01 July 2021

Dedicated community heroes awarded R 150 000 in Old Mutual Sisonke docuseries competition

Submitted by: samantha
Dedicated community heroes awarded R 150 000 in Old Mutual Sisonke docuseries competition

Africa is a continent in which thousands of unsung heroes, who, despite the threat of the Covid-19 pandemic, have continued giving of themselves to their communities. Recognising the achievements of three South Africans who entered the Old Mutual Sisonke competition has seen their contributions to society being acknowledged with a cash award of R 150 000.

The three local winners were drawn from 26 local entries, while Old Mutual in Malawi, Kenya and Zimbabwe also provided three winners per country, with equivalent prize money in local currencies.

The South African winners are: JumpStart Foundation which will receive R 100 000 for their Gauteng NGO initiative aimed at improving critical foundational skills in mathematics, robotics, and coding. The runners up, who will each receive R 25 000 are Goedgedacht Trust whose initiative has created several interlinking programmes within their Path Onto Prosperity (POP) programme. The programme caters to the needs of children and equips them with opportunities to become healthy, self-confident, educated, and skilful members of their communities. The other entrant that caught the attention of the judges was Helping Hearts And Hands Foundation whose initiative serves as a community resource centre in the Western Cape offering social good programmes to disadvantaged communities that range from food and health through to empowerment programmes.

“Old Mutual’s purpose is to champion mutually positive futures for everyone. We salute all who took the time to enter our competition and the many others who did not but stayed active in their communities. They are the people who address challenges, roll up their sleeves and get going. They are heroes who deserve our thanks and support,” says Thobile Tshabalala, Head of Brand at Old Mutual.

The winners were selected from a field of entries in which everyday heroes shared their projects and contributions to their communities via 90 second social media video submissions. Their videos can still be viewed via the Old Mutual YouTube page here: https://bit.ly/3vS4744.