It has been a number of years since I last raised funds to support young women in South Africa to complete their school or university studies. Over the years we have had a number of successes and most of the young women complete their studies and move on to lead interesting and fulfilling lives in what is still a difficult and painful environment.

You will be pleased to hear that the first recipient of the fund, Vuyelwa Mtolo, has a degree and teaching diploma and is now working as the first black English teacher in a private school in KwaZulu Natal. Her life-changing educational opportunities also took her to Taiwan for 2 years to teach English. As an orphan with no funds, her life would have been very different had she not been referred to us from her school.

The fund is now helping a young girl, Mbali Ndlovo and her sister Thandi from Alexandra Township. Mbali is attending a private school in Johannesburg. She has settled down and has 3 more years to matriculate and will need to be supported for that time - and beyond if possible. We have sufficient funding to complete this academic year.

Additionally, we have become aware of Siyamamkela Vayeka (Siya) who is living with relatives in the Eastern Cape. After her mother died she lived with her grandmother who passed away last year. She now lives with relatives of her father in a village in a rural area. Her father, like many people in the area, is unemployed.

Siya is in Grade 11 and will need help for this year and next. She needs money for uniforms and attendance at after-school programmes which is a requirement. She also needs a monthly allowance for mobile data to process her homework and transport to and from school.

Siya is studying Economics, Business Studies and Accounting and wants to ‘a leader in the business industry’.

As you know The Caitlin Fund is a Gumboots Project and any help you can give would be greatly appreciated by all of us at Gumboots but especially by these 2 young women. The fund has assisted a teacher, a medic, an artist and an agricultural sciences graduate.

You can pay on this site but if you wish to, you can contribute directly to our bank account. Please write to me at margzgreen@gmail.com for details.

Thanking you in advance

Margz and the Gumboots team