I have served on council for over 7 years, serving under multiple streams such as Brand and Media, Under 35s, Education and running the action soccer event annually. The people that you work with every year have so many diverse backgrounds, are all rich in experience and knowledge. These various skills and shared knowledge, has taught me to be humble, patient and most of all ensure that we keep to our purpose as the IIWC, ensuring that our members are at the centre of our purpose in everything we do.
As part of these purposes, charities are another critical mission to the IIWC. The charities that inspired me was Percy Bartley house, in 2017/2018, where we got insurance companies and brokers to help renovate the house where 20 boys were living, giving them access to a functional library and a good place for them to sleep every night. The moments I will keep close to my heart in my presidential journey, was visiting Mdzananda animal clinic in the middle of a township for the first time, and to witness what these Veterinary doctors do in containers, as I entered I see open heart surgery as I turned to my right and to my left was the parvo area and cat cages. Their purpose showed me that the IIWC stands for more than what we stand for as a council and gave me more willingness to do more for the greater good.
During my presidency, we were able to donate over R 800,000 to date to our charities. I believe in how many lives you can touch during your existence on this planet and how you can change their lives for the better. In 2021, we manage to feed over 100,000 mouths during our Food Forward donations. I open the challenge to you, how many lives can you change?
Let’s be better and inspire others to do better!
Robyn Petersen will be taking over in 2023 and my words of encouragement, as passed down to me, stay grounded, keep the team motivated, and ensure that we keep to our core as a non-profit, which is putting our members at the centre of our mission.
Lastly, I would like to thank all the past presidents for their wisdom and inspiration to keep going.
On that note - Thank you to every single member, our sponsors and our council for their support all these years and let’s keep going, bringing you better events and seminars in the next years to come!
Your president, signing out for one last time.
