LOCAL company Paarl Print recently donated R10 000 to the Hope Community Centre and in addition gave them 15 computers and a collection of books.
The Hope Community Centre, part of the charity Miqlat, is situated in Paarl East.
The aim of the organisation is to provide training, housing and facilities for the ‘Dream Team’, a group of young adult learners who were selected for welfare training from severely disadvantaged, abusive backgrounds.
The trainees are provided with a place of safety, counselling and rehabilitation as well as an opportunity to study. They will then qualify as social workers who work with the community and people living with HIV.
Some of these students maintain a high level of excellence during the course of the training with many of them qualifying with distinction which is testament to the success of this pro- ject.
After they have completed their training, the learners will be allowed to further their experience in Paarl Media’s leapfrog learning centre at the Hope Community Centre.
The location of the centre in Paarl East is significant due to the high incidence of illiteracy, drugs, gangs, violence and abuse.
The Centre’s vision is to provide a safe haven where young people can gather to socialise, study, heal and participate in positive activities.
The Paarl Media Group is facilitating this through its support of a learning centre, which will include internet work stations to be used for education programmes as well as a library that will provide desperately needed reference resource material.
Says Paarl Print’s Managing Director, Michael Ehret: “One of our core services is the printing of books, including education material.
“We, therefore, feel very passionate about literacy and would like to contribute to assisting those who don’t have the access to learning resources so that they too can leapfrog stumbling blocks towards achieving greater academic and life success.”
