1 month ago
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When Pride Chauke was in high school, she wore torn shoes and even put a piece of cardboard inside to make them more bearable to walk in.
Today, the 38-year-old is assisting pupils who don’t own proper school shoes. “Not having shoes in high school was painful for me,” she told the Sowetan.
Chauke, who owns an early childhood development centre (ECD) in Atteridgeville Ext 6, said whenever there’s a shoe sale at a retail store, she’d buy several pairs – with her own cash – and head to a soccer field nearby and gift anyone in need.
“I would just go there [at soccer field] and gift them. It is usually boys at the soccer field, so I focus on the boys. I do this strategically and intentionally, as a way for me to say: ‘Thank you, God for being able to provide for me’. I buy items that are on sale, package them and share with anyone I meet.”
This is just one of the many things Chauke does for her community. She also assists in buying groceries for the less fortunate but to do this, she first does her research on families who are in need.
Chauke says she would also wash and iron clothes, buy toys and package them in a plastic and leave them where bins are collected hoping whoever is in need would find them. “I know that at the dumping site there are people who collect cans, and I know that somebody is going to pick up the plastic and it would land where it needs to land – unlike giving it to someone who might sell those clothes. I am very intentional, and do this three times a year,” she said.
She said helping those in need was her calling.
In 2017, Chauke took a leap of faith and quit her job at an insurance company to start the ECD centre. But before that, she volunteered at several centres and orphanages in her area for seven years.
She said when she quit, her parents were worried that she was the only one working and wondered how she was going to survive.
Chauke said she started with two children but at the end of the second month she had 16 children between the ages of two and four. Her centre now has 84 children. “I started working with ECD centres from 2010 when I was working for the insurance company. So, I would volunteer and organise people to go and paint and do Christmas parties.
“The project that was close to my heart was buying laptops for kids at the ECD centres, but what was disheartening was that when I would go back for a follow up, I would find that the laptops were not being used.
“Every time when I started a project with an ECD centre, I would go back and would find they were just collecting these items and not putting them to use. So, because I have the love and passion for kids, and I want children who live in the township to experience technology, I decided to open my own ECD centre to make sure the kids benefit from whatever projects I start.”
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