KAS South Africa enjoyed another successful Hobby X and it was so encouraging to have people we met at last year’s show bringing us the squares that they had knitted to this year’s show. We even had a lady drive all the way from Harrismith to Johannesburg to bring us her squares – a 3 hour journey!
Lindi, Wendy and Wandi manning our very colourful stand at Hobby X.
In this report, we feature our visit to the Salvation Day Care Centre that took place towards the end of June 2014. The Salvation Day Care Centre is, as you will see from the photos a very well-run school.
It was bitterly cold that day and the children just loved the hand warmers that we handed out first.
I think we confused these little ones terribly by getting them to wave about displaying their hand warmers!
Each of the children was given a blanket and a beanie and we left enough tops for each of them too – it was too cold to have them take off layers to put on a new top.
As always, the biggest hit was when we handed out your lovely toys.
Look at those gorgeous smiles!!!
This is a large day care centre on a fairly large piece of property which is being well utilised with a vegetable garden to provide fresh veggies to the children and plans in place to build a brick structure which will become the new classrooms.
A bright and cheerful teaching environment. Well done to all at the Salvation Day Care Centre.
In general….
We seem to have caught up with the opening of mail again and are now opening the mail as we receive it each week. Unfortunately however, this may be as a result of another looming strike rather than clearing the backlog of mail from the previous lengthy strike we experienced last year. In a media release issued by the South African Post Office, the Group CEO, Mr Mlu Mathonsi, explained: “We anticipate that the industrial action will have minimal interruptions, if any, on our services given that this action involves only CWU members. Additionally, their notice specifies only work-to-rule privileges for two weeks.”
This statement was issued on 5th March and we have certainly experienced a massive reduction in the volume of mail we have received. We will continue to monitor the situation and keep you updated, but at this point in time it is business as usual!
We are planning to start distributing again as the evening and early morning temperatures drop and we have our first distribution for the year planned this Friday.
We have also been furiously making, and encouraging others to make, navy blue scarves for the Med-Lemon campaign. We are committed to collecting 3000 scarves by the end of April!
A BIG thank-you to the few who supported the “Fund-raising for Rent” appeal in KAS Snippets – we appreciate your help as the extra space is vital for our volunteers to efficiently open parcels, sort and bundle squares and other items and keep the system running efficiently.
We will need to put our collective thinking caps on this year, to come up with ideas to keep funding the operational side of KAS SA as it has grown to critical mass in terms of its relative manpower requirements on the ground. If any of you have a knack for fund-raising, please share some of your inspirational thoughts with us!!!
Keep knitting and more importantly, have fun while you are doing it!
Replies
I am hoping that end of April deadline will extend some as I have 5 scarves gone but two more here that even if mailed tomorrow wouldn't make it, not by sea. As Ronda says, they will keep accepting navy scarves throughout the year to stockpile for next year as well. I will once April is past, alternate scarves with other projects for the orphans who can't even afford school uniforms, the poorest of the poor. I am very excited about the "learn to knit, learn to support yourself" initiative that will be started this year.
Lovely comments - thanks so much to you all !
Thank you for the report. It's always wonderful see the smiling little faces. Wow 3000 navy blue scarves due in one month. Are we at least half way there? I hope we will be able to meet the goal. For now I will be knitting nothing but navy scarves.
Thank you for a fabulous report. It is lovely to see a well run daycare. It will provide so many opportunities for the children to develop and to know their worth. Love the hand warmer photo ! Your display at Hobby X was absolutely splendid, so bright and colourful. Really glad it was a successful day with lots of new squares.
Thank you for this fabulous update and touching photographs. The faces on the little ones say it all. Guess it is time to start attacking the navy yarn again.
Thank you for another inspiring report. The children's smiles on their sweet little faces are priceless.
Wonderful I hope you can recruit more on the ground knitters and crocheters who can get their squares through what ever the postal situation in SA! delighted to see Jennifer Welsher's granny squares on your Hobby X stand I'll alert her.
Wonderful to read this report. Um any further clarification on what you mean by critical mass? I'm guessing it's not space as the extra office just opened? Is it just the funding needed? I am a little fuzzy on this right now.
Thank you for this report! I love seeing the well-run daycares, and especially the precious smiling faces. And don't they love the toys :)) I am so glad to be able to participate in this effort to bring some warmth and fun into the lives of these dear little ones.
Your Hobby X display is absolutely fantastic. Who wouldn't want to stop and "hang around" there for a while! I know I would have loved to be there, as well.
Isn't it lovely to see a day care centre growing vegetables to supplement the children's diet - so valuable for learning! As usual the photographs of the children are so uplifting, even if they didn't quite comprehend waving their hands about! Thank you for these reports they inspire and spur us on!
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