Our History
Every journey starts with a S.T.E.P. lets take a trip down memory lane and discover how
S.T.E.P. Stronger Together Encourating People came to be.
In 2009 at a dinner in Elsies River at the home of host Mr Gilbert Thomas, the owner of Robin Hood Creche Joanna Claassen-Albertus met Elizabeth den Braber who was from Holland. Joanna and Elizabeth got on like a “house on fire”. Elizabeth was involved in community work driving NPOs in South Africa and thought that Joanna was the right person to assist smaller NPOs by bringing them together to become more sustainable under one umbrella. The seed was planted and so the journey began…
In November 2016 Elizabeth indicated to Joanna that she would be coming to South Africa in early 2017 to assist with small projects in Elsies River and the surrounding areas and together how this dream could be achieved.
Joanna arranged accommodation and transport for Elizabeth while she was in SA with Joan Williams who at the time was involved with a NPO called Women in Leadership.
In February 2017, Jerome Hardley, Elizabeth and Joanna met at Die Rynse Kerk to discuss the vision of a mother organization nurturing smaller organizations. Joanna who had already done her homework, explained to them that she had started the process and approached a team of interested parties who she thought would take this initiative forward. The team consisting of Joanna Claassen-Albertus, Debbie Kline, Claudine Sauls, Charmaine Byers and Deon Byers chose a name called Women @ fundraising events for their organization.
On 16 February 2017 they met at Die Rynse Kerk to form this mean team. On 14 March 2017 at there first meeting they started with 2 NPOs and projected their value proposition to Hier Kom Ons Ontwikkelling with Noami Agulhas and Aunty Annie Twigg, and All Saints Christmas Band with Maureen Du Plessis and Michelle Taker.
The name didn’t suite the team because Deon was on board at the time and it wasn’t an all-women’s team. One day during lunchtime, Debbie, Joanna and Grant Sass had a discussion about this project and saw this organization growing from strength to strength. They came up with the name and acronym “Stronger Together Encouraging People” and so the journey of STEP began.
Thank you
