{"id":83757,"date":"2016-12-11T16:53:20","date_gmt":"2016-12-11T14:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/making-a-difference-one-smile-at-a-time\/"},"modified":"2016-12-11T16:53:20","modified_gmt":"2016-12-11T14:53:20","slug":"making-a-difference-one-smile-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/making-a-difference-one-smile-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Making a difference, one smile at a time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Making a difference, one smile at a time<\/a>: <\/p>\n

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John Kibari, Adva Brivik from Operation Smile and Chelsea van Eeden, Marketing Co-ordinater at Fair Cape Dairies<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When Eversdal Primary School Fourth grade learner Marn\u00e9 van der Merwe heard that she could help others, just by collecting plastic bottle tops she was inspired.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw on the lid of the Fair Cape milk bottle that recycling could raise money for children to have an operation for a cleft palate or cleft lip,\u201d she explained. \u201cAnd I thought \u2018everyone should be able to smile\u2019 so I wanted to help.\u201d
The message on the milk bottle lids were part of the campaign initiated by the Fair Cape Cares Foundation to raise money for the life-changing operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the second year that we have worked with Operation Smile,\u201d said Louis Loubser, CMO of Fair Cape Dairies. \u201cThe Fair Cape Cares Foundation exists to make a significant difference to the charities we support. We are really inspired by the way communities and schools like Eversdal took part and we are proud that our contribution will pay for five operations this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ten-year-old Marn\u00e9 did not hesitate. She made an appointment to see her headmaster, Henk Arangies, and told him about the campaign. He agreed that the school could be involved, assigned a teacher to help and the collecting began.<\/p>\n

Every bottle cap that was brought to the school was equivalent to one point in the inter-house competition. The result was that during 2016, Eversdal Primary children and their friends, parents and grandparents collected close to 400 000 bottle tops and were responsible for more than half of the money raised during the campaign to pay for Operation Smile operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the oupas even paid people to go through dustbins and find bottle tops,\u201d Marn\u00e9 said. \u201cThey came to school with 26 000 one day!\u201d
\u201cOur school motto is Damus,\u201d said Mr Arangies. \u201cThat means \u2018we give\u2019 and our learners have shown that they take that responsibility seriously.\u201d
The children had the opportunity to see first-hand the difference that their collections made when John Kibari took part in a special assembly at the school this week where the Fair Cape Cares Foundation handed over a cheque for R23 500 Operation Smile. He explained how donations like this one had changed his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoctors told me it would cost R75 000 to fix my lip and teeth,\u201d he said. \u201cFor my whole life I felt such shame. I felt I was not really human. But I knew that I would not be able to afford to change the way I looked.\u201d
Then a stranger saw him in a shopping centre and put him in touch with Operation Smile and he was included in the group of adults and children who were operated on in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love the way the whole community has come together during this campaign,\u201d said Adva Brivik from Operation Smile, South Africa. \u201cPeople from all over the province have been taking their bottle caps to libraries and shopping centres. The response has been fantastic and we are looking forward to an even better response next year when the campaign starts again.\u201d<\/p>\n

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