March 2023: We hope you are all well and enjoying the first signs of spring in the meadows. Even though we have not sent out a newsletter for a while, we have not been idle. The financial report for 2022 has been finalised: It is great to see that we were able to count on your loyal support despite numerous global crises and the financial challenges they brought. Thanks to your generous donations, we were able to transfer a total of 30,000 EUR to our four projects in 2022. Administrative costs were again very low at 0.83%. You can view the full 2022 financial report here.
Thanks to your support, we also start optimistically into the year 2023 and have many ideas for small and larger actions in our projects:
In South Africa, the big summer holidays are now over and the children are looking forward to school and preschool - a privilege not all children have! In the township project we will therefore again finance the necessary school uniforms for poor families. In our village project we are still trying to get governmental support for two of the four preschools. There are still some construction projects in the new preschool and some renovations in the other school buildings.
Because the distribution of Christmas presents in the preschools was a great success and brought a smile to the children's eyes everywhere, we would also like to bring a little joy to the children at Easter. Let's see what the Easter bunny hides. :-)
We are very proud of our garden projects. Also in 2023 we want to help needy families in the township and in the village project with seeds to plant their own vegetable gardens. There is also a community garden each at the soup kitchen, township project and children's home. The harvest was very good last year, so that some of the vegetables could even be sold or distributed to others in need. Let's hope that this year's harvest will be as successful.
As usual, we will support poor families in the village project and in the township every month with survival packages consisting of food and hygiene articles. In the township project we also contribute to the transportation costs to hospitals and authorities.
In the children's home, some major appliances such as washing machines need to be replaced and some stoves need to be repaired. In addition, our donations are used for psychological counseling for some of the children who have often had to endure difficult fates. A sad example is the tragic and unexpected suicide of the teenager Andile Gasa at the end of January. Andile was the talented soccer player for whom we had financed the travel costs to the talent scouting in Durban last year (see newsletter 07/22). Andile leaves behind his three little sisters who also live in the children's home. We are all very saddened by the circumstances and will cover the funeral expenses. In addition, the children's home has said goodbye to two long-time employees. Fortunately, replacements have already been found for both of them.
Apart from that, we are looking forward to many great fundraising events in 2023. We are always surprised how many people think of our organisation even on occasions such as birthday celebrations. If you need information material or flyers for your event in favour of Siyabonga, please contact us.
We wish you a nice start into spring.
