Buskaid

Buskaid is a charitable trust registered in both South Africa and the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1992 by British viola player Rosemary Nalden, in response to a BBC radio interview highlighting the difficulties of a group of young string players in Diepkloof, Soweto. Rosemary enlisted the support of 120 of her professional colleagues who took part in a simultaneous 'Busk' in March 1992 at sixteen British Rail stations. In two hours they raised £6000 for the benefit of the young township musicians. Since then several hundred distinguished musicians have participated in a further four 'Busks'. Funding now comes from corporate sponsorship and individual donations, as well as from CD sales and performances by the Buskaid students.

The Buskaid Soweto String Project (BSSP) was established by Rosemary Nalden in January 1997 when she first came to work in South Africa in response to requests from the local Diepkloof community. Initially the BSSP consisted of some members of the original Diepkloof Project and a few new beginners. Since then it has quadrupled in size, and currently comprises approximately 70 students ranging in age from five to twenty-four, and all drawn from the less privileged local community. Sadly however hundreds of children have been turned away since the Project's inception, owing to lack of resources.

The Buskaid Project has produced a string ensemble with a formidable reputation for high standards of performance and a sophisticated grasp of musical style. As a result, it has become widely sought after for a variety of functions, many of which are of an extremely prestigious nature. These include appearances with a number of international artists such as Steven Isserlis and Bernarda Fink, several performances in the presence of Nelson Mandela and President Thabo Mbeki, as well as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, The Duke of Edinburgh and HRH The Duke of York.

The Buskaid Ensemble has toured internationally numerous times, performing with huge success in the UK, France, the USA, Ireland, Holland, Germany and New Zealand, and as guest artists at the City of London, Cheltenham and New Haven International Festivals. Its first visit to the USA was hosted by the actress Gillian Anderson who is a loyal supporter of the Project and whose fans have organised a number of fundraising events for the benefit of the Buskaid Trust. They have also recorded and released several CD’s to date.

The Buskaid Soweto String Project is funded by the Buskaid Trust in South Africa (IT4749/99) and the Registered Charity Buskaid in the UK (1015089)

Buskaid and Leaders Unlimited

At the inception of Leaders Unlimited it was decided that our Corporate Social Responsibility efforts would be directed towards the development of talent. Buskaid, with its mission of “helping young black musicians in South African townships” was identified as a worthy social support programme. Thus, Talent Unlimited was conceived.

The grand achievements of Buskaid have been remarkable considering that their financial resources are limited to corporate sponsorship, individual donations, concerts and CD sales. In order to maintain the superb quality of Buskaid’s performances, ongoing corporate funding is required to support the students as well as the staff of teachers and apprentice teachers. Given the nature of funding of Buskaid, financial stability is vital for the development of similar projects throughout the townships as well as for the expansion of the music school.

Leaders Unlimited donates an amount of money annually to Buskaid, and does the official handover at a soiree to which we invite clients and other guests. The joy on the faces of the guests as they are entertained by these young talented musicians is more than sufficient proof that our efforts in supporting Buskaid have been worthwhile. We have also seen very positive spin-offs from these events, in that more people have become aware of Buskaid and are supporting their concerts, but most importantly, some of these guests have now become Buskaid sponsors themselves, either on a corporate or individual level.

It gives us a great amount of satisfaction to know that we are contributing in some way to assist the Buskaid project in becoming self-sufficient, enabling the students currently enrolled to complete their musical studies and ultimately pass on their knowledge and skills to future generations of aspiring young African musicians. Music has the great the ability to unite people from different communities and cultures.

Our association with Buskaid is something that we are immensely proud of and the annual soiree has become a very sought-after event, among both clients and staff. Nurturing and developing talent is essential for any growing nation, and is especially important in our young democracy. We at Leaders Unlimited will strive to continue our support of this very worthy cause, which is the Buskaid project.

Read about the latest Talent Unlimited event

 

SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise)

Founded in 1975, Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) is a U.S.headquartered non-profit organisation improving the quality of life and standard of living around the world by teaching the principles and values of free market economics and entrepreneurship. Working in partnership with hundreds of universities and businesses, SIFE organises, motivates, and trains university students to form “management teams” that design, develop and implement thousands of community-based micro-business, training and educational projects to create and expand economic opportunity through hands-on and practical training projects. SIFE teams are active on more than 1800 university/college campuses in 46 countries. These teams are led by faculty advisors and they are challenged to develop community outreach projects that reach SIFE's five educational topics:

•  Market Economics
•  Success Skills
•  Entrepreneurship
•  Financial Literacy
•  Business Ethics

SIFE team members leverage their personal educational experiences, the expertise of their faculty advisors, the support of their local business advisory boards, and the resources of their institutions to implement programs that create real economic opportunities for members of their communities. The effectiveness of their programs is judged at competition. Each national SIFE organization conducts a national competition, which is judged by leaders from its business community. At competition, SIFE teams present the results of their educational outreach projects and compete to determine which team was most successful at creating economic opportunity for others. SIFE National Champion teams advance to the top level of competition, the SIFE World Cup.

In September 2001 SIFE World Headquarters launched its SIFE Africa Initiative  with the goal of establishing strong SIFE programs in as many African countries as possible. This means establishing quality and active SIFE Teams in African universities along with corporate executives to serve on national boards of directors, and organising national SIFE expositions/competitions.

 

Rene van Wyk, head of the Financial Services Practice at Leaders Unlimited, serves on the board of SIFE South Africa. In addition, a number of the partners serve as judges at the annual SIFE South Africa national competition.

 

We conduct a number of pro-bono searches and assessments for selected organisations annually.