[INTRODUCTION]
“ST: The FESPA Foundation, we donated some funds, and the community and people around here came and painted the school because they then had the resources. And they went further than that. In fact, they started putting ceilings in the classrooms. And if you consider this building to be what it is, temperatures here can go up to 42°C. I don’t know how the people that were studying here would make it because there was absolutely no insulation. The principal has since put some insulation in the form of a ceiling. And, also, this is a foundation class I’ve just walked in, and they’ve gone ahead with the help that we’re giving. Obviously, you can see there’s some insulation now that has been put in.
Outside here, it’s the garden. The idea with the garden is government is providing food, but very often you find that the meal – given some of these children, the only meal of the day they’ll have is here at school. Since this program started many years back, I think it was about 10, 15 years back, the attendance at school has increased. Because basically, poverty is a challenge because some of them would not get a meal at home. The only time they get a meal is at school. It’s attracting the attendance, it’s improving it. But the meal is not necessarily your best meal.
If we can plant a garden here, then the community is involved. They’re planting the garden themselves. It’s their children. And they can sell some of the vegetables because it’s quite a big land. And then that way, they can fund the school over and above what we are doing. You don’t want to create too much dependency where people are dependent on us giving them money all the time. On the side, we’re actually trying to make sure that people take initiative. They begin to do certain things on their own. Our job then becomes to guide, to open doors, and make sure that they can grab the opportunities as and when they come.”
[0:02:05] DC: It takes the right skills and the right innovation to design and manage meaningful print marketing solutions. Welcome to Podcasts From the Printerverse, where we explore all facets of print and marketing that create stellar communications and sales opportunities for business success. I’m your host, Deborah Corn, the Intergalactic Ambassador to the Printerverse. Thanks for tuning in. Listen long and prosper.
[INTERVIEW]
[0:02:31] DC: Hey, everybody. Welcome to Podcasts From the Printerverse. This is Deborah Corn, your Intergalactic Ambassador. And today, we are beaming to the other side of planet Earth. The FESPA Foundation is a global not-for-profit organization launched in 2025 to harness the power of print for social good. Its mission is to reduce waste from FESPA events by repurposing printed materials to support education and early childhood development in under-resourced communities. Through local partnerships and impactful projects, the foundation transforms learning environments, inspires creativity, and promotes sustainability and inclusion across the print industry worldwide.
Steve Thobela is an experienced print industry executive and former CEO of Printing South Africa with a strong background in managing print businesses and nonprofit organizations. As Africa Coordinator and Associate of the FESPA Foundation, Steve has been central to launching the foundation’s first projects, including school revitalization initiatives in South Africa.
His work was focused on improving infrastructure, sanitation, and delivering printed educational resources to schools. Frank Tueckmantel is a veteran marketing leader with over 30 years of international experience in sales, branding, and corporate communications. Appointed to FESPA’s Association Advisory Board in 2007, he has long supported the organization’s global initiatives. As a current marketing consultant to FESPA, Frank played a key role in organizing and hosting the 3-day Smarthub Program in Berlin during the 2025 FESPA Global Print Expo, including delivering the opening address at the Youth Engagement Conference. His ongoing work helps drive awareness and engagement around FESPA’s mission and the foundation’s growing impact.
Welcome, gentlemen, to the program.
[0:04:44] FT: Thank you very much, Deborah. Great to be on the program.
[0:04:46] ST: Thank you, Deborah. It’s good to be on. And thank you for inviting us.
[0:04:50] DC: Steve, can you provide some more information about who you are?
[0:04:55] ST: While I’m going to do that, I want to up-front apologize for some noises that you will keep getting. I’m at the school itself, at one of our beneficiary schools. It is afternoon, and the kids are just waiting for their transport. The foundation really, as you mentioned in your intro, it started as an idea where we thought, with so many exhibitions around the world that FESPA is conducting, and FESPA CEO in particular, Neil Felton, was very much concerned about the waste that comes out of this exhibition because people have to print to demonstrate the capability of their machines. But as they’re printing these beautiful prints that come out of there, I mean, these are show prints, they, for whatever reason, end up in a waste environment. It started as an idea to actually say, “What can we do to encourage these printers to print something that can be – while they’re demonstrating, they can print something that can be put into good use?” That’s where the idea of Print for Good comes from.
