Goedgedacht

The Goedgedacht Trust was set up in 1993 with the donation of the beautiful 1704 Cape Dutch farm called Goedgedacht. The intention of the trustees was to set up a community development resource centre in the Riebeeksrivier valley with a view to responding to issues of poverty as experienced by the rural farm workers – hence the birth of Goedgedacht Farm.
 
Since 1993 the Trust has responded to a wide range of issues and its flagship programme is called The Path out of Poverty Programme (POP) for the children of farm workers. This is an integrated, holistic, long term development programme for children. The programme has done much to reduce the school dropout rate, reduce the number of early teenage pregnancies and equip young people for work.
 
The POP programme starts before the child is born and continues into early adulthood, a period of twenty years or more. It is imperative therefore for the programme to be sustainable over the long term and to this end, the Trustees have come up with a number of income producing projects on the Farm.
 
One of these programmes is the planting of an Olive Peace Grove and the production and distribution of olive oil. Until 2010, Goedgedacht struggled with ancient, second hand or cheap poor quality equipment which was constantly in need of repair. With the proceeds of our 2010 Annual Solstice Ball, Goedgedacht was able to purchase a brand new International Harvester, 75-horsepower, four-wheel drive, CASE tractor to work in their olive groves.

A portion of the proceeds of the 2012 Ball was used again to support the Goedgedacht Trust where we provided R50,000 funding for the purchase of a 4 x 4 Quad Bike to enable the Farm Manager to navigate all areas of the farm effectively and at a low cost. So now their olive oil production can grow from strength to strength and we hope you will look out for and purchase their olive oil and salad dressings at Pick ‘n Pay!
 
Visit their website here.