Company Announcement - The Zest WEG Group has provided funding to the Diepsloot Preschool Project to allow it to purchase foundational learning material for the initiative as part of its Corporate Social Investment programme. “The Zest WEG Group identified this important community initiative as being synergistic with its own goals of encouraging and fostering educational development,” Nokuthula Shabangu, CSI project manager for the Zest WEG Group, says.

The Zest WEG Group’s CSI programme is closely allied to its philosophy of providing total solutions for its clients, by incorporating the expertise and products of all the companies under the Group umbrella. “In terms of our CSI focus, this clearly indicates the commitment of all the Group companies to community empowerment and development,” Louis Meiring, CEO, Zest WEG Group, says.

“Early childhood development is critical. We believe that by establishing the building blocks of learning at a young age the likelihood is greater that children will be motivated to seek out higher levels of education as they mature,” Shabangu says.

Thanks to major funders such as the Zest WEG Group, the Diepsloot Preschool Project, started 20 years ago by Patti Hanley, Marion Tapson and Jane Mathies from Lonehill Village Church as an outreach programme, today has blossomed into a significant umbrella project overseeing 22 preschools in total and facilitating 1 600 children a year. The preschools range from Diepsloot to Leeukop, Transkei and Orpen Gate.

The project aims to provide children with a firm foundation for entry into a good primary school. Not only has it provided these children with a significant start to their educational careers, but it also provides a safe haven for them during the day while their parents are at work.

Currently run solely by Hanley, the project has produced over 220 000 worksheets for collation into workbooks for three-, four-, and five-year-olds, in addition to two workbooks for each Grade R child. “To date, she has provided over 1 600 workbooks in total, enabling all previous and current three-year-olds to enter Grade R with a complete familiarity with the work they need to undertake. We are encouraged by the progress of the initiative to date and look forward to our ongoing involvement with the Diepsloot Preschool Project,” Shabangu concludes.

The Zest WEG Group of South Africa is well known for distributing one of the largest electric motor ranges in the world from WEG Brazil. Its comprehensive product line up includes switchgear, variable speed drives, motor control centres, gensets and renewable energy solutions. “We also have three fully fledged manufacturing facilities in South Africa that we are in the process of expanding as we increase our footprint in Africa,” Meiring says.