How the Mike Bolhuis flamingo project is also supporting vulnerable children in South Africa.

I came across Mike Bolhuis and the Flamingo Project through a friend in South Africa. I’m here for 2 weeks working with volunteers who support children’s charities year-round. When I’m not in South Africa I work behind the scenes, promoting, fund raising and online support. You can read about my last visit in December 2018, supporting a Christmas Charity.

After recent droughts in South Africa Mike took it upon himself to try and rescue hundreds of dehydrated and starving flamingo chicks, which hatched back in February in Kamfersdam, Kimberley.

Photo Credit

These chicks have now been released back into their natural habitat, but Mike was left with 100’s of teddy bears the public had donated for the flamingo chicks to snuggle up to, to keep warm and to play with.

I spoke to Mike this week to thank him for the teddy bears, which are now washed, repaired and waiting to be rehoused to 300 vulnerable children living in poverty or in orphanages in and around Pretoria.

You can read more about Mike’s Flamingo rescue on his face book page.

Flamingoes are one of my favourite birds and I often visit Ras Al Khor bird santuary where I live in Dubai and I went in search of the flamingoes in the Western Cape in July 2015.

I'm, pleased Mike and the volunteers have been successful with their project, just a shame I didn't arrive earlier and I could have volunteered.

One daily Positive - Week 49 A week in South Africa

A long, hot, tiring and emotional week in South Africa, delivering Christmas gifts in the townships and catching up with friends.

The food and drink here is amazing with a bottle of wine costing less than a small glass of wine in the UK and Dubai. A meal less than the price of a coffee. 

Life in South Africa is extreme. I've been staying with friends, who feed me, loan me their cars and braai for me. I've had Starbucks which is considered expensive here compared to the local coffee chains and I've visited children living in extreme poverty whose parents have insisted on feeding me also.

Peter arrived on Thursday and we're spending the weekend in a safari lodge.

*Braai - BBQ

335 Sunday Arrived at Johannesburg Airport at 10am, collected by my friend, went out for lunch and then taken to another friend's for the night.

336 Sunday Up early, car packed and off to Soshanguve, a township in Northern Pretoria for 3 celebration parties, handing out Christmas gifts in orphanages. We came across a family living here, we did what we could, but chucking money at the situation wasn't going to help. The older sister was recovering from a hang over.

337 Monday Having spent the night with another friend, I set off back to Soshanguve for the final celebration, this was a day care centre, the parents pay a very small daily fee to send their children there from birth to age 6 often 10-12 hours as it takes 2 hours by bus to travel into Pretoria or 45 minutes for me by car.

338 Tuesday I packed and delivered cartons of boxes to a couple of other volunteers ready for their celebration days, then headed off to a local mall for a Starbucks and to do some shopping, then visited a friend in the afternoon with her 6 week old baby.

339 Wednesday The day finished with a Braai at a friends and several glasses of wine, however it started with 3 x 30km trips to collect 473 donated Christmas gifts and deliver to stor_age whilst we decide what to do with them. There are many children left to receive but each box has to be checked and contents added, that will have to be the work of others.

340 Thursday I sourced and packed for 11 teens in an orphanage that a friend asked me for and sorted through a pile of 2nd hand donated items to give them also, in the afternoon I went out for coffee. They're load shedding in South Africa, as they've run out of coal and this means the power is switched off for 2-3 hours every day. No traffic lights, no power to the supermarkets. They remain open but I can't help thinking the freezer and fridge contents are suffering. There's also no power to the personal security with housing, leaving you feel slightly vulnerable at home.

Peter arrived in the evening and we Braai'd with our hosts.

341 Friday Peter and I drove round our old haunts then drove up to Hammanskraal. We're staying on a game reserve for a few days until I fly home on Monday night. We've booked a game drive on Sunday morning and ironically we were asked if we wanted to do a township drive into Soshanguve.

342 Saturday Had a leisurely breakfast, read our books, sat outside and chilled out till 2pm before heading off for 30 mins to a friends house for a Christmas Braai and a few drinks. Two of my South African BFF's.

On the blog this week:

Celebrating Christmas in the Townships
My Blogmas Christmas Tree
Reusing and recycling waste in South Africa 

An InLinkz Link-up

Supporting Children living in poverty in South Africa

I spent 4 years living in South Africa and have been back many times to visit the charities I worked 
with when we lived there.

There are numerous charities in South Africa supporting children living in poverty in many different ways.

The Viva Foundation who supply affordable education and support the local community with a 
variety of projects. Including camping in a township, taking part in an arts project.

Dignity Dreams providing women with washable and reusable sanitary products. I reviewed them.

Santa Shoebox Project collect and distribute 110,000 Christmas gifts throughout the country each 
year. My Santa Shoebox journey.

Kungwini Welfare Organisation provide residential care for adults and children with learning 
difficulties, as well as providing education in their local community. I first started making scarves 
with them in 2014 raising funds for supplies for the workshop

I'm back in South Africa in September 2018. I've funded my own trip and will be staying with friends as I've done previously, since we relocated to Dubai.

