We have had a good four months getting our clients back into the swing of things at the centre, albeit only part of the time. It was wonderful to have them back and make plans for the future returning to normal. But, of course now we are back in Lockdown 4 and have brought our July holidays forward but will remain positive in hoping and praying that we can resume again soon. But we are all so tired of this narrative…
The most wonderful thing that happened was that we, for the first time in forever, have had a physiotherapist and an occupational therapist available to get us going into this new season. They are almost at our beck and call, such an unbelievable luxury. They are based at Pholela Clinic which is just down the road from us (by rural standards) What a blessing Ilana and Sam have been after our long separation from our “children”, helping us get back into the swing again with their therapies.
In the meantime we continue to distribute food parcels to 64 families in dire need mostly due to the loss of jobs over the past year. Some have returned to work and we were able to exit about 24 families but it is very hard to move away from those who were not given the opportunity to return to the work place. Things are so different now. And for as long as we can we will continue to be sensitive to their needs and assist where we can. Once again our deepest gratitude goes to ALL our supporters who have stuck with us during this time. In fact the amazing thing is that not one of our regular donors have withdrawn their support and some have even increased their contributions. We stand amazed and deeply grateful.
Among those who support us is Container Ministries who give us their gifts of dehydrated soup mix and dried peaches. Here some of our clients are holding these goodies up for us to see.
“Hilfe fuer Esinqobile” is a group of families from Germany who started a support group for HNO more than 25 years ago and have never tired of keeping in contact and sending funds about twice a year with sponsorships for 10 of our children and extra for general running costs. Their faithfulness is so encouraging for us and of course the weak Rand works in our favour in this case. Many years ago Rolf came and met Esther Alm our founder, who passed away this past year. He went back to Germany and rallied the forces and the rest is history. His band of friends have stayed the course with us and their love and interest in us is almost tangible.
Small Village Foundation (SVF) is another overseas group of kind supporters from Boise USA who have a special heart for others in need. When we started our food parcel program we were able to assist about 10 families but when SVF came on board we increased to about 35 families. Now we have 64 on our books. Over the years they have also assisted financially with other projects such as the building of or repairs to houses in the community. Every two years SVF used to come out with a group of teenagers to introduce them to Africa , its cultures and great needs. It was always such fun as they would come and visit us at the centre and do some hands-on work like paint the playground equipment, sing songs, and play with the children. Then the group would visit a few of our clients in the community. This June would have been that time again for the next group but of course it sadly couldn’t happen. These pix bring back happy memories from the 2017 and 2019 visits.
But we never forget our local friends. I wish I could mention you all by name. Your walk with us is what keeps us going. We send our love and thanks to all of you.
Conny
