Earlier this week we were delighted to receive a visit from our patron, Dame Linda Dobbs. Dame Linda made history when she became Britain’s first non-white High Court judge, and has been a generous supporter of Masicorp for many years. Having recently retired she had the opportunity to visit Masicorp, which is just one of the many development projects she is involved in across Africa.

We began her day by taking her around the Chasmay Road campus, location of the Sewing Café as well as several other interesting NGO’s and business ventures working with the community of Masiphumelele. Special thanks to Appshed and Justice Dolls for taking the time to show Dame Linda around their work. Dame Linda spent most of her time on campus learning about the Sewing Café, and she met several of the current intake of new adult learners. We are pleased to report that business was booming at the time, with a large order of children’s dresses being prepared by past graduates.

Dame Linda was here to collect another batch of track suits for the children of Ukhanyo School. After a brief stopover at the refurbished library it was over to the school where the tracksuits were to be handed over. It was an awful wet day, and the need for the tracksuits was clear for all to see as the rain and wind of a Cape winter chilled everyone. Dame Linda took the time to offer each student a few words of encouragement as they came up to collect their track suits from her.

There was also time to meet the staff at the science lab, and view the student’s technology projects from earlier this year – a selection of brightly designed cell phone towers. Dame Linda was honest enough to admit that science was not her best subject, but she was clearly impressed with both the facilities and motivation of the staff. We hope that she will be able to find time for many more visits to our projects in the future, and thank her once again for the financial support that has helped us to kit out the students with warm clothes this winter.