In July 2014 we visited two day-care centres – Vukuzenzele and Zenzele.  I looked up the meaning of these names and there are a few variations, but my favourite one I have used as the headline for this report.  Some of the others included:

“To make something out of nothing”

“To do it yourself”

“To wake up and do it yourself”

All of these aptly describe so many of the day-care centres that we visit, groups of people who come together and make do with the little they have, in order to make a difference in the lives of these precious children.

Our first stop was Vukuzenzele.  This is a very small centre and the area around the school was barren and depressing.

 

However, the inside walls were painted a glorious blue colour and it was bright and cheerful.  We spent some time bundling up the children in their blankets, beanies and hand warmers and watched them enjoying their new toys. The generosity of our contributors affords us a unique opportunity to see these little ones take ownership of their cuddly toys, a completely new experience in very many of their lives, where everything is shared, second-hand, transient.  These are precious moments!!

The children were singing – the reason for some of the rather strange facial expressions!

The importance of the educational posters was highlighted at this school.  Although someone had tried hard to decorate the walls with educational information, incorrect spelling is not helpful in the long run!!

 

The teachers were thrilled with the new posters and also with the food we brought along for the children.

 

 The children thoroughly enjoyed their new reading and picture books.

 

Thanks to all of you who have support the book, poster and colouring in book and crayon campaigns in the KAS shop.  We look forward to being able to help many more children in this way.

After our visit to Vukuzenzele, it was time to tackle the potholes and mud puddles as we drove to Zenzele, thankfully not too far away!

We love our KAS van – especially on these roads!

The sign indicating we were at the right place!

 

Here are the children showing us their lovely bright hand-warmers and snuggling together with their new blankets and beanies.

This lovely little girl helped us sort and hand out everything and she ensured that the boys and girls got the correct sizes and colour items.

She loved her doll and her pink heart socks!

  

Oops, it would seem we didn’t get this one right – socks on the hands?!

We quickly sorted things out!

The evening and early morning temperatures are beginning to drop in South Africa and we are distributing furiously again.  I am also pleased to report that, after receiving virtually no mail last week, a good number of parcels were collected this week and we look forward to volunteer day, to sort through all your lovely contributions.

 

At the end of last week we took delivery of almost 3000 balls of yarn – most of it navy.  These will be used in our inaugural skills development program being launched in April, to teach people basic knitting skills - an exciting initiative indeed … thanks to Med-Lemon.  We are also knitting navy blue scarves in our sleep at the moment, with numerous volunteers now complaining of “navy” fatigue!  Thank you to those of you who very kindly contributed financially to KAS SA, in order that we may buy in additional numbers of these scarves so as to make up the required quota by end April.  Wendy has sourced a supplier in Pretoria and will be collecting a sample of the scarf this week, in order to confirm the quality.

Watch this space – we’ll be back soon!!

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  • Thank you for the report and the lovely photos.  It is so inspiring to see the children and the gifts they received.  As for socks on hands -  they do make good mitts - I've used them often when the mitts/ gloves vanished on me !!  Great work!  to all the volunteers who did all the blanket squares joining and to the KAS team who got these things to these precious little ones.

  • What a great report!  Thank you so much Ronda.  I am delighted to see the children all bundled up in blankets and hats and handwarmers and each having their own toy.  One of our newer members, Edy, has just shared a great link for loom knitted dolls so I hope to contribute some myself.

    With this next question I am not being lazy here, trying to speed up using up all my stash by giving it away, honestly. What I am wondering is if the need for yarn, new and labelled, is ongoing and could some of those ladies who will learn on the navy yarn balls need any?  Just wondering if I should tuck a few skeins into my next parcel?  

  • Another great Report, Ronda.

    We''ll all be looking forward to hearing how the first teaching session of the skills development program goes.  Hope you will post some photos!

  • Thank you for another informative report Ronda and Wendy !   It is lovely to see the children with their blankets and especially the soft toys.  How precious for each child to have something special to call their own !

    • I LOVE these reports, hearing of all the great things you guys have been doing....thank you Team SA.

  • Wonderful report. It is so good to hear about what is going on in the KAS world. It is so gratifying to see this work in action. Thank you Ronda and the ladies.
  • I'm so thrilled to hear parcels are coming through. I shall take 70 squares and two scarves to my mother for posting this weekend.

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