What I'll be doing as well as visiting and supporting Kungwini and Santa Shoebox is to visit the 
children in the townships that I've met through these organisations over the years and bring a little  
extra happiness into their lives.

This could be through painting a classroom, holding a birthday party, donating toiletries and or 
educational supplies and I'd like you to help me succeed by donating £5 in exchange for a handmade scarf. That's it, that's all you have to do, just visit my PayPal account and donate.

In exchange for your £5, I'll select a scarf at random that I've made and post it to you. I'll tweet out a 
thank you, post the total amount raised, provide invoices and post photos online (with permission) of 
the children who have received your donation. Every penny raised will be spent directly on children 
living in poverty.

Visit my Paypal account, donate and then message me with your address on:

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Taking water for granted

We currently live in Dubai, at sea level with no natural river bodies or oases, there are multiple gorges and waterholes at the base of the Western Al Hajar mountains. The annual rainfall is 35 millimetres  Therefore ALL our water here is desalinated.

With 70% of the World covered with water only 3% of it is classed as drinking water without needing to be processed.

Prior to leaving the UK we lived in Malvern, home to natural spring water, that we used to collect in bottles to drink. Sadly the spring water became infected with bacteria and now it is advised that this water also should be boiled before drinking.

We've travelled far and wide and have always followed the advice for drinking local water, avoiding ice cubes and fruits with high water content such as melons and cucumbers. But we've never worried about bathing or cleaning our teeth. On a camping trip in Canada in 2015, we boiled the water from the lakes in Algonquin to drink, but not to brush our teeth. In Luxor last year we completely forgot about whether we should ask if the water was safe to drink and on family holidays to Turkey and Tunisia in the past decade, we spent the first few days telling the kids not to drink from the tap, but then we just gave up and no one got ill. The only times I've ever been ill due to poor hygiene was on a camping trip in 2000 when I contracted meningitis during a very wet and muddy April and from many visits to townships in South Africa where I was given food at facilities I visited and it would've been considered very rude to have turned it down, despite there being no water let alone refrigeration. 

Our only real problem we've ever had with water is the taste and the temperature. In Dubai in summer, the water was coming out the cold tap at over 40c, so we bought bottled water to use in a water cooler. We've moved house now, and our water tank is under the ground, rather than on the roof, but we're still using the bottled water for the kettle and cold drinks, why? because the tap water here tastes different, a bit woody. When I travel back to the UK I notice the tap water tastes different depending on what part of the country I'm visiting. The water from the tank on the roof or when it's not been used for a while does comes out the tap brown.

Water temp left from the hot water tank that is insulated and the temp on the right from the cold water tap in summer.

We lived in South Africa for 4 years in Pretoria. Currently in Cape Town they are facing the water being switched off in April/May due to the fact that they will run out completely by then, due to lack of rainfall in that part of the country and currently residents are restricted to 49 litres per person per day. I have no idea how much water Peter and I use per day, we don't think about it, despite living in a desert, because we have such good infrastructure here.

Many parts of South Africa go without water on a daily basis, having worked with children's charities in Gauteng and Bushbuckridge near Kruger National park, I've seen first hand how hard communities have struggled without access to water on a daily basis without relying on government water trucks delivering supplies to townships or people having to walk several miles a day to get fresh water. Families getting ill from drinking river water, not being able to keep themselves clean and washing clothes in rivers and streams often highly polluted.

In a world where most of us take water for granted, I think it's time we thought a bit more about our natural resources and what we can all do to reduce the amount of water we use. It might seem a bit extreme in a developed country to think we'd ever run out of water but all one has to do is think about Cape Town being the first city in the world to face having it's water run out in 2018.

Township gardening in South Africa with #HDYGG?

Update on my visit to Soshanguve in November last year.

I was introduced to this project by the lovely Lee-Anne who I met after I asked for people on social media to let me know if they knew of any deserving children that would benefit from receiving a christmas gift.

Lee-Anne has been involved with Ikaya Lami for a long time supporting them with donations, arranging for long drops to be dug and housed........the list is endless. This week, through a plant forum on face book she received 1200 plants, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Kale, Rape and Mustard which she and a team of volunteers helped to plant, May 2016. I'm hoping to get back to South Africa in July this year for a week and look forward to visiting this project and many others like it.

Original post

Access to water in many townships is not available with adults and children walking up to 4kms each way to get water for drinking and washing, so having a garden in a township for many is a luxury, although it does rain regularly during summer, but South Africa has been having a drought over recent months with the rains arriving late and water is being rationed.

Many people in the townships try to be self sufficient and grow their own fruit and vegetables and they are able to do is if they have a bore hole, they are usually community projects who run after school care, take in orphans, run the local church and support the locals.

The cost of a bore hole starts from around R25,000/£1,100/AED 6,450 depending on the ground being dug and the depth required to get fresh water and the casing needed. These costs are met with donations from individuals and sponsors, but they are few and far between and many communities who try to be self sufficient have to give up early on in the project so many just don't invest the money in seeds or the time for projects they know will fail due to lack of water.