As we did our pilot project in January, we had a school called Evane Intermediate School. When we landed there, thinking we can just use print to transform the school, we discovered that there’s a lot of challenges, much more than what we anticipated. Some of the schools, in particular, that one and the one I’m currently in, they’re built with mud and stones, and they still have pit toilets despite the fact that the government is trying to eradicate pit toilets. In fact, there’s been judgments against pit toilets. But some of them are still having pit toilets, and this is one of them.
You can’t just put a beautiful print on that wall. Well, you can see the paint is peeling off. We decided, “Let’s get involved. Let’s rally. Let’s ask for more help and see what we can do to make a difference to those children.” These are schools that are far from the cities. They often don’t have access to most of what we have in the cities. And, therefore, they are outlying countries.
And we’re targeting schools, particularly from the age of seven, that’s grade one here in South Africa, right up to age 14. This, we call primary school, because that’s where the most fundamental learning happens. That opens the door for high school and university. If you catch them at that age and educate them about print, what print is all about, what careers are in print, in the process, you’re improving their lives. That’s basically what the foundation is focused on.
[0:07:35] DC: And what about you as a person? You were the president of Printing South Africa, right? What is your background?
[0:07:42] ST: My background is I’m actually a printer. I completed my apprenticeship. It’s a three-year program here in South Africa. And I then rose through the ranks. Served as a printer at the Pretoria News, which is a world-known newspaper, especially in South Africa. But it’s now much smaller. And then I progressed to The Sowetan newspapers and other big newspapers here in South Africa.
And at some point, I was very much privileged to have been asked by Mr. Mandela, while he was still alive, that I would come and help with the setup of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation. I was there for 5 years. I was the Founding General Manager of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation. I also in the process came to work as the CEO of Printing SA, which is the federation that oversees all the printers in South Africa. That’s actually where I first met the CEO of FESPA. And we started our relationship back then. It’s about 10 years back. And recently, I took early retirement, and I decided that this is the project that I want to get involved in because, surely, I’m not that old yet.
[0:08:55] DC: That is just such an amazing journey and giving back to the world. Can you share a moment from a project, maybe a student’s reaction or feedback from a teacher that really captures the spirit of print for good?
[0:09:11] ST: Recently, on July 18, it’s Mr. Mandela’s birthday. In South Africa, it’s a charity day. It’s actually 67 – the campaign is called 67 Minutes. The 67 came from Mr. Mandela’s prison number, which is 46667. So the last two digits being a 67, we’re saying there’s a campaign that, on his birthday, everybody has to do some charity work at least for 67 minutes. That turns out many cases, a whole day.
We had a Mandela Day at the school called Batau Primary School. You will not believe. While we were busy painting, fixing the ceiling, fences, and at some point, the company that is helping, Sign Wonder, it came and presented the sign of the school. Now, the sign, we all take it for granted. But that’s the emblem. That’s the pride of the school. Actually, the old sign was painted on there, I don’t know which year, it was old and peeling off.
As soon as they opened the newly printed sign and put it down, we’ve got videos of this, and the principal looked at this, and she cried. She just broke down, and she cried, which is something that many of us would just see a sign and pass. But for her, the meaning of that, she knew the kids were not around because it was school holiday. But I got the feedback that when they came back, the children, as they’re walking through the gate, it was such an emotional experience for them. It’s a simple thing. Just a sign. To many of us, it’s simple. simple. To them, it is their pride. It is who they are.
[BREAK]
[0:10:56] DC: Print Media Centr provides printspiration and resources to our vast network of global print and marketing professionals. Whether you are an industry supplier, print service provider, print customer, or consultant, we have you covered by providing resources and strategies that enable business marketing and creative success, reporting from global events, these podcasts, Project Peacock TV, and an array of community-lifting initiatives. We also work with OEMs, suppliers, industry organizations, and event producers, helping you connect and engage with our vast audience and achieve success with your sales, marketing, and conference endeavors. Visit Print Media Centr and connect with the Printerverse. Links in the show notes. Print long and prosper.
[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]
[0:11:50] DC: I mean, Frank, it’s so much more than just a sign in this situation.
