Passion and Commitment Equals Success

It takes a special person who has passion and commitment to reach a goal successfully and then to maintain its success. Such a person is Professor Elain Vlok (61) who 11 years ago embarked on a project that has changed the lives of so many individuals and continues to do so.

Professor Elain Vlok Picture: Destiny Magazine

Prof Vlok is the driving force behind Clover Mama Afrika – Ukwakha Isizwe meaning building and nurturing our nation and this project has become her organisation, Clover SA’s greatest success story and flagship Corporate Social Investment initiative.

Clover Mama Afrika is a national, social upliftment project that seeks to assist and support communities at grassroots level.

By empowering the Mamas – the backbone of most communities – Clover is sustainably helping them to not only look after themselves, but also the people around them. Mamas reflect humility, caring and strength and are respected by their peers. Equally important, they understand the needs of their communities, and actively seek to address those needs in whatever way possible.

Within their community, they unassumingly take charge of protecting, nurturing and educating their children as well as taking care of the abandoned senior citizens.

Prof Vlok has herself been the backbone of inspiring and motivating these Mamas to realise and achieve their goals. The tangible results of the Clover Mama Afrika project are testament to her passion and commitment.  “If you believe it, you can do it.” Says Prof Vlok.

The Clover Mama Afrika project was launched in 2004 with a mere four Mamas. Today, the number of Mamas has grown to 40 Mamas who collectively care for over 15500 children and more than 2500 elderly people.  Clover Mama Afrika has sought the appropriate training facilitators and trained over 1700 individual members in skills such as sewing, cooking and baking, food gardens and bread baking. These members have in turn transferred their skills to well over 6000 fellow community members. Prof Vlok and her small team currently manage 243 self-help projects of which 166 are income generating self-help projects.

I learned from an early age that knowledge is power and nothing stopped me from always learning new things…whether it was through words in a book to learning using your hands.” Elain says. ..

When Prof Vlok was growing up, she was surrounded with a family that thrived on always wanting to learn and hence her academic background and wide knowledge of everything from sewing to baking.

It also became easy for her to embark into unknown territory and to make things happen, such as the Clover Mama Afrika project. “When I first started with Clover Mama Afrika, nothing prepared me for the challenges that would change my life too. I am blessed to be working with formidable women who want to change their standard of living as well as improve the lives of the members they care for.” She confirms.