Wesbank, changed by the Recycle Swop Shop

December 10, 2013 / by admin / Make A Comment / Filed under Swop Shop

Community volunteers

We’ve had a great year at Wesbank No. 1 Primary school where we have been running the Recycle Swop Shop since March 2013. Our partnership with the school and the Head Master Mr Greg Gordon have been amazing, also our team of project leaders from TMF, Save All and Recycle 1st have insured this project has been a success.


Effects on the community
A small smile, a big step!
There is a little boy, Maxwell; he is eight years old but sadly has the body of a 4 year old. He regularly comes with his recycling to swop shop and on the 4th of December, the last day of Swop Shop, he brought his parents to meet us and for the first time we saw him smile!! 🙂 It was a very proud smile! We are so touched by the children and community at Wesbank No.1 primary school and we continue to see how their lives are being changed.

We’re seeing an increase in the amount of plastic being collected and the learners and community are enthusiastic and understand the general workings of this project. We are seeing an increasing amount of older folk attending swop shop and this is certainly encouraging in terms of educating the younger members of the family and also in terms of providing for the needs of the older generation.

The learners make up the majority of the participants at Swop Shop and at our last collection day there were over 250 children! There is a real social buzz at swop shop in Wesbank and it’s wonderful to see the ladies meeting each other and discussing not only recycling issues but also their home groups and get togethers. One lady made a comment that Wesbank has never been so clean. That’s so great to hear!

Lollypops given to all!

Thank you to Brenda Evans and Sybil Vermeulen, who generously donated 1000 lolly pops to hand out to the children attending the Recycle Swop Shop at Wesbank no 1 primary school and Inkwenkwezi secondary school.


The total recyclables collected from March to November 2013:

Provided by Recycle 1st

Teacher & staff lunch at Inkwenkwezi, Du noon.

December 3, 2013 / by admin / Make A Comment / Filed under Swop Shop

The teacher and staff were thrilled with their goodie bags!

What a wonderful morning we all had yesterday! Beyond Education loves to bring upliftment and change to our schools and we were able to make a difference to these hard working Teachers and Staff at Inkwenkwezi secondary school in Du noon by treating them to lunch, refreshments and goodie bags. The school was further treated to Kalahari.com book vouchers for the school library and thanks to Columbus Chemicals generous donation, we were able to give 75L of liquid hand soap.

Maria's presentation on the Recycle Swop Shop

The morning started with a short presentation given by Maria van der Westhuizen about the Recycle Swop Shop. Maria shared progress and statistics from 2013, exciting plans for 2014 and tips on how the teacher’s can participate & get involvement with this project.

Louise presenting the photo collage of Recycle Swop Shop 2013

Louise Vonofakidis presented the school with a beautiful collage of some photos taken at Recycle Swop Shop during the year. Thank you to Danielle Vonofakidis for her lovely art work.

Mr Kutu and Seti, TLO

It was all smiles and applauds from the Teachers and Head Master, when the liquid soap from Columbus Chemicals, was given to the school. Thank you to Columbus Chemicals for their generous donations and support of our project.

Kalahari.com book vouchers for the school library from Beyond Education

Maria van der Westhuizen presented Mr Kuku with the library book vouchers from Beyond Education. This was received very gratefully and another huge applause broke out among the teachers and staff.

Mr Kutu, Head Master thanking Beyond Education

Mr Kutu thanked Maria and Louise for their hard work and for the partnership with Beyond Education. He encouraged this staff to get involved and embrace the project.

Goodie Bags

50 goodie bags were then given to all the teachers and staff at Inkwenkwezi secondary school. Thank you to Woolworths, City of Cape Town, Community Chest and De Fayebosch for their generous donations. Everyone was very excited and thrilled!

De Fayebosch platters, yummy lunch!

Thank you to Welma, De Fayebosch for the delicious platters and lavender bags. The teachers and staff finally tucked into their lunch and really enjoyed it!

In the media with Inkewenkwezi Recycle Swop Shop

November 19, 2013 / by admin / Make A Comment / Filed under Swop Shop

Table Talk

We’ve loved all the articles that have been written about the Recycle Swop Shop at Inkwenkwezi Secondary School, Du noon and we wanted to say a special Thank you to our supports in the media.

Read these articles to learn more about this project. The Green Times

Success at Inkwenkwezi in Du noon!!

October 23, 2013 / by admin / Make A Comment / Filed under Swop Shop

This lady brought 26 bags of plastic and was given 78 tokens! Well done!

The Recycle Swop Shop at Inkwenkwezi Secondary School in Du Noon has been runner for 6 weeks and we have been so impressed by how quickly the community of Du Noon have returned.

