News

                                                                  above: learners at Ummangaliso Primary School playing chess for the first time with new sets donated by the Film Industry Fund

Julia Green is one of four student teachers at Ummangaliso Primary School in Site B Khayelitsha, and essentially they wanted to leave something at the school that would be longer lasting than a donation, which was how the idea for an extra curricular chess club started.

The club had it’s first meeting at the beginning of August 2015, with 46 children arriving to learn to play chess. Their second meeting occurred a week later, where 49 children arrived, and they all played chess for 2 hours.They plan to have meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays each week.

There are two permanent teachers who have offered to take over the project once Julia and the other student teachers’ teaching practical comes to an end.”We are also looking at getting UCT Chess Club to sponsor some chess coaches for those children who show real promise.” says Julia.

The Film Industry Fund happened to hear a call for assistance which Julia made on Cape Talk radio as although they now had a chess club, they did not have enough chess sets for all the kids. The Film Industry Fund agreed to sponsor 25 new tournament chess sets and boards which means that at least 50 kids can play chess simultaniously. It is likeminded people such as Julia whom we love to support as they go the extra mile to make a difference in their community or workplace.

The contribution which amounted to R3300,00 was made out of the communal fund of the project.

Students waiting for the chess club to start               Teachers playing chess and giving the students valuable tips.

on the 3rd of February 2015 the Film Industry Fund donated a Flatscreeen tv, dvd player, educational dvd’s & burglar bars to the Houtbay Educare centre in Hangberg.

The total value of this contribution was R15 767,00 and was allocated out of Ward 74. This allocation was done upon the request of the relevant Ward Councillor, Clr M. Haywood.

In October 2014 the Film Industry fund donated 125 tree identification tags to the Friends of Wynberg Park upon their request for
their educational programme. The total value of the donation was R5791,20 and was paid out of the Wynberg Park allocation with the approval of the Ward Councillor, Clr. Brunette.

above from left to right: Pauline McConney (Head City Parks Cape Town), Rudi Riek (Fund Administrator), Charl Marais (supervisor City parks),
Keith Hartnick (City Parks), Cllr Dave Bryant (Chairperson : Economic Development, Environment and Spacial Planning & Ward Councillor Ward 77)

The Film industry Fund allocates funds received from voluntary contributor production companies to three main categories, 50% goes to the Ward in which filming takes place, 35% is allocated to a communal fund and 15% is used for administration. The Jungle Gym built in the Upper Leeuwen street Park in the Bo Kaap this week which cost R34 235,38 was built on the recomendation of Ward Councillor Dave Bryant and was allocated out of Ward 77’s budget.

“As you would know there are many film shoots, commercials etc shot in the historic neighbourhood of Schotsche-Kloof (or ‘Bo-Kaap’ as it is commonly known). This area has traditionally been home to a working-class community and as such many of the public open spaces have not been as well maintained as some of the other parts of the ward. The City is working hard to change this though and over the past few years I have invested a great deal of ward allocation funding into the ongoing upliftment of local parks and public open spaces.

One of the greatest success stories has been the rejuvenation of the Upper Leeuwen Street Park which has gone from being a drug and crime filled dustbowl to a beautiful and functional park with a soccer pitch, new trees green grass and irrigation. Most of the old play equipment has been repainted and fixed up but the park is crying out for another piece of equipment. The City currently deals with a contractor that supplies fantastic wooden jungle gyms and we have had these sponsored in some of the other parks across the CBD. It is high time that the Bo-Kaap also had one. The wooden jungle gyms are very good for children’s development and tend to be safer than the metal ones” Cllr Dave Bryant.

The Film Industry Fund which has only been in operation for one season is already changing people’s lives in addition to being a catalyst which is changing the community’s perception of our industry. If your company is not a contributor to this fund we would like to strongly encourage you to become a part of this worthwhile project.

