our program a year.
The Cash & Rocket Tour 2020
If you did not have a chance to come face to face with Cash & Rocket when 80 women in 40 red cars entered Monte Carlo back in June this year during our annual fundraising tour, let me give you a brief overview of what we’re all about.
Cash & Rocket is an international community of inspiring women who, through female solidarity, try to make a tangible change by raising money for charities worldwide. Every year, 80 women travel through four cities over four days to raise awareness and funding. Every year, 50% of the drivers are newcomers so the group keeps expanding and the network keeps getting wider.
How to get involved
If you would like to participate or become a sponsor of Cash & Rocket Tour 2020 now is the time to get involved by e-mailing info@cashandrocket.com
Written by Julie Brangstrup