[0:11:55] FT: Exactly. And Steve did an amazing job to capture on video what impact it really has. As he said, for us it’s printed goods, right? For us, we are dealing with this for so many years. But when you see how we transform some of the real estate, some of the schools into something that has not looked as good for many years, thanks to print, it really has a tremendous emotional and practical impact for sure.
[0:12:24] DC: How does FESPA get vendors and partners involved in this program to work with Steve? And we’ll talk about other places.
[0:12:33] FT: Yeah. The exhibitors of FESPA have many opportunities to get involved by donating money, donating, obviously, as Steve said, the actual printed goods. It can be garments, it can be textile print, it can be signage, whatever is needed and whatever helps them obviously to show the quality of the output devices.
You know, Deborah, I’m coming from a hardware manufacturer or from several – and so many times, you print those beautiful outputs and, you know, if they’re not being collected at the end of the show by students or somebody who is interested, then they are not having the impact that they can have by being used somewhere else. Working with the exhibitors together, let them print something that shows the quality of the output devices and at the same time produces something that has a life for many, many years to come in South Africa and going forward also in other schools. That really is a great way of getting engaged.
But we also work with the Kingsley Holgate Foundation together in South Africa. And here we collect glasses, reading glasses, school supplies that, in addition to the print, can be donated by attendees to the FESPA shows. And we distribute that, ship that to the countries that need it. In this case, obviously, South Africa. But Steve has also already reached out to other schools in Sub-Saharan Africa.
And then obviously, as Steve said, when we decided we will help schools to look better and the students have a richer learning environment by providing images, posters, many of those schools were in such dire need of beautification of the basic needs like sanitary installations that we said, “You know what, let’s put that on the back burner a little bit. Get the school first up to a standard that allows the students to be proud of and enjoy, and the principals and the teachers.”
Money is king here as well. Donate if you cannot provide anything else. Donate a few dollars, Euro, South African Rand, whatever you can give, and allow us to create environments for kids that really just need that environment to really start taking off. Many ways to get engaged.
[0:15:11] DC: Yeah. I mean, I would have to think it’s bigger than just the school. It must really affect the community. Steve?
[0:15:18] ST: Secondly, if you think about it, when we started the program, well, we’re focusing at the schools. But when we get there, we realize the relationship between the principals, the parents, and the school governing body, in some of the schools, it’s not what it should be. And you can’t blame people in this environment here in Africa. I went to these schools. I can tell you firsthand that my parents would probably go to school if there is something collecting my report or there’s a very important meeting. But parents normally don’t get engaged on a day-to-day, weekly, monthly knowing exactly what is happening, simply because their level of education themselves, it’s so much low. They know very little, and they know they have to send their kids to school. It’s even law here in South Africa. But how much are they involved in these schools? FESPA is doing exactly that.
The FESPA Foundation, we come in, more than just donating. We’re actually getting them to begin to work together. At this school where I am, there’s a garden being planted now. After our engagement, the garden is now being planted to support the feeding scheme that is at this school. There are thoughts and plans that we are putting in place now to build a library. But if we put libraries here, this becomes now a community center. Because, surely, a grade 1, 2, grade 7, they probably not use the library the best, but at least they get introduced to the idea. But the library can then serve the community, which means it’s the community’s library. The school itself is now protected because the community sees this as theirs. It belongs to them. That’s where we’re going with this. And we’ve started.
I mean, some schools, I personally donated some of my MBA books to the principal who has a library at the school. But if you should see the library, if I say half empty, that’s injustice. It’s better to describe it as no books. If there are donations of any forms of books, especially to those printers, especially in South Africa. You’ll find that when they’re printing, there’s a little bit of an error in the process, printing process. The whole batch might be scrapped. If that batch can be redirected to these libraries, it will make a big difference.
[BREAK]
[0:17:41] DC: Girls Who Print provides women in print and graphic communications with information, resources, events, and mentorship to help them navigate their careers and the industry. As the largest independent network of women in print and a nonprofit organization, our global mission to provide resources, skill-building, education, and support for women to lead, inspire, and empower has never been stronger or more accessible. Through our member platform and program, as well as regional groups forming around the world, your access to Girls Who Print is just a click away. And gentlemen, you are most welcome to join us as allies. Get involved and get empowered today. Link in the show notes.