Deputy Principal Melanie Mabotha along with the school librarian and fund administrator Rudi Riek

Today the Film Industry Fund delivered 263 new books to the Astra School for disabled children in Montana. These books where purchased at a cost of R10 000,00 from Biblionef SA, another NGO who donate books to organisations in need. By purchasing these books from Biblionef we not only gave the Astra School good quality South African themed books but the money Biblionef generates through book sales enables them to donate more books to other causes.
Biblionef was established in France in 1989 by Max Vegelin van Claerbergen, a former Dutch ambassador. It is an international network of independent non-profit organisations and there are currently five depots worldwide – the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Suriname (South America) and South Africa, serving children worldwide with book donations.
The South African organisation is the only one on the African continent and came into being in 1998, with the financial assistance of the international Biblionef body and the government of the Netherlands. Its overarching goal is to provide access to good storybooks to children.
Biblionef SA is a NPC (non-profit company) that operates according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) Book Donation Charter.
This donation was made out of the communal fund and was a suggestion by our friends at Reach for a Dream.

Some of the kids getting ready for a story in the library

Photo courtesy of Biblionef SA showing examples of some of the titles given to the Astra School today

Fund Administrator Rudi Riek with Melody Volmink (Trainer and resource coordinator at Help2read)

help2read is a developmental organisation which was founded in 2005. Although their beginnings were based on an established UK child literacy charity, over the years the programme has been adapted to meet the needs of South African society. help2read is working to address national development in South Africa in two ways.

Firstly, help2read addresses child literacy, a key component to national development. help2read works in public primary schools with learners in grades 2-4 who are struggling with literacy. They pair each learner with a trained volunteer from the community who provides twice weekly one-on-one tutoring.

Secondly, help2read address the lack of skills development and unemployment statistics within the adult South African population. They are currently piloting a version of their programme in which we specifically recruit literate, unemployed adults. This pilot includes extended skills development trainings and other incentives for their Literacy Tutors who then in turn help a larger amount of struggling learners than those volunteers in our standard programme.

help2read currently operates in communities throughout the Western Cape and parts of Gauteng using a largely volunteer workforce. We are currently active in 100s of schools and have helped thousands of children. We are actively working on expanding our programme to the more rural provinces of South Africa.

The Film Industry Fund today donated R30 000,00 to Help2read which will be used at the Sid.G Rule Primary School in Grassy Park. The money is enough to identify 25 learners with reading challenges who will be given two half hour individual reading lessons per week for one full year.

This donation was part of the communal fund within the Film industry Fund which is earmarked to be used in previously disadvantaged areas only.

The Samaritan Fun School of Dance is a community project based in Woodstock. The Dance School provides free dance classes to the community on a weekly basis.

The councillor for Ward 57, Councillor Brett Herron requested that the funds available for his ward in the Film industry Fund be donated to the Samaritan Dance school. These funds will be used to purchase a new sound system and pay some of the expenses incurred by the dance teacher, Mr Andrew Bennett.

Left and below: some of the students at the dance school.

“We have an estimated of 82 students in this programme in ward 57. These kids come from broken home backgrounds, families that have been torn apart due to substance abuse, alcohol abuse and also a reflection on them as to what they have gone through in life, thinking that they cannot create a better future for their kids.” says Mr. Bennett

“There are limited recreational programmes
and facilities available to the inner City
communities of District Six and Woodstock
and I whole-heartedly endorse the
Film Fund supporting the programmes financially”
says councillor Brett Herron.

a Total or R6 375,00 which was allocated to ward 57 was handed to the Samaritan School of Dance by the Film industry Fund.

This is the second contribution made by the fund since it’s inception late last year, the first being a donation of computer equipment valued at R37 000 to the Baphumelele Waldorf Foundation. There are at least six other large projects which are all at the final approval stage and will be rolled out in coming weeks.

The Film Industry Fund NPC is registered with the department of Social services as a
non Profit Organization and is currently supported by 27 production companies in Cape Town
and the hope is that in time to come all the major production companies who film on location
in Cape Town will become a part of this initiative.