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Cassandra Treadwell – Inducted 2015
Friday, 30 October 2015
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Student at Marsden 1984 – 1990 (Years 7 - 13) Receives this award in recognition of her commitment and leadership to "So They Can". This is a charitable organisation she set up to work with communities in Africa to enable them to help themselves break the cycle of poverty and to connect New Zealand and African businesses in a mutually beneficial way. Cassandra is a qualified medical lawyer has worked in a variety of areas both nationally and internationally liaising closely with doctors, families and patients. Social justice and the lack of it has always been at the forefront of Cassandra's life. In 2009 she founded "So they Can" after visiting the Kenyan community of Nakuru. Since then she has built up her charity which has constructed a school, an orphanage and countless homes for families. Her work continues beyond Kenya and into Tanzania. Her focus is not limited just to the work itself but to raising the money to enable the work to continue and the community to become self-sufficient. She describes one of her business project as "Connecting two worlds – the First world countries such as New Zealand, which are materially wealthy but often emotionally malnourished in Africa where people are incredibly poor but with a depth of emotional richness that we crave."1 Cassandra's belief in "Ubuntu – I am because of you" is behind all her activities. She and her family visit Africa twice a year overseeing her projects and her staff. She shares her views on charity and philanthropic giving, through Ted talks and a variety of other media. 1 Cassandra Treadwell. Fighting for Africa. New Idea magazine. Oct 2, 2014. https//nz.lifestyle.yahoo.com/new idea/real-life article (Cited 8/5/2015) |