At the beginning of 2019, I wrote this blog about the potential of having new year’s resolutions that really matter. We called it #RealResolutions. At Valcare, we work with community projects on a daily basis, but much of our work are behind the scenes or behind a computer. So, as a team we made a #RealResolution to personally volunteer our time to directly serve at one of our member nonprofit organisations during 2019. After doing [...]
Since I started working as the CEO of Valcare in 2016, I've had the privilege of engaging with countless of organisations in the Cape Winelands. Xoliswa outside the small house where she runs the centre from. One of Valcare's member organisations and partners, Good Hope Day Care Centre (GHDCC), however had a particular impact on me on a very personal level. Xoliswa Mjezu started GHDCC when she realised that there is no day [...]
On World NGO Day, 27 February, we recognise and reflect on the unsung heroes in our communities. Thousands of passionate people working tirelessly to make a difference through their organisations. At Valcare we call them the #RealHeroes – people like Songelwa, Cathy, Xoliswa and Mark all supporting different causes by selflessly sacrificing to serve others. They are called #RealHeroes, because the NGO space in South Africa is not for the faint-hearted. Not only is it extremely hard work with [...]
Every year my wife and I have a Swartz-family strategic session where we review our previous year’s outcomes and discuss our goals for the year ahead. We started doing this about three years ago after realising that setting new year’s resolutions usually ended up fading into insignificance by the end of February. We wanted it to be more impactful. Gym, health and failed resolutions… When I consider all the failed resolutions of joining the gym [...]
