On Thursday the 29th October, heart got a visit from HSH Prince Maximilian of Lichtenstein.
H.S.H Prinz Maximilian is the CEO of Lichtenstein Global Trust (LGT), a private banking, wealth and asset management group based in Lichtenstein. The company has invested substantially into heart.
H.S.H Prinz Maximilian visited us here at heart so that he could see the social impact that the LGT investments have made. His journey started with a lunch at the Premier’s residence, Leeuwenhof. Here he met with a number of several Ministers and Cape Town business leaders, as well as some heart representatives. After the lunch H.S.H Prinz Maximilian was taken to the heart offices where he met the project managers who are running the various social enterprises in the heart portfolio. They got to share with him what they had been up to and where they saw their projects heading to in the future.
After a wonderful time in the office, it was time to take H.S.H Prinz Maximilian to the grass roots to show him exactly who was benefiting from LGT’s investments.
When H.S.H Prinz Maximilian and his fellow travelers arrived at Zanokhanyo Children’s Home in Khayalitsha, they were welcomed by more than 24 smiling children as well as a bunch of hard working volunteers from Love to Africa, Adrenalize and heart.
This is what the scene looked like: the children were playing on tyres in the sandy garden; volunteers were buzzing about either planting seeds into soil bags, helping children paint the Zanokhanyo logo onto the wall, getting creative with the children making cards for H.S.H Prinz Maximilian, or setting up the FoodTent. It was a hive of activity with an energy that created a wonderful atmosphere.
When H.S.H Prinz Maximilian arrived he was escorted around the premises to get an overview of what was going on at Zanokhanyo. Throughout this tour he met some of the children and volunteers involved in the day. He also met Nola, the house mother who has adopted 24 orphans from the community. She is a wonderfully warm woman who loves and cares for the children as if they were her own.
The tour was completed by a beautiful song sung by the Zanokhanyo children. After the song, H.S.H Prinz Maximilian was invited to get his hands dirty by planting some spinach and cabbage that would be taken into the FoodTent; and that is exactly what he did. Once all the vegetables had been planted, the volunteers, children and H.S.H Prinz Maximilian all formed two assembly lines so that the plants could be placed inside the tent.
The team work and enthusiasm from all involved could be seen in the smiles on faces, the positivity in speech and the energy of work. H.S.H Prinz Maximilian honoured Nola for all her tireless work in the community and expressed how grateful he was to have had this opportunity to get involved with such a worthy cause.
It was a beautiful end to the day; with the FoodTent filled; the logo complete, a string of colourful blessing flags up, and happy faces all round. A wonderful day for all to remember!!
A very big thank you to H.S.H Prinz Maximilian and everyone from LGT for their support and willingness to get involved with heart and the day’s activities. Also to Tom, Meghan, Candice, Jacques and Sean from heart for all their time and effort in organising the events and volunteers for the day. To Second Harvest for the stew they donated to Zanokhanyo. And finally thank you to Nola and her family for allowing us into their home.