30/06/2012

Hi there this chilly June day!

There are a lot of children who are feeling warm thanks to the SACBC donation of tracksuits and blankets.  On 27th June a Human Trafficking and Sexual Abuse Day was held at our drop in centre in Vlakbult.   It was well attended and a lot of interest was shown.   3 ladies from Social Services came and told the children about the help that is available to them if they should find themselves in trouble.   After that we showed them a DVD drama about a young girl who was sexually abused by her uncle.  Thrn some of the children acted out their own dramas.    At question time the children showed a lot of interest, but you could see the embarrassment and shyness which prevents so many from coming out into the open.   What a world we live in!!   One family who moved into one of the two room houses we built, thanks to the SACBC, told our assistants that they are so happy to have a house, because one girl in the family had narrowly escaped being raped a coupleof times by running for her life, but now she had a door she could lock.   These kids need help if they are to grow into decent citizens - it's a jungle out there!

12/06/2012
Hi there!   The South African Bishops Conference donated funding to buy our orphans tracksuits, blankets, towels, buckets and laundry basins.   Here the kids from the Driekoppies Drop in Centre show off their new tracksuits etc.   This has been well timed with the present cold snap which has everyone shivering!   Thnak you SACBC for your immense generosity.
The building of 2 room houses continues - we have completed 15 already.   You can't imagine the joy generated when these little orphan headed families can move into their new homes which are warm, safe, don't leak - AND- have  rain water tanks and guttering!!   Also a big thank you to SACBC!

We are looking for funding to buy 20 lap tops.   At the moment we only have 5 and so the computer classes are going very slowly.   It is essential to be computer literate in today's world, to be able to do research for projects on Google etc.   As you can see, we also have some budding seamstresses!

March 18th 2012

House no 8 after

House no 8 before

Recycling Puppet Show

Hi,

Here is a photo of a little puppet show we did for the orphans on recycling and collecting rubbish. The children had a huge response and rushed around collecting rubbish in plastic garbage bags which I took to the recycling depo in Malelane. The children expressed amazement at how much rubbish they found - hopefully this kind of "sensitizing" will encourage them to clean up their neighbourhood and the word will spread!

The 2 room houses we are building with funding from the South African Catholic Bishops Conference is going well and the first 10 will be finished soon. The families concerned are over the moon as you can imagine and very happy to be given a water tank and guttering to catch rain water, thus obviating the nasty chore of having to go to collect water in a wheelbarrow if the water lorry rocks up as scheduled - which doesn't always happen and the the household has to try and do without!

9 Feb 2012

House No 5 after

House No 5 before

Hi there!
It is 2012 already and we are off to a busy start! The price of mealie meal per 12.5kg bag has soared which is sad as it makes life difficult for us - stretching available funds.

The South African Catholic Bishop's Conference has awarded us funding to build 20 little 2 room houses plus a water tank for deserving orphan-headed homes. We have built 5 already and will start on the next five very soon. See photos above. Craft classes on a Wednesday are going well. A lot of the older children who were getting on well and producing lovely aprons etc are too busy with school to attend, so we are starting from the bottom again with younger ones who have never seen a sewing machine - patience!!

September 2011

Traditional dance

Sewing aprons

Making gift bags from newspaper!

Hi there!

I haven't posted for so long that I forgot my password and got in by sheer good luck!

Lots of interesting things have been happening, the most important I think is that we are now making and selling beautiful aprons, keyrings and gift bags! Half the money received in this way goes back into the kitty and the other half goes to the maker for pocket money! The orphans are very excited at the thought of earning a little cash. If anyone is interested send me your order by email to inkrollo@mweb.co.za - they make great Christmas gifts!

We had a very successful Heritage Day celebration - over 400 children took part. 2 American friends were there to celebrate too. It was held at our new drop in centre at Bongani village.

We have started building a new centre in Kamhlushwa village and hope to have a soccer fields, netball fields and a bicycle track.

May God bless you all,

Inky

April update

Colouring in

Our granddaughter teaching beading

Hello all who read this blog site. I often wonder who you are! Please send me a message.

We have been busy building another centre at Bongani village which will open soon and it will serve as a drop in centre for the orphans there. They'll have access to learning computer skills, sewing, knitting, embroidery, and beading, as well as have safe place in which to play games, do sport and have their homework supervised. We have a wonderful lady Thandi Ngwena who will be "mother" there, available for the children 24/7.

We are also planning another centre at Kamhlushwa village with much the same in mind, as well as a bicycle track so the kids can ride their bikes, kindly provided by Bikes for Africa". A copy of our our quarterly newsletter has just come out. If you are interested in receiving one, please email me at inkrollo@mweb.co.za and I will send you a copy.

We now have a regular Crafts class going every Wednesday afternoon. where the girls mainly are taught beading, embroidery, and sewing simple articles. We hope to get a market for the articles so the girls can earn a bit of pocket money.

Hello and best wishes for 2011!

I haven't updated this blogsite for some months, as I was having trouble downloading photos but as you can see all is now well!

We have had a busy 6 months with football matches, a huge gathering of children in September where we all had a lot of fun, games were played and the children had dancing competitions. Sabina Govere, our psychologist has been doing wonderful work with the orphans. When she started, the kids were too shy to share in groups, but now they chat away happily, sharing their joys and their pains.

We have also had a lot of visitors - Meredith McCord and her family from Texas, Fr Joseph Knapp, his sister and friends and Yahitta Hassim and a student who was researching childrens rights in particular with regard to orphan-headed homes.

We'll be starting food distribution at the end of this week, on 8th January.

The children sharing in groups