Advent Newsletter 2024

November 2024: Dear members, friends, and supporters of “Siyabonga – Laughing Hearts for South Africa e.V.”, the festive season has begun, and 2024 is slowly coming to a close.

During this reflective time, we would like to look back with you on the past year – on the moving experiences and successes we were able to achieve in our four projects in South Africa, thanks to your support. Without your help – whether through donations, time, or personal commitment – these advancements would not have been possible. Siyabonga kakulo – Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Greytown Children's Home

2024 was a year full of positive developments for our children’s home in Greytown, which provides a home for 165 children aged 2 to 18. Especially encouraging is the continuous decline in the number of HIV-positive children at the home. Every month, we hold a wonderful birthday party for the children celebrating their special day – a lovely tradition that brings much joy to everyone. During the South African winter (our summer), we provided warm winter clothing and new school shoes. In addition, several renovation projects were carried out, such as renewing the playgrounds and trampolines. The highlight of the year was the large Christmas party on November 16, which featured a colorful program and gifts that made the children's hearts soar. The celebration is traditionally held in November, as many children go to relatives or foster families during the Christmas holidays.

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Village Project

The monthly support packages, consisting of food and hygiene articles, distributed to particularly needy families in the dry region around Muden and Keates Drift, have significantly improved living conditions. Now, we regularly support four preschools with food and school supplies. One particularly moving event was the “graduation parties” for the preschool children. Each child received their own gym bag filled with a coloring book, crayons, sweets, and hygiene articles – a lovely gesture that gave the children a great send-off from preschool and a wonderful start to primary school. Additionally, we were able to advance renovations in the preschools by installing new sanitary facilities and creating more vegetable gardens to promote sustainable nutrition for the children. Another highlight was the project day organized by the church communities in July, which included numerous arts and crafts activities for children and handcraft courses for women, bringing much joy. A puppet show rounded off the program and brought smiles to everyone’s faces. One highlight was the construction of a large new playground at one of our preschools in November, so much to the joy of the children that the teachers now have a hard time getting them off the play ground in the afternoon. ;-)

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Feeding project Greytown

Once again, in 2024, the feeding project provided valuable assistance to people in need and street children, offering a nutritious hot meal twice a week. A special event was the Nelson Mandela Day on July 18, with a festive meal and gym bags full of surprises for the children. The highlight of the year will be the traditional Christmas meal on December 12, where a festive chicken curry with rice will be served, and additional takeaway food packages will be distributed to families. For the children, small gifts with coloring books and crayons are also planned.

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Township-Project

In the Haniville Township near Pietermaritzburg, 15 survival packages were distributed monthly to particularly needy families by our dedicated social worker and her small team. In addition, we were able to provide 10 water tanks for families to ensure they have enough water for their gardens and households. Providing seeds for private vegetable gardens and the large community garden is another step toward self-sufficiency and sustainability. In August, a fire broke out in a hut, and a family lost almost everything. Thanks to your support, we were able to quickly assist the affected family with new mattresses, school uniforms, and school supplies. At the beginning of the new school year, we also covered the costs of the mandatory school uniforms for 12 primary school children from particularly poor families. Another highlight was equipping a small kindergarten with mattresses, chairs, blankets, and learning materials – all measures that will help provide a better start in life for the children in the township.

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Major Fundraising Campaigns in 2024

Once again this year, we would like to express our special thanks to the two schools in Erfurt, Moritzschule and Edith-Stein-Schule for their great fundraising efforts:

• April 26: The annual fundraising run at Moritzschool Erfurt was a great success. With a donation of 4,280.27 EUR, the elementary school supports our projects – a long-standing partnership that has been going on for 11 years.

• May 29 – June 2: At the 103rd Catholic Day in Erfurt, the students of Edith-Stein-School organized the café “Röstmeister:innen” (Barista), with an incredible donation total of 6,500 EUR.

These funds, raised under the motto “from children for children”, have primarily been used to support the children in our projects. With them, we were able to realize the new playground in the village project, renovations at the children’s home and preschools, as well as the “surprise gym bags” for the preschool children and those in the feeding project. Simply amazing!

On behalf of the entire Siyabonga board, as well as the project managers and local helpers, we would like to thank you all from the bottom of our hearts. Your generous support has allowed us to change many lives and bring hope to those in need.

If anyone would like to do something special during the pre-Christmas season, we would be very grateful for contributions toward small Christmas gifts for the children in our four projects.

We wish you and your loved ones a joyful and reflective Advent season.