Books for Africa

On 27 November 2009 the SANFAN bakkie collected 21 Boxes of books from the Kirstenbosch Rotary Club. These books were kindly donated by Books for Africa, Donaldson Co. and the Kirstenbosch Rotary Club. The books were donated to the Usasazo High School Library in Site B Khayelitsha. The librarian (Mrs Faith Bikitsha) has done a wonderful job at painting and shelving the library but the shelves were very empty. Now with the 21 boxes of books the shelves are looking full at last.

Golden Future Project

From sanfan pics

The Golden Future Project is a non-profit community-based educational project aimed at providing substantial improvement in health, life skills and business skills to underprivileged youths in the Western Cape. This project seeks to provide opportunities for high school learners to increase their accessibility to tertiary education, or to be equipped with other skills required to make some other dreams come true.

We have started off the project with workshops on computer skills at Usasazo Secondary School in Khayelitsha. On Saturday mornings, approximately 40-50 Grade 10 learners come to the school’s two computer rooms for sessions on basic computer literacy, including MS word and Internet explorer. These learners have had little previous computer training or experience. With the assistance of our volunteer tutors (students from the University of Cape Town) the learners have gained many new skills, such as being able to type a basic document in Word, while the See-a-need Fill-a-Need foundation (SANFAN) kindly provides food and juice for the learners after the sessions to refresh them for the rest of their weekend.

Rock climbing!

On Saturday the 29th August SANFAN took a group of 4 boys from Ocean View rock climbing at Silvermine Nature Reserve. We taught them how to belay, do buddy checks, how to tie figure of 8 and use rock climbing gear. These kids are not any kids plucked out of the street, they are part of what is called the Life Mentoring Programme run by Cobus Oosthuizen from LifeXchange. Have a look at their website http://www.facebook.com/l/fb2a7;www.lifexchange.com but just to give you a quick outline; mentoring structures are done through adventure and extreme sports camps which builds close relationships between mentors and mentees. Cobus runs this organisation on his own with the financial support of friends and family, but he is spread thin attending to every aspect of the organisation from making tea to daily mentorship, management and running the LifeXchange camps. The need we saw is that Cobus requires some extra help taking these kids out and doing adventurous activities with them as he doesn’t have much spare time. The way we filled the need is through providing the opportunity to take them rock climbing.

We plan to do an outing with LifeXchange the last Saturday of every month, either surfing or rock climbing. But what we would like to see is this happening every weekend or second weekend and maybe working on a roster system so that it would only be one Saturday a month that you would make yourself available to help. We only need 3 people per Saturday and you don’t need to be skilful in the two sports though having some rock climbing experience will help as we will have to have someone who knows the ‘ropes’ to be there at each rock climbing event.

Please email back and let me know if you are interested in putting your name on a list of people who would like to help with this when you can and then we can contact you as the events start coming up. And if we get enough response we will put together a roster.

Maitland Children’s Home

The SANFAN foundation and the Golden Key Society visited the Maitland Cottage home on Saturday the 6th of June. We took some books with to donate to the children in the hospital for their reading pleasure..Many of the children there are there for extended periods of time after orthopaedic surgery, so their entertainment is vital. We stayed for a few hrs reading to the kids but they seemed much more interested in our phones and magic card tricks. It was a great day with the kids and they showed us lots of love, even though, they could get very demanding at times and it took a while for some of them to learn the word “please”. I hope the books will at least keep them entertained while they recover.

About us

The See A Need Fill A Need (SANFAN) Foundation was founded on the basis of the diversity of needs in South African communities. South Africa is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world, with an equally diverse history. South Africa has endured an epic journey from the Khoisan, to colonial expansion, to apartheid and the creation of a new democracy.


With this cultural and natural diversity, comes a diversity of needs within communities and the environment. There are many NPO’s operating in S.A. who specialise in specific needs. The main goal of the SANFAN Foundation is to identify needs, both social and environmental, and fill those needs in the most cost effective and practical way. Because of the diversity of needs in South Africa, a NPO which focuses on fulfilling a diversity of needs, makes both economic and social sense. Both local and international volunteers will have the opportunity to make a significant difference in South Africa, while having life changing experiences of their own.

What makes the SANFAN Foundation different is the communication and involvement with donors. Donors have the opportunity to sponsor a need which they have identified themselves or sponsor existing projects. We welcome suggestions and comments on any projects or needs that need to be filled (use the contact section to email us details on suggestions).

A tragic morning!

Early morning on Saturday the 30th of May, tragedy stuck on a beach in Kommetjie near Cape Town South Africa. A total of 47 pilot whales stranded themselves on the beach and on the rocks just near the beach. The reasons for mass strandings such as these is yet unknown. It is a “common” occurrence and has been happening way before man used sonar equipment and the like. There is still however a debate if the sonar of these magnificent creatures can be interfered with from man made noise in the ocean.

Many of the whales were dragged back into the water and off the rocks but they just seemed to swim back and just strand themselves again. It was a long, strenuous day and thanks go out to all the wonderful volunteers who helped keep these animal wet and cool. There were a few whales which stayed out (at lease we hope so) but there were still numerous whales still stranded till late afternoon when the authorities decided it would be more humane to euthanize them. I decided to leave the beach at this stage as I could not deal with watching these majestic creatures die for reasons that are so unknown to me.

Beach Clean-up

On the 23rd of May 2009 the SANFAN foundation, CPUT Student Affairs, The Green Team, the Department of Environmental Management (Environmental Health) and the Golden Key Society (UCT chapter) organised a joined beach clean-up project at Springfontein beach close to Atlantis on the west coast of South Africa. There were two bus loads of volunteers and we managed to clean up a significant part of the beach. Three hrs later the beach was sparkling clean and we had two truck loads full of trash to cart away. All the participants had a great time and were supplied with a great lunch and free transport. The next clean-up programme is planned for next month at flamingo Vlei in Tableview Cape Town. If anyone is interested in joining on this day please contact Jason Hayden on 084 551 8804.