After one year of fund-raising the Rotary Club of Wynberg has given a cheque for more than half a million rand to a centre training unemployed people to tap into the country’s growing coffee industry.
The cheque for R585 000 was presented to Learn to Earn’s Ground UP Academy and Cafés at a recent function on Thursday September 28 at at Learn to Earn office in Belvedere Road, Claremont, said Rotary Wynberg’s Justin Schonegevel. The funding was realised through partnerships with the Rotary Foundation, the Rotary Club of Tavistock Devon in Britain, Rotary District 1175 in Britain, the local Rotary District 9350 and the Rotary Club of Wynberg. Some of the money will be used to train 26 unemployed adults with basic barista skills.
The eight-week barista course isn’t just about making coffee it also teaches some valuable life skills. Another portion of the funding will go towards fitting two trailers used by the barista graduates with coffee-making equipment including industrial coffee machines, grinders and point of sale equipment. Graduates who are accepted onto the programme begin work at the “flagship” trailer at Rondebosch Boys’ High School where they work and train until they are well-grounded in business operations and then move on to their own unit to manage.