We opened up in our new location at Inkwenkwezi Secondary School after being closed for 8 months. Mr Kutu, the Head Master and the teachers have so supportive towards our project and the learners are slowly attending and with the help of our Waste Awareness Assemblies, we are hoping to increase their participation. We questioned a few of the learners and they tell us their mother’s are attend and bring the recycling.

A huge thank you to one of our main sponsors Africa Floor Care! They also provide us with washing up liquid, bleach, handy cleaners and disinfectant that our ladies at Swop Shop love!

Here are the stats for 10th September to 22nd October 2013:
Total Recyclables collected in Weight: 3770kg
Total number of days : 6
Total number of participants : 443
Total number of token handed out : 7966
That’s an average of 1 person = 9kg = 18 tokens

Its been lovely seeing our regular ladies again and catching up on the past 8 months. Babies have been born, some ladies are expecting and toddlers have started creche.

Soninke Combrinck, an Intern from The Green Times visited us yesterday. Thank you for visiting Soninke, and we look forward to reading your article and seeing all your photos.

Ladies swapping at the Recycle Swop Shop Du Noon

If you would like to make any donations to the Recycle Swop Shop, please read our Donations Policy Document.

Launch at Inkwenkwezi Secondary School Du noon

September 17, 2013 / by admin / Make A Comment / Filed under Swop Shop

Maria introducing the Recycling Swop Shop to the Learners.

It was a proud and happy morning on the 9th August 2013 at Inkwenkwezi Secondary School, Du noon! The Recycle Swop Shop team, Maria van der Westhuizen and Louise Vonafakidis met with Gareth Bains from ACSA, Pauline de Klerk from Partners for Possibility, Noluvuyo Mancunga and her team from the City of Cape Town and two of Beyond Education’s Board Members, Riaan van der Weshuizen and Japie Swanepoel.

Oliveria and Charmaine from the Drame School in Cape Town

There was much excitement as the 1100 learners filled the outside quad area and queued in their class lines. Their Headmaster Mr Kutu introduced his guests to the learners and teachers and handed over to the City of Cape Town. We were amused and entertained by Oliveria and Charmaine from the Drama School in Cape Town, with their 15 minute skit on recycling. So cool! And so funny! Thank you lady’s!! Finally the recycling collection and Swop Shop was explained to the learners by Maria, and a few questions were thrown out there with tokens and chocolates given to the learners who gave answers.

Now a little needs to be said about Mr Kutu, whom I admired for his forward thinking and commitment to his students, their education and this community. Thank you to this wonderful man and leader of Inkwenkwzei Secondary School, who has taken the time out to consider the environment and the upliftment of local families.

The Head Master, Mr Kutu, Maria van der Westhuizen and Pauline de Klerk

Thank you to all those that attended and especially to our sponsors ACSA. A treat of crunches, chocolate brownies and refreshments where given by Beyond Education to the teachers and staff to enjoy during their break.

Thank you so much to Elkanah House, Elkanah Recycling Committee and Parklands College for their support of our project!

If you want to find out more about the Swop Shop please:
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If you would like to make any donations to the Recycle Swop Shop, please read our Donations Policy Document.

An amazing response from a school that cares!

September 5, 2013 / by admin / Make A Comment / Filed under Swop Shop

Recycling at Elkanah House

We’re about to launch a Recycle Swop Shop back in Du noon at a new location, Inkwenkwezi Secondary School and have partnered with Elkanah Recycling Committee, Partners for Possibly and our sponsors Cape Town International Airport.

Our first day is on the 10th of September and incredibly we’ve already received over 16 bags of second hand clothes, shoes, toys, household items and books. What a great start! The success of this project relies heavily on the 2nd hand or ‘newly new‘ items that are donated as these items are a valuable commodity in the townships and the children and community view this as an excellent swap for their hard labour.

I have to say that I’ve been blown away by the generosity and commitment from the staff, parents and children from Elkanah House toward our Recycle Swop Shop project in Du noon. I just want to say ‘Well done” to everyone evolved.

Elkanah House also have a recycling collection day where the pupils are encouraged to bring recycling to the schools and they have channeled the funds into a number of projects within the school such as: Worm Bins, Water Coolers, A sensory garden at Sunningdale Prep campus and smart, user-friendly new bin-banks around the schools. They also have a stand at the Schoolyard Market providing information and awareness around Eco-friendly living promoting various ‘green’ products. Recycling at Elkanah House.

They have to date collected : 526 455kg Wow! That’s a lot of recycling and really just goes to show how committed and enthused the pupils and parents are. I’m impressed!

If you would like to drop off your 2nd hand items at Elkanah House, if your child attends the school or not, you are welcome to do so at one of the following points (please place your items in a clear bag or clearly marked “Du noon Recycle Swop Shop’):
Please read our Donations Policy Document.

We are especially looking for high school aged clothing and shoes, but any item you donate will be greatly appreciated Thank you!

