Educate Special Needs Children in South Africa

Give 27 special needs children an education in SA (24155)

This year started off slow.  We watched as some of our learners had to leave the school.  Some of the learners went back to mainstream school, some families relocated and others found employment.  The exciting news is that we also welcomed new learners.

In March 2016 we launched the Antjie Krog Trust.  The Trust will promote special needs education in rural Limpopo, South Africa and help raise funds to secure the school’s financial future, but it is still in its infant stages.  We would like to thank everybody for their contribution and attendance at the launch.

The evening was a huge success.  The press, radio, school board members, the trustees, invited guests and some of our staff attended the event which was held at Cynthia’s Indigo Moon Restaurant in Pretoria.  The food was absolutely amazing and the service was excellent.  We all had a great time.

What is happening in and around Thabazimbi that effect the community!

With the closing of Kumba Mine in Thabazimbi, the local once thriving community is now struggling.  Many contractors, shops and other businesses have closed shop or have relocated to other areas.  More than 1000 people lost the jobs and this has caused that extreme pressure has been put on the micro economy of Thabazimbi and surrounding areas.

The school lost many of their donors and we had to create initiatives to counter the financial loss that we suffered.  As a non-profit we have to just work harder to ensure the sustainability of the school. 

We were fortunate enough to receive some funding, but are still struggling to keep the school and its progress on track.  We have many fundraisers planned for the rest of the year and we are hoping that this will be very successful projects so that we can continue doing our work.

Here is a list of all our major planned events for the rest of 2016 for Spitskop Special Needs School and the Antjie Krog Trust.

Casual Day:  2 September 2016

Thaba Tholo auction:  15 and 16 September 2016

Spitskop School and Antjie Krog Trust will be included in the event.  Please attend auction to find out more.  We are very excited about this event.

PHASA Gala event:  17 September 2016

Phasa will host a gala evening for Antjie Krog Trust and Spitskop School at Cynthia’s Indigo Moon Restaurant.  Tickets are available from PHASA.   Please support us by attending the function.

October Festival:  15 October 2016 at the Thabazimbi Showgrounds

The Thabazimbi Business Chamber is organising the event with lots of exciting activities for the whole family and Spitskop School together with Thaba Super Spar and South African Breweries will be responsible for the beer tent.  Please come and enjoy the day with us as we had a very successful event last year.

Other upcoming events!

The Antjie Krog Trustwill also be hosting a golf day on 5 October 2016 in Pretoria area.  Final details will be available on the Antjie Krog Trust Facebook Page.

Thaba Super Sparwill host its Carols by candlelight later in the year.  Date still to be confirmed and Spitskop School will once again be present to sell refreshments for the evening.

Once a month the staff raises funds by selling either pancakes or boerewors rolls at Thaba Super Spar, who has been so kind to always donate the dough for the pancakes or rolls for the boerewors so that the school’s fundraising costs are reduced.  Thabazimbi community are always keen to support us whenever they can. 

More exciting news from Spitskop School

Very important visitors visited our school on Tuesday 19 July 2016.  Bob Benson and his wife Michelle Goldberg from Safari Club International Foundationin America spent some time at the school together with Wynand Erasmus and Isabelle Loggerenberg from Numzaan Safaris.  Their kind donation of the Numzaan wors, the famous SCI Blue bag and paper was really appreciated.  They have promised to help with awareness between members and associations.  What wonderful people.  Thaba Super Spar donated the platter and refreshments for the guests and a good time was had by all. 

We have also joined the global fundraising markets and we are now a non-profit partner with organisations such as Global Giving, Back a Buddy and Help Freely. 

Our plans for the rest of 2016 / 2017!

We are in the process of raising funds to develop a portion of the farm for a skills development and self-sustainability project.  Our aim with this is two-fold.  Teach our learners the skills of farming and raising funds for the school by selling 80% of the produce to the local community, shop owners and safari lodges in the immediate surroundings.  The rest of the produce will be utilized for a better and healthier feeding scheme for our learners.  Quality and quantity will be our focus and in this extreme heat, we unfortunately have to plant 80% of the produce in tunnels.  The school currently has only 1 tunnel that we have been using to plant fresh produce for the school by the learners to reduce the feeding scheme costs.  We harvest 12 months of the year.

Designated areas are already bush cleared for plantation.  Even the open plantation area in picture 2 needs to be covered due to the extreme heat.

We are also committed to converting an old store room into a workshop to further develop boys and girls skills as well as equip our sewing room and arts and crafts room.  These facilities are for learners of all ages.  Our requirements for these 2 skills development projects are work tops, power tools, tools, accessories and consumables.  We also require lock up steel cabinets, arts consumables, 2 sewing machines, over locker, accessories, and work tops.

Our thanks!

Firstly, we want to thank our incredible educators that relentlessly works in this very challenging environment.  We would also welcome our new additions, Lorraine our Headmaster that joined our team on 18 July 2016 and Katryn, our occupational therapist who joined us last year October.