Remember and Give, RAG for short, is an 84-year-old tradition of raising money for charity. At the beginning of each year students from the University of Cape Town publish and sell a student magazine called SAX Appeal, and then towards the end of March they gather for a float parade in Cape Town's Adderley Street.
All profits from the sale of the magazines and all donations collected at the float parade are given to SHAWCO, a student-run organisation whose mission is to improve the lives of developing communities in the Cape Town area. Approximately 1,200 volunteers make up SHAWCO, and they run 15 health and education projects in the area.
We drove through to the city centre today to snap some shots of the parading students. It was a colourful and entertaining affair, as always, with hundreds of dressed-up and decorated students walking, dancing and singing through the streets. Take a browse through today's photo album, but I have to warn you, ladies, that in addition to the one above you will come across several more photos of topless young students. :D
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Obnoxio The Clown
you will come across several more photos of topless young students.
I can’t help but feel slightly cheated. :o)
Jacob
Craziness prevails…but for a good cause…so that’s OK. How come it’s only the guys that are topless.
Great set of pictures. Let’s see you top that tomorrow!
Nixgrim
Great set of photos. Only a pity that SHAWCO is so badly run and the money raised is not managed in the best way possible.
Paul
Post authorMe too Obnoxio, me too. ;)
Jacob, we felt obliged not to post the other topless photos. :D I’m only kidding of course, the ladies were very respectable.
Paul
Post authorNixgrim, I have to consider your statement w.r.t. effectiveness of SHAWCO as a matter of opinion. The fact is that I don’t know enough about SHAWCO to know for sure how effective they are.
SHAWCO is run by students, so one can’t expect them to have years of management experience to know how best to run the orginisation. What is important to me is that there are a group of students who offer up their time to get involved in the community… which is more than what I do, so kudos to them I say. :)
Jacob
@ Paul: Darn!
Firefly
Unfortunately the whole RAG parade thing died some kind of death many years ago here in Port Elizabeth. What a shame as I remember us going to the city centre to watch the floats when I was small..
Ahmad
I’m a volunteer on SHAWCO. The difference the organisation makes in the underpriviliged communities of CT is amazing and from my experience as a part of it for over a year, it is run like a well oiled machine by students who dedicate their lives to it and by 1 or 2 full time employees