A sense of community in South African Townships.

We left South Africa 4 years ago this month to move to Dubai, originally from the UK. We embraced life in South Africa to the full. Peter working, child 4 and 5 in education and myself getting involved in full time volunteering supporting vulnerable children living in poverty.

We had 4 wonderful years here and desperately miss our friends here and I visit as often as I can (twice a year) to continue with the hands on volunteering work, delivering Christmas gifts in townships in Pretoria. 

Last weekend I was in Soshanguve delivering gifts to 250 children, some of their housing conditions are heartbreaking as you'll see if you click this link.

This shack in the Alaskan Informal Settlement in a township called Mamelodi. This is home to a mother and father and 2 children. It is one room, where they eat, sleep and wash. There is no running water, there is no electricity, no toilet, no windows and the floor is mud.

So why is this shack painted like this?

4 years ago child 5 and I were working with an arts project to give the community a sense of belonging, to encourage members of the community to have pride in their homes, to join in, create some art, help and support their neighbours and create a sense of belonging and pride in their homes.

Child 5 and I camped in the community for the weekend, ate dinner, sang songs and was thoroughly looked after and entertained during our stay.

Can you imagine the whole landscape with shacks decorated? It would look stunning.

24 hours camping in a township

Back in March 2013 I saw an invite for the Viva Foundation to take part in an Arts festival at The Alaskan Informal Settlement in Mamelodi, in Pretoria.

I took my youngest son with me, the tent, paint, food and a boot full of donations.

We were in the sun all day painting shacks, meeting the owners and generally having a lot of fun.

If you'd like to know more about the work Viva do or you want to volunteer please contact them:

You can follow Viva on Twitter as @viva_sa and like join their face book as The Viva Foundation of South Africa

Longdrops or toilets as we know them as. When a long drop is full, a new hole is dug using the soil to fill in the old one and the shack is repositioned over the new hole. be grateful there is no such thing as smelly vision.

The local fruit and veg shop, which now sadly has been closed down due to numerous break ins.

This is Betty's house, she makes items like shoes and decorations to sell every day on the side of the road to support her and her husband, teenage daughter and another daughter and her child. She provides the only income for the household.

We camped without electricity and running water, taking everything we needed for the weekend and sharing with the community.

We had access to one solar panel to charge phones as volunteers needed to contact us for directions after getting lost in the township.

This shack houses a family of 6, it is one room inside. The sleeping area is curtained off from the kitchen and living area. In here lives a husband and wife, a disabled daughter and 2 teenage sons. 

If you wish to make a donation to projects like this please click here to do so.

Charity Cup Cakes - Making a difference to lives in South Africa

How can a cup cake make a difference to a child's life in Africa?

Very easily. 

If you visit a child in a township or informal settlement in South Africa you'd be surprised that not only do the majority of children not know they have a surname, they can't tell you how old they are either?

Very few have ever had a birthday celebrated, let alone a cake or a party and gifts.

The Viva Foundation in The Alaskan Informal Settlement in Mamelodi are changing this by sponsoring every child who attends there Early Learning Centres to have a birthday, to feel special and to feel valued.

Here is one of many cakes I baked for a child's birthday.

This little girl was so excited to have a cake she dived into head first.

Over a two year period I baked over 3000 cupcakes, I handed them out over christmas, easter, at family days, to orphanages, random people on the streets. I've baked cup cakes for several families as a donation towards a child's funeral as requested. I turned up at nearly every facility I visited with cup cakes.

I received many donations from family for ingredients, or friends baked for me to help me out with larger events.

I designed individual cakes, made red velvet and chocolate cakes. I had help from the kids and hubby with loading the car and delivering.

So can I tempt you with a cup cake? or maybe a small donation for when I return to South Africa in October for 5 weeks to help out with collecting and distributing 10,000 christmas gifts to disadvantaged children in Pretoria. To work with Dignity Dreams to fundraise for sanitary pads to enable young girls to remain in education.

If you would like to donate please click here.

Want to climb a mountain/skydive for charity? Pay for it yourself

There are enough people living in Africa without the need for you to have to visit it to show the levels of poverty.

For 4 years I worked alongside some amazing volunteers, in a variety of projects, in townships, inner city and rural locations. Vulnerable children, orphans, people with disabilities. Fundraising, building schools, teaching, training, collecting and distributing donations. 

I gave my time, my fuel, my money, my energy. I raised funds, I asked people for donations. I collected 2nd hand clothes, pushchairs, bedding, mattresses, I asked friends to help me deliver larger items. I put people in touch with social workers, arranged job interviews, I took part in arts project in The Alaskan informal Settlement in Mamelodi, camping out for the night. Spent weeks begging for items to furnish for a school near Kruger National park then drove all the way there to drop the items off.

Yes, I asked my family and friends for money, but I gave them something in exchange. I spent days in a workshop for adults with disabilities learning to sew, threading beads, twisting wire to make items to sell to my family and friends. We made handbags, necklaces, key fobs, bunting.

I posted them to the UK, and with the money I was given, used it to repair equipment, buy arts and craft materials to enable the residents to make items to sell at their christmas market, their biggest source of income for the 140 bed home.

I wanted to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, but it was too expensive. I wanted to climb the mountain and blog and tweet about my experiences to raise money for sponsorship, but after looking into it, without a major sponsor behind me and without the social media coverage all I was going to do was raise equivalent to the cost of the trip, so instead of climbing the mountain I used the money on educational supplies.

Yes I sound bitter, Yes I am frustrated. I'm not jealous of you for being invited to Africa for a tiny glimpse of what it is like, I've lived and worked in that environment, my friends are doing it day in day out as volunteers, with no recognition and no reimbursements for their fuel, their time, their donations.

All I ask you to do is rather than give someone £5 to pay towards their trip to Africa or for their charity skydive or mountain climb give it to The Viva Foundation of South Africa to spend on education, feeding schemes, providing employment and training in their community. Support the work they do with families with AIDS, women and children who have been raped, orphaned children.

You can donate here.

They can provide you with a receipt, a photograph, a description of what they've used your money for and more importantly I guarantee every penny goes on that project.

You won't get recognition with hundreds of RTs, but you'll get a dam good blog post out of it and help to spread the real daily work that ordinary people do day to day and live amongst.

And when I next go out to South Africa, a place I called home for 4 years, at my own expense, I'll show you where your money was spent.