History of the CCP
Four community members who shared the objective of promoting community development founded CCP Pty Ltd at the beginning of 2019. Xander Loubser is an enthusiastic Advanced Life Support Paramedic, a company entrepreneur with many ventures, and a director at Emergency Support Team, a non-profit organisation. Noekie Salmon is regarded as a gem in the neighbourhood and is widely recognised for her unwavering support to her fellow citizens. Our previous Christmas Father figure, Robert Salmon, was married to Noekie, who passed away. Robert passed away away in 2021 because of COVID’s severe consequences.
Kickboxing teacher Louise van Staden is a director of the Titans Kickboxing Club in Mountain View, Pretoria, a non-profit organisation. Louise provides emergency services for her neighbourhood. She serves as the Provincial Head of the South African Kickboxing Association (SAKA) and is a member of the Tshwane Sports Council. their mother and grandma have a great love for kids, and it is evident in their initiative each year.
CCP Pty Ltd was established to have an official platform to run the annual Christmas Project through. Over the years, the Christmas Project was done through involved businesses/individuals/NPOs. Given the rapid growth and dynamic shift of the project, the current Directors saw it fit to register the Non-Profit Company.
The Christmas Project started as a Community Policing Forum (CPF) initiative in the Hercules area and was aimed to create awareness of the unseen heroes in the community. The project is known for the famous cry of multiple emergency vehicle sirens and a fleet of decorated vehicles and members giving out hand-packed sweet packets or gifts to the less privileged and neglected elderly community members. The project caters for all the children and elderly who we pass on the planned route.
The Pretoria Gardens neighbourhood has high regard for Ria Venter. Ria is a full-time mother and has extensive knowledge with the yearly Christmas Project. Since she excels at administrative and logistical tasks and has experience doing so, Ria is a great asset to the project and her colleagues.
In 2017, the effort lasted for 5 days and brought holiday cheer to 18300 people of the neighbourhood. Additionally, Wolmer area in Pretoria North was included for the first time in this year.
The initiative reached a new milestone in 2018 with 20 000 beneficiaries, of whom 5000 were recipients who were aged or handicapped. As part of its 2018 outreach, the CCP Pty Ltd committee also gave a R10,000 donation to a well-established initiative in Danville.
Since 2016, we have also made an investment in “Santa’s Points” when the whole fleet stops for 30 minutes for a meet-and-greet, a picture opportunity with the Christmas father figure, and musical entertainment provided by our church music band.
The Community Christmas Project successfully distributed 25 903 packages to kids, the elderly, and pets canines in 2019, breaking the previous year’s record. GrootFM 90.5 provided the initiative with its first-ever radio support.
Due to the lack of knowledge about the COVID-19 sickness and the tight lock down level 5 rules that made it impossible for CCP to secure financing for the research, the project was abandoned in 2020.
In spite of the COVID-19 illness, we conducted the yearly project in 2021 and made adjustments to reduce the possibility of the illness spreading. To reduce human contact, we implemented tight social distance guidelines, delivered our packages in special packaging, and used social distance devices (trolleys).
Giving out a total of 32 000 packages to the elderly, kids, and even family pets, the 2022 Christmas Project was again another success. Our cup overflowed as a result of GrootFM 90.5’s ‘Krismis vir Kinders’ campaign, which was the project’s official media partner, and we were able to provide two additional organisations a total of R60 000 to secure the continuation of their initiatives.
By combining other regional Christmas Projects in Pretoria in 2023, we want to have an even greater effect than what is anticipated for this initiative. We are happy to say that we will be actively working with and supporting the “Wonderboompoort Kersprojek,” “Capital Park #Santasquad”, “KilnerPark Security (KPS) Christmas Project” and “HCPF Sector 4 Christmas Project” this holiday season. This indicates that approximately 52 000 packets would be our distribution goal for this year. We are certain that we can do this because we have complete trust in God’s steadfast favour over our initiative.