chair of the Smile Foundation has seen the
transformation of vulnerable children and orphans
in South Africa’s townships. While MaAfrika Tikkun
focuses on holistic development, Smile Foundation
assists with a backlog in state healthcare for
children with treatable facial abnormalities such as
cleft palate, facial paralysis and burns.
Lubner differs in his approach from most
charities, which simply donate money, by
acknowledging and developing the hidden
potential, that lurks inside every ‘ready’
community. The work is implemented by
community members employed for attitude and
trained for skills rather than the other way around.
“The word ‘aid’ presupposes there is a victim,”
says Lubner. “Rather, by developing a community
in a holistic manner, you can extract the hidden
assets within, which can deliver sustainable
results. People like myself can deliver the intellect
and capital, the ‘fuel’, but we need to create the
momentum within, say a hospital, for it to run on
its own but its up to the communities themselves
to operate the solutions in the long term.”
The risk in any needy society, of course, is that
demand is huge. One of the biggest challenges to
Lubner has been finding ongoing reliable sources of
funds and resources. “We started needing around
R10 million (US$1.33 million) and now require at
least R60 million (US$8 million) annually.”
Funding has been secured from the South
African corporate world (55 percent), offshore
donors (25 percent) and the balance from the
national lottery and government departments.
While initially targeting only youn