KiDS Foundation Story
The KiDS Foundation is a registered non-profit organisation based in Cape Town, South Africa offering educational scholarships to financially disadvantaged students. The KiDS Foundation does not offer scholarships outside of Cape Town.
It was established in 1994, by businessman Ian Kilbride and retired educator Tessa Smit.
Both of these individuals had a strong desire to enable young South Africans from financially disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity to receive a quality education and thus The KiDS Foundation was formed.
Ian brought with him years of experience as a successful businessman, a desire to give back to the country that he felt had given so much to him and a passion that every child no matter what their circumstance had the right to receive a quality education. His company The Warwick Group provides office space and equipment, administrative back up and financial assistance to the KiDS Foundation while Ian himself is actively involved in the day to day running of the Foundation from his position as Chairperson.
Tessa having many years as an educator behind her coupled with an unrelenting commitment to the young people of South African brought with her a mountain of experience to draw on. Tessa’s experience has been called upon by many other organisations whose interests are in the field of education. Tessa is a full time scholar facilitator and heads up the Alumni as our scholars progress into and beyond tertiary education.
It is thanks to Ian and Tessa’s passion and experience as well as an uncanny ability to “file” every piece of information from 1994 to the present that we are able to look back and see how far the Foundation has developed and what it has achieved in providing the opportunity of an education to the youth of South Africa.
Putting the expertise of these two individuals together meant that it was not long before other like- minded people expressed their wish to be involved and so over the years the KiDS Foundation has always been managed and guided by a board all of whom have backgrounds in education or business.
The KiDS Foundation board has extensively investigated its own operating procedures from inception and by doing so has developed a “modus operandi” that is being emulated by many other education based charities.