A Brief History of Eco Girls SA
Eco Girls Board of Directors
Nthabiseng Moche
Co-Founder, Director
Keamo Molebalwa
Director
Monica Nthebe
Director
Cynthia Chishimba
Co-Founder, Director
Eco Girls SA was founded in 2014, but its roots go back to 1993, when co-founder and Director Nthabiseng Moche received a scholarship through the American Association of University Women (AAUW) to attend Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, near Erie, USA, for a Masters program in counseling.
An Erie school teacher and AAUW member, Katherine Beaver, arranged for Nthabiseng to meet the then Mayor Joyce Savocchio and her assistant, Gary Horton. The result was a 30-year collaboration between Ms. Moche and Mr. Horton, eventual founder of UECDC, an organization that provides services primarily to refugee families from Africa and the Mideast.
Katherine Beaver, Nthabiseng Moche, Mayor Joyce Savocchio.
Gary Horton, Nthabiseng Moche, Mayor Joyce Savocchio.
Jump forward to 2021, when in the middle of the Covid-19 crisis, the two organizers had a lengthy conversation via WhatsApp. They quickly realized that EcoGirls SA and UECDC had much in common, and an international collaboration was begun to address some of the urgent needs of rural girls in South Africa. During the Covid years, WhatsApp, Zoom and social media became essential tools for this joint effort.
Humanitarian campaigns took place in 2021 and 2022, collecting donations of eco-friendly sanitary products, face masks, sanitisers, boys' and girls' underwear, shoe polish, shoe brushes, tooth brushes, toothpaste, face soap, skipping rope, body lotion, and other supplies. These campaigns were so successful that they led to the current campaign featured elsewhere on this website. Wabtec Erie, USA came aboard as a corporate sponsor. Mr. Horton will be traveling to South Africa in April (2023), bringing supplies donated for this year’s campaign and getting to know the area and people on the ground.