New start of the township project

April 2021: We are overjoyed to be able to inform you today about the restart of our township project.

In spring 2020 Bruce - the founder of "Walk In The Light" - informed us that he had to give up the project management due to the bad economic situation, increasing violence and insolvency of his farm, which hd been part of the project. Since then, project activities have unfortunately been at a standstill. Only at the end of 2020 we could continue the work with the families in the township with the previous social worker Phindile. The necessary re-registration of the project, with the appointment of Phindile as project leader, proved difficult due to African bureaucracy and restrictions due to the Corona pandemic. In the meantime, however, all bureaucratic hurdles have been overcome and we can again support the project with donations from the association.

Phindile registered the new project under the name "Siyaphila" and as a sub-project of "Walk In The Light". "Siyaphila" is Zulu and means "we are doing well". With this name, she wants to give hope to the residents in the township that despite their predicament, they can get help and look to the future with hope.

Our focus in the project is on the work in the township. Already at Christmas, the first needy families could be provided with survival packages. Since then, Phindile, together with former farm worker Nicolas and a small team of volunteers, visits about 15 families per month, many of whom are also affected by HIV. The survival kits consist of hygiene articles and big bags with food such as maize flour, rice, flour, sugar and oil as well as various vegetables such as potatoes, pumpkin, onions and tomatoes. The large families, some with up to 10 children, can feed themselves for a month on this. Support is provided primarily to single mothers or grandmothers without an income, but some of whom are able to receive child-care or health benefits with Phindile's administrative support.

Currently, Phindile has to rent a transport for the home visits in the extensive and impassable township area, since there is no project-owned car available yet. In the long term, we hope to be able to provide our own means of transport so that patient transports and visits to the authorities can be carried out again.

Furthermore, we are concentrating on the children in the township and are financing school uniforms for particularly poor families so that the children can attend school, as there is a uniform requirement in South Africa and they are not allowed to attend school without a uniform.

Enclosed you will find pictures of the visits to the families in the township during the months of December to March. We thank Phindile and her helpers for their extraordinary commitment!

Stay healthy and take care!