Students in the Professional Secretarial Learning Programme have renovated and donated food, R18 000 and equipment to the Heaven’s Shelter House in Mitchell’s Plain.
The shelter cares for 95 women and children affected by violence, neglect and abuse.
The students are secretaries and personal assistants in various departments of the Western Cape Government who enrolled in the course at CPUT to advance their careers.
As part of the course, the group of 40 students were required to complete a project management assignment.
After visiting various shelters, the group adopted the Heaven’s Shelter House and renamed themselves Heaven’s Helping Hands and began raising money and asking for donations of food, toiletries, toys and baby clothes.
The Department of Agriculture donated soil, seedlings, garden tools including a hosepipe and provided two of its officials to provide garden training to some people identified at the shelter to ensure responsibility.
The department also arranged annual sponsorship of vegetables and fruit from its contacts.
The students publicized the project on radio stations and a Facebook page was created.
On the outreach day the students built a sandpit on which the children can play and renovated the shelter. They also donated six computers to the shelter.
The course is offered by the Graduate Centre for Management which is housed in the Faculty of Business and Management Sciences at CPUT.
