Kwethu Childrens Village Flood Destruction Rebuild

All you friends who responded to our appeal for funds to repair the damage a raging Injesuthi River wreaked on Feb 6 will be excited to read on. Life principle: when a bad thing happens, get ready to build for twice the good!                                                                                                                 

The first days were bleak…and very dirty. Sucking mud everywhere clung to boots, drowned computers & printers, muddied and irreplaceable documents from the file cabinet were rescued from random corners.

Tallying the losses:  Victor’s car, the big freezer, tables, chairs, cabinets went floating down the river. Sadness and discouragement leaked into every conversation. Ants do better at coping with disaster, we mused.

The emergency fund on GlobalGiving started up.  $ 6500 later and many encouraging notes, as well as that old ‘bounce back’ chip in us, kick started where we are at end of May .  Donations of new computers, wise spending on donated funds restored working office. Better floors, a better fence, and a chance to improve strategic planning. 

The Better Bigger idea kicked in.  Rebuild Kwethu! became an idea of more than just a new wall,  replaced fence,  and repainted offices.  Visible damage and wreaked fences tied right in with the other time-damaged hope:  restarting foster care .Our dream of a Foster Care Village for orphan and vulnerable children also lay in disrepair, discouraged by factors beyond our control and finally, COVID lockdown of 2020.  What if we tag onto repairing flood damage, to also renovate Ijuba House as our first Foster Home, make strategic links with registering entity,  Dept of Social Development , and cultivate its enthusiasm over the New KCV? 

That’s not to say we don’t have children!  The teens and young adults that are spreading wings and becoming independent or still in university, are the treasure of many years of raising them. Last week 6 of these vibrant, confident, well loved young people were accepted into a 3 year internship/training for Electrical Technician in Johannesberg. They will receive a monthly stipend,  receive education that will take them through a Trade Test and the Center will place them into jobs.  We are proud of their perseverance, their accomplishment so far ( the pre requisite was having passed N3 stage of Electrical training previously).   Do you wonder that we want to start all over with dozens of young children needing safe homes, from orphanhood or abuse?   This is Rebuild Kwethu! That we’re talking about.

We THANK YOU a million for your support with the flood appeal. We want to say that every $ will end up having tripled by the time we’re finished. For the flood started us on a whole new direction, with courage left over, and that included organizational instrospection, uncovering new directions… and a new fence , with the teens of KCV lending enthusiastic help.