The last distribution I reported back on was Evergreen Day Care in Finetown where we were joined by Annette and her son Luke and nephew Eric. With all the extra help that day, we were actually able to do two other distributions in Finetown.
After leaving Evergreen, we headed to a very small Day Care Centre. This Day Care is so small it did not even have a name. It is run by the principal in a well-built corrugated iron shelter at the back of her home.
Standing outside this tiny Cay Care Centre in Finetown.
We arrived at nap time and did not want to excite the children after having just spent a good hour or so playing with the children at Evergreen. So we gently draped the blankets over the children and left them with toys, beanies and tops.
This may look like piles of blankets in rows, but under each blanket is a sleeping, or ought to be sleeping, angel!
After a brief visit we said our good byes and headed over to Itumeleng – not to be confused with the Day Care Centre that goes by the same name in Protea South.
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit at Itumeleng and got to play with this group of children who were wide awake!
We are often asked about the conditions in and around these schools and we took a few photos to give you an idea.
The children at Itumeleng are on the JAM feeding program and you can see all their red bowls drying outside after having been washed. The principal, Angie, is also featured in the top right hand corner proudly showing us her vegetable garden!
This was a wonderful day in Finetown with three visits under the belt – we do so love it when volunteers join us for distributions!
Just to end off, we are preparing for Hobby X which takes place next week – we will provide feedback on that in the next report – and we are working at the piles of mail that keep coming in. Each week we think we may just catch up, but we are not quite there yet – the postal strike certainly did result in a massive backlog. We have also started to plan distributions towards the end of April when the night time temperatures begin to drop.
To all of our Johannesburg based volunteer, from March we will meet at the office on a Tuesday for unpacking. Please join us if you are able to.
There is plenty on the go and we are loving it!
Replies
Lovely to see the end results. Love the photo of the "pile of blankets". What a wonderful surprise for the children when they woke up. Thank you for taking so much time in photographing and writing these reports.
A full time job in itself!
Fantastic photos. Thanks for the informative report Ronda. It's wonderful to see busy and productive work for all the children.
Thanks to you all for your lovely comments and good wishes for Hobby X ! Your interest in everything we do is so encouraging always and we are constantly reminded that, without each and every single ONE of you, we would not be able to visit these truly delightful, unspoiled, warmhearted, welcoming, beautiful little children. So, in fact, we are sending OUR thanks to YOU ! With love from ALL of us here in SA - specially the little ones and those "angels" who care for them !
Another wonderful Report - thank you! I love to see the splash of colour our blankets bring to what is otherwise a rather dull environment. I hope Hobby X will be a smashing success for you and help attract more volunteers to share the workload.
A truly wonderful report thank you Ronda. Three distributions in a day ! I'll bet half those sleeping kids had half an eye on the pressies arriving. It is fabulous that JAM is providing food. KAS and JAM make a super team.
Thank you for taking the time to share the news and pics of these distributions and upcoming events.....it sounds like you are being kept very busy. How lucky we are to be a part of such a wonderful, caring, global community.
A super report and what wonderful photos...I love seeing the children, awake or asleep. I bet you felt like fairies winging in so silently and draping the sleeping little ones with toys and blankets and hats. One can just imagine the shrieks of delight when they awoke and all the discussions going on too. Lovely to see!
I am always amazed how such good hearted people can accomplish so much with so little...the tiny Cay Care Centre and so many others...all run on love. Thanks so much for these photos Ronda, we're all excited about the splash you're all about to make at Hobby X and will eagerly await your report about that too. Thanks again, this has made wonderful reading! Now back to another navy scarf! :)
Thank you for this report. How lovely to see all those precious little ones cuddled into the blankets, toys waiting to be hugged. There must have been squeals of delight when they woke up :) xo
3 distributions in one day! Good to see some of the outside conditions - the angels who work at these schools certainly do their best for the children!