We raised R110 000 for deaf children at our golf day!

Momentum Investments and MET Collective Investments combined forces to host its annual charity golf day at De Zalze Winelands Golf Estate on 4 December 2014. Investment managers from the hedge fund and long-only investments community as well as investment management partners of MET Collective Investments were invited and they opened their hearts and wallets to contribute to a great cause. This is the fifth year this event has taken place and has raised money for various charities.

In conjunction with the MMI Group’s corporate and social responsibility manager, Emmanuel Mahlangu, the charity chosen from the organisations the group supports in the Western Cape this year was the Carel du Toit Centre, whose slogan is “Where deaf children learn to speak!”. The centre’s mission statement is straightforward and easy to understand for parents who feel discouraged by the discovery of their child's deafness. They believe that children with hearing loss have the same capacity as children with normal hearing, to learn to speak. They also believe that children with hearing loss must be exposed to day-long listening through the use of appropriate hearing-aids or a cochlear implant.

A hearing environment is created at the centre, the same as for normal hearing children, where the child with a hearing loss will learn to speak by learning to listen in a natural environment. Listening experiences and natural interaction create an intensive speech-development environment, which leads the child to linguistic competence. This process continues throughout the school years, laying a solid foundation for life.

The approach followed at the Carel du Toit Centre is based on the early identification of the hearing loss and the fitting of hearing-aids or a cochlear implant. They believe that with early identification, providing there are no further complications, a large percentage of deaf children are able to acquire sufficient speech and language abilities to be able to adapt intellectually, socially and emotionally in a society of hearing people. In fact, many of their pupils continue their education in Mainstream Schools.

Valerie van der Merwe, who is the senior fundraiser at the Carel du Toit Centre, joined the players for a braai and made a heart-felt speech of gratitude after accepting a cheque for R90 000 from Kris Adams, who works for Momentum Investments in Cape Town. The balance of R20 000 was cash given to the centre for mulligans bought and fines paid by the players.

We would like to thank everyone that participated in this event and that contributed to the R110 000 given to this worthy charity.