| LOVE TO GIVE NEWSLETTER | JULY 2025 |
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| Pictured above: Asiphe Cosa, who we all know as Sips, is one of the course facilitators on the Love to Give Citizen Connect program. |
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| Sips’ earliest memory of Love to Give is of the excitement she felt every day after school as she and her friends ran to join the queue for sandwiches. She jostled with her friends trying to be the first to get to the front of the queue. She loved the peanut butter sandwiches and fruit, and also the special days when there were extra treats when she took part in the holiday programmes and the group games. |
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Giving back
to the community
that raised her
Sips moved from Ikaya primary to the Kayamandi High School. She did well at school and went on to the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) where she studied business. Her final year at CPUT was the year of a bad drought in the Western Cape. Saving water was a necessity, there were severe water restrictions and the real danger that the city of Cape Town would run out of water before the next rains came.
When Sips came home to Kayamandi she was struck by the lack of awareness about water scarcity and the general negligence – car wash businesses were still using hoses and communal taps were left running. She had always felt that she wanted to give back to the community that had raised her and decided that if someone should do something it might as well be her!! This was the stimulus she needed to start her plumbing business in Kayamandi. |
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| In 2019 she felt she wasn’t doing enough to give back to the community and visited Jacques Treadway, the Manager at Love to Give. She told Jacques about her vision to educate people about water usage and the need to conserve water and he enabled her first session teaching the Love to Give beneficiaries about Active Citizenship. The group she spoke to said that as water was free they just didn’t think about it but were happy to be learning more about it. After this session, and in line with Love to Give’s aim to use local Kayamandi businesses where possible, Sips started doing some plumbing work for us. |
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Plumbing Classes
in the Citizen Connect
Programme
When our Citizen Connect program started, Sips ran plumbing classes for our beneficiaries. Her first plumbing class project was to fix the problems with the Ikaya Primary Grade R bathroom. |
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| Learning to run a small business |
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| In early 2024, Sips was sponsored by Love to Give to do the Micro MBA Facilitator Training and become one of our Business Course facilitators.
Sips loved doing this course. She had studied business science at CPUT but it hadn’t really helped her with the many challenges she experienced, running her own small business, as it was very theoretical. The Micro MBA helped her with practical ways to solve the problems she was experiencing in her own business. The personal budget section helped her to keep her business and personal expenses separate. Having a sales target gave her the motivation to grow her business and enabled her to know how much work she needed to do to achieve her goals. She learned how to manage her business’s money and improve her cash flow. She now teaches the Business Bridging course to all our beneficiaries. She says that teaching the course helps her to practice what she is preaching. |
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| Being part of the team
at Love to Give really
warms my heart
She feels a sense of accomplishment being part of the team at Love to Give and finds it fulfilling to give back to the community that raised her. She is happy to be a role model and to let the children in the queue for sandwiches know that she was once there too. |
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| As Sips says:
“Love to Give has grown over the years from the key focus being about nutrition to now making so much of a difference in so many peoples’ lives. Getting up and
going to work to be part of the team really warms my heart.” |
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Exercise & Healthy
Eating Programme
One of our goals in 2025 is to assist our staff and beneficiaries to live healthier lives. We decided to start the process with our team.
In April 2025 we approached Professor Karen Welman, Head of the Movement Science and Exercise Therapy Department at the University of Stellenbosch. She was really helpful and immediately assigned Dr Hayley Velayuadam, a biokinetisist, to Love to Give to introduce an exercise and wellness programme for all our staff pro-bono. Professor Welman will also enable university students to help us in the future. |
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Exercising together as a team
Hayley developed an exercise program for our team and comes once a week to demonstrate a new set of exercises. The team exercises together each day at 4pm. The team keeps food diaries, measure themselves and Love to Give provides rewards for results. |
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| How does our team feel now? |
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| “The exercise programme has really been an eye opener for me. I always wanted to lose weight I just didn’t know where to start seeing how dangerous it is jogging in the community and I couldn’t afford to pay for the gym.
At first it was difficult because I had to relive certain traumas growing up I got bullied a lot about my weight. Every week I got to lose 1 kg each week in total was 5 kg although it took time I’m still at it, it’s better than gaining. Seeing the results and energy I had ever since I started is what gave me the courage to keep going. I felt ashamed having to gym but my team gave me the love and support I needed in order to keep going.
Having to eat healthy was one of the most difficult things having to unlearn certain habits. Knowing healthy eating doesn’t really require you to not eat at all but cutting down starch as well as eating small portions. Knowing all of us are eating healthy at the office, we were able to hold each other accountable. I really enjoy it a lot more now because the more you do it, the more you get used to it.”
“I’m really grateful to be part of the experience.” |
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| “Having support from my workplace and colleagues motivated me to stay on track. Focusing on nutrition and exercise helped me feel better overall.” |
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| “It is hard to eat healthily when you live with people who are not part of your journey but if you are really determined you can find ways to make things work. I found that healthy eating is very beneficial for my wellbeing. It was also exciting finding new and creative ways to make healthy meals. Healthy meals do not have to be complicated.” |
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| “Initially, adjusting my eating habits posed a challenge, especially since I had to cut out some of my go-to foods that weren’t healthy. However, participating in this journey with others has been incredibly motivating. Sharing meals and encouraging each other helped us all stick to our goals. This experience has taught me a great deal and made me appreciate the value of healthy eating.” |
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| “Seeing the results and energy I’ve had since I started is what gave me the courage to keep going – my team gave me the love and support I needed.” |
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| “The journey so far has been both transformative and rewarding. Beyond the physical results, I feel more energetic, confident, and motivated to continue pushing forward.
This progress marks an exciting milestone, and I’m looking forward to building on it in the weeks ahead. Thank you for assisting with my training—your support has played a key role in helping me to stay focused and reach my goals.” |
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| Love to Give is a non-profit organisation and will issue Section 18A tax certificates for donations received from both individuals and organisations. As a Public Benefit Organisation, donations are tax-deductible. |
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Donate via EFT
Bank: ABSA
Acc. Name: Stellenbosch Community Development Programme
Acc. No: 406 384 1099
Branch Code: 632005
SWIFT Code: ABSAZAJJ |
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| Thank you for your interest and your support.
With warm regards and many thanks,
Annabel and the team at Love to Give |
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