Recycle Swop Shop Wesbank – August 2013

September 5, 2013 / by admin / Make A Comment / Filed under Swop Shop

Westbank No. 1 Primary school Recycle Collection day

I think you will all agree that August was a really wet and cold month in Cape Town. With the down pours came the floods and the cold weather bought snow on our surrounding mountains.


At Recycle Swop Shop our team of committed troopers continued to work and collect the recycling at Wesbank No. 1 Primary School. Well done to them all pupils and community members for coming out and being part of this hand-up not hand-out project.



Thank you to Veronica Martelo Beistegui, our Spanish Intern/Volunteer, who took these lovely photos during her numerous visits. I hope these will give you a good sense of the day and the people that participated.


The total recyclable collected in August:

Provided by Recycle 1st

Wesbank No. 1 Primary School Swop Shop

March 14, 2013 / by admin / Make A Comment / Filed under Swop Shop

Recycle Swop Shop Wesbank No. 1 Primary School

Wednesday 13th March 2013 was the second of our weekly Recycle Swop Shop days at Wesbank No. 1 Primary School. At 1.45pm the school bell rang and children darted home to collect their recycling. A queue quickly formed, with mostly grade 6 & 7 students, carrying their recyclable items. Louise worked swiftly to attend to the children, while Anthea and Natalie sorted the recycling. By 3.45pm the area was clean and the Recycle Swop Shop closed for another week. Well done to everyone!!

The children were each rewarded with a token for their efforts, a sandwich and we also took the opportunity to educate them on some recycling ‘can and can’t’. It’s wonderful to see the children’s faces, as they walk away with their tokens, smiling from ear to ear and clearly proud of their efforts!

Anthea and Natalie, from Recycle 1st work with the school monitors to make sure that all the recycling has been correctly sorted and packed into huge sugar bags, ready for the truck that picks up at 4pm.

To make this amazing project happen, we have partnered with a number of organisations including Transforming Minds and Futures, Save All and Recycle 1st, and of course, the school with their incredible Head Master and Teachers.

Volunteers day out to Table Mountain 2012

November 27, 2012 / by admin / Make A Comment / Filed under Swop Shop

Table Mountain 2012

It’s hard to believe that it’s nearly the end of another year of the Recycle Swop Shop and time for us to take our volunteers on a day out. It’s great to spoil them and say,“Thank you”, for all their hard work during the year. This group of dedicated people, give their time and energy to the Recycle Swop Shop each week and we honestly could not run it without their help.

A big thank you to Table Mountain Cable Car Company for sponsoring our 20 tickets. Also a huge thank you to Elkanah Recycling Committee for sponsoring our delicious lunch and gifts. Colleen Rothig, Elkanah Recycling Committee, has taken care of us this year and has made sure that we’ve had a steady supply of 2nd hand clothes and shoes. Thank you to the parents from Elkanah House who generously donated them to us. You guys are the best!

On Friday 23rd, with the promise of good weather, we all piled into 3 cars and set off to Cape Town. It seemed like every tourist in Cape Town was visiting the Mountain too, so we patiently waited an hour and a half in the queue to get to the cable cars. Surprisingly, the hardest part of waiting was trying to resist the temptation to eat the roast chicken, as the delicious smells wafted out of our picnic bag.

There were a few worried faces as we started our ascent in the revolving cable car, but this soon turned to looks of awe and wonder. For the majority of our volunteers, this was their first ride to the top of Table Mountain. Once at the top we were all enchanted by the spectacular views! We eagerly ate our lunch of roast chicken, salad, rolls and apples, washed down with fizzy drinks and juice. Yum! We thanked everyone for their participation and hard work during the year, while munching on the most delicious fudge chocolate brownies made by Liezl Wentworth. We also told everyone how much we loved them and handed out gifts and Pick n Pay vouchers.

Later we spent an hour wondering around and enjoying the beauty and rich biodiversity that can be seen all over Table Mountain. We all agreed that working towards keeping Cape Town a cleaner city was very fulfilling and spending the day on the Mountain made us appreciate that even more. What a fabulous day!

ACSA CSI event 2012

November 5, 2012 / by admin / Make A Comment / Filed under Swop Shop

Recycle Swop Shop's Presentation

Recycle Swop Shop and the other 7 benicatores

Another exciting year ahead with Cape Town International Airport!

Jita, Patricia, Louise and myself were invited to Granger Bay Hotel School, Mouille Point where Beyond Education – Recycle Swop Shop received sponsorship from Cape Town International Airport.

As each of the eight beneficiary’s presented their projects, we sat back and enjoying a delicious lunch. Again, it was so wonderful and inspiring to hear all the incredible stories of how these organisations are changing lives in South Africa. It was such a privilege to meet all those amazing teams of people and to have the opportunity to share ideas.

Thank you ACSA for your donation and another year of your commitment to the Recycle Swop Shop