However some are successful like this community project in Soshanguve, North of Pretoria.

They have built an irrigation system and are successfully growing fruit trees and a variety of vegetables to supplement a very meagre income with 18 children from age birth to 18 to feed, plus the adults who live there and run the project.

I've spotted a variety of fruits and vegetables growing but wasn't able to put a name to everything, I think a lot of the gardening here is 'plant it and see'

Peach tree

Papaya?

Onions

 One of the projects in desperate need of a bore hole is in Mpumalanga. Access to water would make a huge difference to the communities lives.

My Period and Dignity Dreams

I spent most of last week in bed with the flu, I also had my period.

I blogged about Dignity Dreams last week to share with you the good work they are doing in raising awareness and funds to support young girls remaining in Education by providing as many reusable and washable sanitary wear packs as possible.

I realised if I was to advertise and fundraise for Dignity Dreams, I should at least try out their packs.

As I've been house bound anyway, I thought it a good week to review this product. I'm at home so I don't have to worry about any leakage or carry used blood stained pads around with me in my hand bag. I did go out on Friday and used 2 pads while I was out. i was conscious of the used one in my bag and didn't feel too comfortable carrying it around with me, but it's the first time I've used them so I guess I'll get used to it.

Why would I worry about that anyway?

Well it's not very hygienic for starters in my opinion, it's summer and the pads might smell a little, I'd really not walk around with blood stained clothing if they did leak, I'd feel uncomfortable and self conscious all the time I was out. I didn't leak, but I did make more visits to the toilets than I would normally do.

Why would I feel that way? Is it because it's the way society has brought me up, or due to the way I have been brought up/ Is it because having your period is still a taboo subject?

No, for me it's about being clean and feeling clean. I wouldn't go out the house in a top that I spilt my breakfast on, I'd put a clean one on before leaving the house and if I did spill food down my top while I was out, I'd sponge it off.

I never wear light clothing when I am on my period and I always wear darker clothing and carry a pad with me a few days leading up to my period, just in case.

I'm fortunate, my periods arrive between every 25-28 days, so I know when I am due on, they only last for 4-5 days at the most, but they are very heavy and I do prefer to use sanitary pads rather than tampons.

Have I had any embarrassing moments? No not really, on occasions I've worn my jumper round my waist, as I've leaked a little, and I did have a funny moment in a supermarket in South Africa which you can read about here and still makes me chuckle.

But what would I do if I didn't have sanitary pads, if the choice was food for my daughter or sanitary pads for myself and my daughter?

Well I could use toilet paper? But if I lived in a township or an informal settlement, I probably wouldn't have running water, let alone a toilet. I could use some rag or material/old clothing. But I probably wouldn't have old clothing. I could use saw dust, newspaper, an old rag, grass. But I'm likely to get an infection and I couldn't really walk round like that could I. How would I manage a day at work, or a food shop, or sit in a classroom all day and concentrate on my education? I'd stay at home for a week every month, like I've done this week, but I've been at home because I have the flu, not because of my period.

Eventually women lose their job, young girls fall behind with their education and just give up attending school. THAT IS THE REALITY. Without an education the next generation don't change, don't get better jobs, earn more money, be able to afford sanitary pads and the cycle of poverty continues.

After a week using Dignity Dream sanitary wear I felt comfortable to go out for short times wearing one of their pads. I took spares with me and several zip lock bags to put soiled ones in. I also carried several pairs of disposable gloves with me. As I flushed the toilet, I rinsed the pad under the water. I rung it out, I popped it in the zip lock bag and put it in my handbag. I carried anti bacterial soap with me to clean my hands before leaving the toilet cubicle. I then washed my hands in hot soapy water.

When I got home I rubbed sunlight soap on the pads and hung them in the sun to dry, the sunlight and soap help to kill the bacteria, I then washed them by hand and hung them out to dry again. At the end of the week, even though I'd washed the pads by hand I put them through the washing machine, before storing them in the bathroom ready for next month.

I had the advantage of disposable gloves, hand sanitiser and a washing machine to use, which most women and young girls in South Africa don't have access to. I also hung the pads outside after the gardener had been in the mornings, but I didn't worry about hubby or my teenage son seeing them.

Periods are a way of life for nearly every woman on the planet, I've blogged about it, I don't keep sanitary pads out of sight in the bathroom, and I do keep a small supply in the guest toilet and bathroom as not everyone is keen to discuss their periods.

On a weekend away with hubby a few months after we got together I sent him out to purchase sanitary pads for me, he never made it to the local shop, as he asked the man on reception in the hotel for some instead.

If you would like to support this initiative please make a donation. PAYPAL Each pack costs R150 or £7.50, or you can make a donation of any amount towards a pack. Please mark your donation DD as I'm also fundraising for other projects.

If you'd like to review the product yourself I have some packs available that I'd be happy to post out to you, if you're based in the UK.