Cordis Trust

The Cordis Trust is a

Cordis Trust was established and funded in 2000 by Dr Fanie Marais as a memorial trust for Mardene Marais (28/08/1968- 18/10/1989). She was a student at RAU (now UJ) from 1987-1989. From 1990, the Marais family established the Mardene Marais Memorial Bursaries for Afrikaans undergraduates and in 1999 extended this to Honours studies. In 1992, with the encouragement of Johann Johl, a private publication, Woordpalet, of Mardene’s writings, was illustrated by Father Claerhout, after which he also created several themed paintings.

The objectives of Cordis Trust (From the Heart) are compassion projects (theatre of life); creative Afrikaans word art (poetry, writing, drama and lyric art and cultural history) operating as the Afrikaans word art academy; and the promotion of spiritual work (message of hope). Youth voices are emphasized within the respective goals.