Help 60 poor women in South Africa getting skilled

It is almost impossible to believe that it is August already. We in South Africa have had a fabulous four months with the preparation for the Fifa World Cup 2010, and then also the great success that we experienced in hosting such a major event. We in George were privileged to have the Japanese team staying at our Fancourt Hotel, and had our people from the centre partake in all the pleasures of watching the games at the Sport facilities that were erected in town. None of the games were played in George, but the spirit of our people was wonderful. In July we had a new intake of ladies, which are receiving a stipend from our local government as part of a job creation program called Extended Public Works Program. This has made it possible for us to have more students, i.e. 23 at present. Of our latest intake of students we have tried to take more of the young unmarried women from the Child Welfare’s caseloads. These are mothers that are not able to provide for their children, and the result has been that the children have been removed from their care. This is heartbreaking, but at least one of the ladies went to court yesterday, and the children will be given back to her today at 12pm, because she is now able to provide minimally for them. This is when the joy of helping comes at its best. We would like to thank all the donors out there that provide for our people. Every donation comes with great happiness, as this makes it possible to train someone, and gives them the privilege of experiencing life, as it should. Their conditions are still a long way from being what they should be, but if their self-confidence and pride is restored, they create their own home improvements with the knowledge picked up from mingling with others.

Fighting poverty, HIV, and lack of education is a long-term project, and we can only hope to try and change this for some of our people. Thank you once again for all your support, especially to the Global Giving Team with all their help and advice.

Progress Report March 2010

First of all, very big thank you to all who contributed to our project to enable us to earn a permanent spot on GlobalGiving.

In December 2009 we had a “Fun day” at the centre in order to create awareness of our project and also of the spot we were trying to obtain on GlobalGiving. We had local radio station representation, celebrities from our area, and lots of the public supporting us to achieve this. About a week before the deadline it seemed as if our efforts would be in vain, but then Cate Homlish and her family from New York jumped in and assisted our centre to actually achieve our goal. It was such an eye opener to see the difference in electronic giving in the States and our local people who prefer not to do on-line transactions. We really are third world, but will continue to create awareness of the methods of payment and also trust in donating via credit card onto the internet. We realised how little our people really know about these facilities, and also how few people have access to them. On the 5th of December the ladies from our centre brought a tear to my eye when they collected a few rand amongst themselves to pay $10 towards our GlobalGiving project. This makes one realise how much they need the help and also how much they appreciate it. Since the race to come onto the site in December, we had the lovely holidays, and of course, together with this the extreme financial survival until the end of January 2010. To all of those that contributed to our cause, thank you once again.

January the 15th we started off slowly, not due to the lack of people knocking on our door, but due to the lack of funds to initiate the programme that we so much want to get up and going again. Government helped us temporarily until the end of March with a stipend for the ladies we had at the centre. In order for the programme to start up smoothly, we do need more funds, as soon as the donations pick up, we will be able to continue training full on. The monies received to date have been used on three students, which have received training to date on glass work and beading, the two run hand in hand. They then bead the strings together and with the help of a Company called Source are sold to clients in our area, thus creating more income to train any further students. Our sewing section has not yet got off the ground, due to insufficient funds, but hopefully, that will change soon. The disasters throughout the world have drawn the attention off of the real living day to day problems that people experience all over the planet. We need to revive this desire to aid persons in order to create a better future and support those underprivileged who live in these disastrous circumstances every day of their lives.

During February, one of my ladies needed to be relocated due to years of physical abuse from her husband. We managed to find her a shack – about 3metres by 3metres – for her and her four children. We received donations from the regular donors of our project, and stabilised her and her children. Unfortunately, there is no electricity or running water, but at least she will be safe and we can protect her. So much effort goes into helping such persons, and the best part of this story, is that she is not at the centre any longer as she has a full time job. I will be monitoring her and her children regularly in order to make sure that she can continue to support her family on her income.

The next three months will be critical to the growth of our project, as this depends entirely now on the donations received via GlobalGiving and assistance from any other donors out there.