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South Africa's "Social Entrepreneur 2006"

Sunette Pienaar, founder of Heartbeat, was named South Africa's "Social Entrepreneur 2006" by the Schwab Foundation. The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship run a search for "The Social Entrepreneur of the Year" in 30 countries around the world.

The Entrepreneur 
Dr Sunette Pienaar studied biblical studies and languages at the Rand Afrikaans and Pretoria Universities.  She joined the Dutch Reformed Church as a Youth Pastor in 1997. Responding to her discontent regarding the impact of apartheid, violence and HIV/AIDS on the children of South Africa, this white, Afrikaans lady left her position in the church. Determined to see change happen, she moved to Carltonville, a mining community township, to identify the largest needs and develop targeted solutions to them. She subsequently established Heartbeat in 2000.

Innovation
The Child Care Forum concept used by Heartbeat had been conceptually developed in the USA but never really implemented. This concept is based on and structured around the need for a community to support and assist in raising a child. It takes into account the potential of the community to deliver the necessary services themselves, aligned with traditional practices and operated and owned by these communities. Heartbeat follows a snowball model. It has so far trained 16 other organizations to implement the Heartbeat model.

Heartbeat has mobilised 17 communities in 6 provinces (Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North West, Limpopo, Free State and Eastern Cape) to care directly or indirectly for some 6 000 orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). Heartbeat is focused on supporting child-headed households, granny-headed households and potential orphans living with terminally ill parents.

Heartbeat assists these children in accessing water, electricity, housing, schooling, and government grants where applicable. Children are integrated into support groups and after school centres. These services are delivered through local community committees. Through Heartbeat’s mobiliziation, each community establishes a Child Care Forum, After School Centres.  Team Leader Groups visit, support and monitor child-headed families 3 times a week to provide guidance, emotional and spiritual support.

105 full time staff and 500 volunteers, who have been trained and mobilised, provide this care, mostly from the communities that they serve. Heartbeat has also recently established 2 learning centres in Botshabelo and in Katlehong to train other community-based organisations to establish their own OVC programmes.

Heartbeat is funded from a variety of local and international donors, has secured 550 individual sponsors who support close to 1 000 children through a "Sponsor a Child in Need" Programme and is generating an  income through beadwork,  bakeries, and food gardens. A New York based outlet has been recently established to sell the beadwork.

Strategy
Heartbeat’s strategies revolve around its community-based programmes and growth within South Africa and Southern Africa. It has been particularly successful at securing long term partnerships with some 80 corporate and public organisations. Among the most important ones is a partnership with Tiger Brands, a major South African food producer, to provide basic foods in bulk for monthly distribution as food parcels to needy children in the communities in which Heartbeat operates. Through the Mothers’ Union of the Anglican Church, Heartbeat has trained people to take the model initially into 4 dioceses in the Eastern Cape and then to other areas. In addition, Heartbeat is engaged in the production of beadwork by community-based beaders, who make corporate beadwork and gifts. This provides income for those involved and results in income generation of some R400 000 per annum or some 3% of the organisation’s total annual income.

Source:
The Schwab Foundation, "Social Entrepreneur 2006”
SouthAfrica.infoThe all-in-one official guide and web portal to South Africa. Photo source: Heartbeat; World Economic Forum; www.schwabfound.org