Monday 11 July 2016

Supporting vulnerable adults and children in South Africa.

Before moving to Dubai, I lived in Pretoria, South Africa for 4 years. There I worked with 3 charities/organisations supporting educational projects in rural areas and in townships across the region.
I was back in SA July 2nd – July 10th to work with these charities/organisations and I was hoping one or two of you would like to support the work I do.

The Santa Shoebox Project is a country wide organisation and collects and distributes over 100,000 gifts every year to the most vulnerable children. In Pretoria I worked with a team who provided over 50,000 gifts over a 5 year period.  For AED 50 you can buy a gift for a boy or a girl aged 0 - 18. Sadly I won't be able to support them with collection, checking and delivering the boxes this year as that takes place end of October, early November. But I am spending a week there in July to sort the storage unit out, do some marketing and collect donations, ready for drop off. Last year I had sponsorship from Ford and worked with KFC and other national companies.
 The Pretoria Volunteers

 Each shoebox is packed for an individual child

 The hats my MIL knitted for Njabulo Child Care facility







Out in Soshanguve delivering gifts November 2015

The Viva Foundation provides rape support and counselling as well as running several educational centres in South Africa, including a school in Kildare, an hours drive west of Kruger National Park that I sourced donations for, they provide support for orphaned and vulnerable children in the Alaskan Informal Settlement and arrange family days to build communities, fund birthday parties and provide training to help people get into employment. One of their community projects is an annual Art's festival. I was involved with the education side, teaching and training and sourcing educational supplies.







There is little, if any, government funding for these projects and they rely almost on public donations, volunteers and cooperate sponsorship.

I fund raise and raise awareness year round for the above causes and I'm hoping a few of you would like to make a financial donation for this years trip. I paid my own flights and I stayed with friends. I'm looking for donations to support educational supplies, even if it's just your loose change, it will go a long way with the current exchange rate. I will provide you with receipts and photos of the children who receive your donations.

Please let me know if you would be interested in making a financial donation or click here for paypal.

Below are some of the blog posts I've written, with photographs, if you're interested.







4 comments:

  1. I have so much respect for you going out of your way to not only support these charities but to actually go out there and make a difference! Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us! I hope to see you again next week at #TriumphantTales

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    1. thank you, i met some amazing lifelong friends through these organisations and the people themselves at the facilities are truly wonderful people

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  2. Inspiring! It's incredible how much time and effort you go to for charities - I always loved the shoebox idea too! Thanks for linking up to #TriumphantTales and please do come back again tomorrow :)

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    1. the charity work when we lived in South Africa was a full time job and I loved every minute of it

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