[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]
[0:18:27] DC: Frank, how do you coordinate with the vendors on the show floor so they’re not sending brochures about the presses to students? And how does the material actually get there? Does FESPA take care of shipping it over?
[0:18:44] FT: Yeah, exactly. It’s very easy for the exhibitors to get engaged. We are helping by providing files that we know have the content that is needed in the schools with the information about the human body, basic math, basic spelling. And those files get provided to the exhibitors. Then they can print this together with other stuff that they produce with other output, with other material. And then at the end of each day or at the end of the show, we are collecting whatever has been produced.
And then in this case, after Berlin, with our logistics partner, we are then shipping it down to South Africa. And then Steve and team are distributing it to the schools that have been identified as the ones that we are providing the goods to. And I think, Steve, we are now at school number four already, if I’m not mistaken.
[0:19:45] ST: It’s number four, excluding the pilot one. If you take the pilot phase school, then it’s a total of five that are here in South Africa. The first one was in KZN. KZN means KwaZulu-Natal. And the four schools, one of which I’m at right now. They are in Limpopo, which is another province here in South Africa. The only reason we group them this way is because we print in some posters for the classes. And in a particular province, they’ll speak a particular language. So you want to print those posters in that particular language.
[0:20:19] DC: What kinds of materials do the kids gravitate towards?
[0:20:23] ST: Mainly, if you think about world maps, how many schools will have a world map that is printed that they can see where’s America, where’s China, where is – if you can print that, if you can print posters that speaks to arithmetic. The children only can learn when they can see. It’s arithmetic, you recite it in front of a child. But if you actually put the post in front of them, it begins to make sense.
Body parts for their biology classes. There’s so many types of posters that we can print for the classroom, especially the foundation phases. But because we are also trying to introduce children, even adults, you would be amazed that not so many people understand what the printing industry is all about. Not many people realize that a wallpaper is printed. Not many people even realize that the printing industry is responsible for printing money or the credit card. Even the phone won’t work without the printing industry. Because inside there, you’ve got a SIM card that is printed. Now, all these things are things that, in the process of doing what we’re doing, we begin to educate people. And then the children can see, “Hey, there are a lot of careers in the printing industry.” It’s not just a matter of putting ink to paper. It’s much, much bigger.
[0:21:40] DC: Steve, how does this program grow? And where are the next targets of yours? Frank mentioned Sub-Saharan, which is up north from you. Correct? Northeast? Yes?
[0:21:55] ST: Absolutely. That’s where we are heading. In fact, part of our plans now, it’s a school, to build a school. We are engaging a foundation that is based in Malawi. We are going to work hand-in-hand. We’re building a school with that foundation from scratch. And the FESPA Foundation is going to be involved with transforming that school using print. Things like printed task, or printed wallpapers, all those things that come from the printing industry that we can donate. We’re going to engage with them. That’s Malawi.
There are also plans for schools in Tanzania. We’re also working. This is the beauty of being in the charity organizations. You don’t compete against each other. As charity organizations, we complement each other. Somebody starts something beautiful, we just join in. We’re working with another foundation in Tanzania. That foundation is also extending to Kenya as well. We’re planning to do what we do here in South Africa, but in the Sub-Saharan region as a whole. It’s not just a South African program. We’ve got plans in place to actually grow it. I mean, the continent needs it more than you can imagine.
[BREAK]
[0:23:06] DC: Like what you hear? Leave us a comment, click a few stars, share this episode, and please subscribe to the show. Are you interested in being the guest and sharing your information with our active and growing global audience? Podcasts are trending as a potent direct marketing and educational channel for brands and businesses who want to provide portable content for customers and consumers. Visit printmediacentr.com, click on podcasts, and request a partner package today. Share long and prosper.
[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]
[0:23:41] DC: And Frank, there are several FESPA foundations around the world, like FESPA Brazil, FESPA Middle East. I’m assuming with the success of Steve in South Africa that this is probably going to be growing. Can you speak to that?
