In an interview with General Solly Zacharia Shoke, Chief of the SANDF regarding women serving in the SANDF and taking care of their children: ‘When you empower a child, you empower a nation!’ This belief and drive by General Shoke has resulted in an Educational Trust being formed by the SANDF…
In an interview with General Solly Zacharia Shoke, Chief of the SANDF regarding women serving in the SANDF and taking care of their children: ‘When you empower a child, you empower a nation!’
This belief and drive by General Shoke has resulted in an Educational Trust being formed by the SANDF in October 2013. The Trust was established, because of the SANDF having lost 15 members in the Central African Republic. These were young soldiers with children and the realization set in that the Defence Force did not have the resources to take care of these orphans. General Shoke decided to form this Educational Trust to take care of the children whose parents died in combat while on official duty after 27/04/1994.
“Education is a gift for life, especially when the family unit is compromised and a parent dies in honour and service to one’s country!” says General Shoke
After launching the Education Trust in 2013, a golf day was organized and the awareness started growing towards contributions to the trust. People heeded to the General’s call and were very generous in donating. To date, more than 100 kids have benefitted in both receiving primary, secondary and tertiary education.
In 2017 SANDF for the first time ever hosted a golf day exclusively for women. The focus of this event was to raise funds and awareness to this very noble cause, the SANDF Education Trust. ‘We will be glad if we can get more sponsors to look after our soldiers because those soldiers that die in combat, die in service to the nation. They pay a huge sacrifice. You go into situations and you know you might not come back alive, that’s the price we are paying for service to this nation. Hence, I am appealing to all South Africans to adopt the Defence Force and to those that can afford it, we will appreciate if they can contribute to the Education Trust.” Reiterated by General Shoke.
General Shoke’s all Ladies golf day 2017/18 serves as a great networking opportunity between women from a myriad of backgrounds and industry but all proceeds generated from this event will be donated towards the SANDF EDUCATION TRUST.
