Smiles, All The Way From South Africa

A couple of months ago, Justin Waples, from Waples Wines, told me about Kaapzicht Wine Estate, and how Danie Steytler and his family were educating underprivileged adults and children, and supporting families through Kaapzicht’s Farm Community - hosting “after-school-clubs”, “soccer”, and “horse riding for handicapped children”. The call to action, just reading about the wonderful work they are doing, was immense.

Having offered to schedule a free virtual school visit, Justin and Danie chuckled. I was confused, until they explained that many of the schools in South Africa did not have the resource to host an author virtually: the electricity was unreliable, interactive whiteboards and flashy computers were a luxury and a rarity, and the these farm communities were largely established because of a sheer lack of educational resource and funding. My concept of “streaming an author visit” was totally bonkers.

Despite this, Chris Stobbs, founder of worX Software, interjected, saying that “we’ll just ship a box of books to you”, and reminded me that his father, George Stobbs, was also a budding children’s author. So, worX Software and MiTEQ teamed up and shipped out a big box of The Shrew with the Flu books to Kaapzicht Wine Estate.

A couple of days later, Justin forwarded me this video, from the children.