[0:23:58] FT: Yeah, absolutely. We have already started putting our feelers out and work in Mexico, work in the Middle East, work obviously wherever else we might be represented together with local support on how to best identify schools, not just in the countries where FESPA is taking place in but maybe also neighboring countries. And make sure that we replicate what we have now started in South Africa as well.
It’s also very important that, obviously, we get it right first, learn from it. And that’s why it’s so wonderful to listen to Steve being in South Africa, being the onsite eyes and ears. Because, obviously, when you sit like myself in the United States, you need to listen more than you actually act, because Steve is seeing what’s needed there. And then it’s my job to support him instead of – as we often have seen in history, people that do not have the local knowledge, try to implement things that are not useful. And we want to definitely avoid those mistakes. And listen to the principals, listen to Steve to make sure we really hit the mark.
[0:25:18] DC: Do you have to be an exhibitor at a FESPA show to print materials for the foundation? And if you’re not a printer and you’re listening to this podcast, how can other people get involved?
[0:25:30] FT: Yeah. On the FESPA Foundation website, there is a donation button, and we accept credit card payments from all over the world, and would hope that this podcast leads us to collect some funds that will help us to do more print for good. You do not have to be an exhibitor. We work with any industry organization together that would like to get involved. Sponsorships for a school, donating, as I said earlier, school supplies that we can get to the schools in need.
But there are plenty of opportunities to get involved without making it complicated. But the goal still is to make trade shows more sustainable. That’s something that FESPA is working on for a while. Everything we do in life has an impact on the environment, trade shows as well. But we want to limit this impact as much as possible. And this is a major initiative to get to that point.
[0:26:34] ST: If I may add to that, Deborah. In fact, you don’t have to be at the exhibition to provide the printed material wherever you are. You can provide that. In fact, Sign Wonder, the company that I mentioned earlier that was working with us for the Mandela Charity Day, they actually specializes in vehicle wrapping. Now, nobody has ever heard of that in the area where the school is.
Now, this was not at an exhibition. They will go to the exhibition and do it. But they came and, actually, they printed the sign on their own accord. They printed it. They brought some printed material. You can print wherever you are. And some of the things that I know as a printer myself for many years, you produce something and you just forget a little number at the back, or ISBN number, and then you’re throwing the whole batch away. That to me is not waste. That is usable material.
Of course, I wouldn’t like to bring to our school something that is rejected. Your binary is not done properly. A book falls apart. We don’t want to do that. But there are some things that you look at it and you say, “This shouldn’t go to waste.” You don’t have to be at the exhibition. Wherever you are, you can produce whatever you produce and just talk to us.
[0:27:51] DC: And Steve, I want to give you the final word here to really provide the boots on the ground perspective of what a functioning school with desks and books means to the children that you have come in contact with.
[0:28:09] ST: For me, it’s all about people. And having worked for Mr. Mandela, and we all know the love he had for children, I think that – and I’m glad that has rubbed off one way or another. When I see the children at a school, when I see them sitting behind the desk, I see the future. I see the president. I see the constitutional judge of the future. And if we don’t treat them well now, what do we expect from them? What kind of a future are we building? If we can transform their lives one way or another, these are the future of the country and the continent at large.
For me, that’s exactly what it means. Make a little bit of a contribution. We don’t want to drizzle all over the show, as Frank said, and try to address poverty and address this. But we can use the resources that we have in the print industry and make a difference, and we focus. And the main thing that I want to emphasize is transparency. When you donate to this foundation, you will see the books you’ve donated landing at a particular school. Transparent, even with the funds we report, every cent that we spend in this organization. We make sure that the overheads are absolute minimum and most of the money goes to the projects themselves.
[0:29:29] DC: I just want to thank you so much for making a difference in the world. You as well, Frank. Everything that you need to connect with Steve, and Frank, and the FESPA Foundation will be in the show notes. And I encourage everybody to do something good in the world. The world needs some love right now. So, thank you, gentlemen, very much. Until next time, print long and prosper.
[OUTRO]
[0:29:54] DC: Thanks for listening to Podcasts From the Printerverse. Please subscribe, click some stars, and leave us a review. Connect with us through printmediacentr.com, we’d love to hear your feedback on our shows and topics that are of interest for future broadcasts. Until next time, thanks for joining us. Print long and prosper.
[END]
