Therese Boulle - General Advisor and Development Expert
Mzukisi January - Educational Advisor
Achievements
1999 – Calabash Trust was established by Marion Gate and Paul Miedema.
2000 – Calabash Trust received the first container from Holland with school furniture.
2001 – Calabash Trust was registered as a Public Benefit Trust, with a Board of Trustees.
2001/2002 – Calabash Trust started actively funding community projects, and building capacity in these projects. Training was delivered in volunteering, financial management, administration etc.
2003 – Calabash Trust employed its 1st two staff members. Noluthando Khunjuzwa is now our General Manager.
2003 – Mark Acher, a young enthusiastic teacher from England, cycled across the UK to raise funds for Calabash Trust. He was inspired to do this after taking a township tour with Calabash Tours. He raised in excess of R100, 000 – our biggest donation at that time.
2004 – Wellington School in Ayr Scotland chose Calabash Trust as the first ever foreign charity for the year. Wellington raised over 17, 000 pounds (Over R200, 000).
2004 – Calabash Trust launched Lavela Early Childhood Development Centre in Ramaphosa Village. We partnered with NOH Architects, who assisted in designing a multi purpose centre using old shipping containers. The project has since been moved to Joe Slovo as part of the Ramaphosa relocation.
2004 – Calabash Trust and Calabash Tours won the 2004 London Times Responsible Tourism Awards at the World Travel Market in London. We received great coverage in the London Times. We won the category Poverty Relief, and were declared overall winners – beating 700 other organisations from around the world.
2004 – Calabash Trust was registered as a Non-Profit Organisation.
2005 – Calabash Trust UK (CTUK) was registered.
2006 – Marion Gate, co-founder of Calabash Trust received the Rotary Vocational Service Award for Community Work.
2006 – Reeds College, along with Calabash Trust UK, started the Grass Roots programme. Schools from the UK visit our poor township areas once a year to help build and improve sports fields, libraries and food gardens.
2006 – Paul Miedema, co-founder of the Trust received a Rotary Vocational Service Award for Community Development and Commitment and Contribution to Responsible Tourism.
2006 – Calabash Trust formed the School Cluster of Excellence – partnering with 6 primary schools from the townships, and making them the focus of our educational programmes. Today the School Cluster consists of 10 Primary Schools.
2007 – Calabash Trust now employs 5 people, all from previously disadvantaged backgrounds, and from the communities we serve.
2008 – The Dutch Ambassador attended the `100th container’ celebration of school furniture arriving from Holland.
2009 – Marion Gate was awarded the Sir Rufane Donkin award for service to the community.
2010 – Noluthando Khunjuzwa, Calabash Trust Manager chosen to attend the ‘Leadership Skills for Women in the 21st Century Short Learning Programme' at the NMMU Business School.
2010 – Board member Zilindile Tambo and General manager Noluthando Khunjuzwa were appointed to the Mayoral Committee for Education
2011 - Our friend, Tim Ellis from Face Africa and his team climbed to the top of Kilimanjaro for Calabash Trust. They raised over R50 000.
2012 - General Manager, Noluthando Khunjuzwa, chosen as finalist in the Business Women's Association's (BWA) Achiever Awards.
