November 2021: Advent, advent, a little light is burning ... and again a year comes to an end. Despite all the restrictions in the context of the Corona pandemic, we can be proud of what we have achieved in our four projects in South Africa thanks to your donations in 2021.
In the children's home, a lot of renovation work has been done on the residential buildings and the children have received new mattresses. Also the use of solar energy is advancing, in order to soon be independent from expensive electricity and the governmental sanctions, where electricity is sometimes limited to 2 hours per day ("load shedding"). In August there was a Corona outbreak in the children's home, but fortunately all with mild symptoms. On November 18, 2021, the first 32 children aged 12 to 18 were vaccinated by South African Health Services staff. A highlight for the children was the first snow in years in the South African winter.
In the village project we celebrated the 80th birthday as well as the farewell of the longtime project leader Karel in June 2021. Now the project work will be continued by the dedicated and skilled Paul and his small team of volunteers. In the village project, too, this year’s focus was on renovations at the three preschools with improvement of security, new painting, new gas stoves and blackboards. In addition to the preschools, we continue to provide food parcels to needy families in the dry rural area. Furthermore, thanks to two generous donations, we are able to finance the training of two preschool teachers.
The greatest joy this year was the restart of our township project. We are currently focusing on working with the needy families in the township. Phindile, our social worker, visits about 15 families per month and distributes care packages. They consist of hygiene items and food such as cornmeal, rice, flour, sugar and oil as well as various vegetables. Furthermore, Phindile assists in applying for government grants ( child/health benefits and pension) and provides school uniforms for children whose families could not otherwise afford the uniforms. We are deeply saddened by the news of a major fire in the township, in which 7 families lost their huts. These were very poor families who have no means to rebuild the already poor dwellings made of corrugated iron, mud and straw. Currently, they are temporarily housed with neighbours.
During the Corona closure, the feeding project served canned food and bread to those in need. Currently, a hot meal can again be distributed twice a week.
Again in 2021 Corona accompanied us and classic fundraising events could unfortunately not take place, such as the charity run at the Moritz school Erfurt.
Nevertheless, we would like to fulfil some wishes of our projects for Christmas and are grateful for your support:
The children in our three preschools in the village project are already looking forward to a little present for Christmas. This year there will be a small gym bag for each child with a towel, toothbrush, soap, toys and a sweet.
The children's home needs 150 bed sheets for the new mattresses.
In the township project, three people are in urgent need of a wheelchair after suffering a stroke and we would like to help the victims of the fire to rebuild their huts.
For Christmas dinner at the feeding project, the children are to receive a small gift box with a toothbrush, soap and crayons.
It would be wonderful if we could realize this together with your help.
In addition to your direct donations to our organization’s account, you can also do good with your online Christmas shopping - simply select "Siyabonga-Lachende Herzen für Südafrika e.V." as organization at www.smile.amazon.de and 0.5% of your purchase amount will be passed on to us. You are also welcome to start a fundraising on Facebook yourself, e.g. for your birthday (instructions).
We would like to thank all of our donors, who make our work in the projects possible, and wish you and your loved ones a nice Christmas season full of joy, harmony and coziness.
If you want to snuggle up on the sofa and watch something nice, we recommend our new short films about our projects. :-) We are looking forward to another exciting year 2022 with you!