By Andrea Parmegiani | Public Relations Coordinator
Dear Global Givers,
As a new year is about to begin, all of us at Our Place would like to express our gratitude for your unswerving support and for all the wonderful things it has made possible in the past twelve months.
As you might remember from our last update, we have created a satellite structure in area called Mahosheni, which is located about 10 km from our main center in Coffee Bay. You might also remember that we have created a new kindergarten in one of the huts. We need to expand our kindergarten as soon possible because, given the effects of the AIDS pandemic in the area, there are more and more children who need the care we provide at our kindergarten. In addition to receiving pre-school training, our children receive a balanced meal each day, which helps them maintain their immune system. Sadly, this is often not the case for many children of the area whose parents – if they are still alive – are too poor to provide food on a daily basis.
The tribal authorities have given us the land to expand our satellite center, and we have already begun to dig the foundations for the new building. In addition to providing a bigger classroom, the new building will also include bedrooms where we can house some of the orphans of the area who need to be within our family structure on a full-time basis. A group of forty university students from the Port Elisabeth area has already committed to spending time with us to help with the construction work, which we will begin as soon as we can raise the necessary money to buy the rest of the materials that are needed. We need approximately $2000 to buy more bricks, plus another $2000 to buy cement, doors, windows, and other materials.
The grocery store that we opened a few months ago to make this project more self-sufficient has been a very big success. The residents of the areas love it because they no longer have to walk 10 km each way to buy basic groceries such as rice, beans, flour, milk, and paraffin. Business has been very good, and we have been investing the revenue generated to increase our stock in order to meet the demand.
Thank you once again, from all of us, from the bottom of our hearts and best wishes for a prosperous new year.
Andrea Parmegiani
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