Verena's Volunteer Experience

In August of this year, ECYCC was lucky enough to have two new faces as volunteers - Verena and Sarah from Germany. They were a joy to work with and are very grateful for their support. Verena has kindly written some words on her experience which we would like to share:

"Within my studies I did an internship from August 25th to October 6th 2012 in South Africa and, therefore I chose to volunteer at Emmanuel Child & Youth Care Centre. Thanks to Carol’s brief updates and Sarah (volunteer at that time) I did not have to be uncertain about what to expect in the centre. By beginning of August I was getting quite excited about my volunteering time. 

The first days in the centre were breathtaking. Experiencing a different culture, meeting the kids (who by the way are so amazing), working with the care workers Auntie Katie and Martha, and last but not least, meeting two people who loved their work and the kids with all one’s heart. During my first week in the centre I experienced some tiredness I have not felt before ;) I guess I just was not used to being around children all day. After the first week passed I got used to that though. 

Daily routine: During the week the children of school age went to school in one of the townships in Middelburg from 8am to 2pm. As Carol told me they went there due to the teachers giving lessons in Afrikaans and to help maintain their culture. During that time Sarah and I were looking after Nakwe and Chrissy who are the youngest boys and not yet of school age. At 4pm all the children had study time. During that time they did their school work, pursued their arts, read books etc. Starting at about 5.30pm every child took a shower and the smallest ones and Angel were bathed by either Martha or Katie. At six o’clock dinner was ready and everybody sat at the table anticipating some nicely cooked afrikaans kos. It was funny to see how much the 'big boys’ – and siblings – Ashley and Hendrico could eat! After some quality time together right after dinner the kids could watch some TV and then went to bed at 8pm. On weekends we sometimes gave them popcorn – they absolutely love it! 

Reflection: During my internship I learned so much about South African culture, the children, their difficult and sad backgrounds and of course, about myself. It was the best decision to come to Emmanuel. I got to love the children and staff and after six weeks it was really hard to go back to everyday-life in Germany. I would definitely recommend staying at Emmanuel for a longer time. After the six weeks I just got used to everything, everything got daily routine and I finally started to understand – and speak (well, barely :D) Afrikaans. The children are incredible and despite their hard backgrounds they are getting all the love they need from Carol, Bertus, Bertie, Martha and Katie and for a short time – from me."

Competition Win

The Shoprite Community Network in collaboration with a Xhosa Radio Station gave ECYCC the opportunity to enter in a competition, Thandi Mblane (Treasurer of the Board) was our Xhosa spokesperson and went live on air via telephone with the radio station on Friday the 23d of Nov. She did a excellent job of it. We won R10000 worth of Shoprite and Pep stores vouchers which we will use for buying food, school stationary, school clothes and shoes for the next year. This is good!

Tea Mornings and Birthdays

The Emmanuel Ladies Morning Tea was hosted on 21st October by Karen MacEwan; it was a huge success and the first of many more to come.. We are grateful for funds that came in and to Karen for hard work and the fact that the care workers of the home were spoiled with lovely treats. Thanks to the Desert Inn for opening their hearts and home to us, and for all the helpers and donors that assisted Karen in the event.

Three new children joined us last month: Renier who is 14, 2-year old toddler Kelvin and baby Olwani who is 4-months old. As well as new arrivals, we have been celebrating some birthdays: Clayton turned 21 on 1st November: congratulations to him and on the birth of his son in September this year. Clayton is working and now living with his new family, we are proud of him and he is doing good since he 'graduated' from the home. We also celebrated Ronaldo's 11th birthday and Veronica's 14th birthday - happy days as the photos show:

Zoleka Naleni started as a third care worker. With her joining Katy and Martha, we now have cover for the morning, afternoon and night shift. We welcome her as part of our family.

We are aiming to starting a Community Outreach program during the December holidays called "Project Clean Up", where our children will participate in helping to clean areas blighted by rubbish around Midros and Middelburg. They will also help make other children from the community aware of the problem and get them to take part so we will have a big community 'team' working together on it. We will hand out leaflets in order to make the adult community aware of this problem too. We will have permission from the Council of Midros and M/B to run this activity and we hope to continue it throughout 2013. We are applying for funds in order to keep this up e.g. paper for printing, petrol for transport, casual labour or people to help on this project. We think this activity is important because we want to educate the children about keeping a clean environment and the benefits of this. We want everyone in the community to have pride in their surroundings.

Other updates: the Seventh Day Adventist Church donated two computers to the home, which we will use to start IT lessons for the bigger children as soon as we get the volunteers to do this. Veronica will be visiting a hair salon during the December holiday, she will work and learn for a week the skills and art of hair braiding as this is a passion.

New Arrivals

In the last month we have been blessed with 3 new children coming to live with us in the home. It's so nice to have all these extra smiles...

Kelvin, standing between Chrissie and Sinakwe:

14 year-old Renier:

Baby Olwani:

Farm Visit

Some of the children had a visit to a local farm, with the chance to interact with some of the animals and meet some new friends of their own age. It was good educational experience and we will try to repeat it again soon. 

More Progress

Thank you to all the people and organisations that have supported the Emmanuel Child & Youth Care Centre (ECYCC) in recent months. As always we are grateful for their kindness; we have more updates to report on:

The wood floor in the TV/playroom is now completed. This is a huge donation by an anonymous sponsor. We are most grateful for their generosity. It does not only look clean but gives an atmosphere of light and space.

Nienke, Youth Worker at Middelburg High School, collected and donated some much-needed items for the children. Amongst these were tin foods, cereals, soup mixes and other. We also had some children from the school come to work in our garden for a school project - it was nice to have someone help in this space!

Two German volunteers, Sarah and Verena arrived at the centre in August. We feel blessed by the talented women whom not only brought their love and care to our children but also volunteers their time and knowledge in order to help with study times. Ashley is progressing with his maths where Hendrico and Veronica developed a love for reading. Sarah will be leaving for Germany on Saturday 15 September, where Verena will stay on for another 4 weeks.

All the children are doing well, mostly looking forward to summer. Angel who is mentally challenged, had a ear and throat infection, but she is doing much better after medication. Angel attended The Ark (School for the disabled) but recently started to attend Bennie Boekwurm Play School on recommendation by the Social Worker of the ACVV. She loves her new school, especially the activities and programs they are running. 

Carol and Martha attended and completed the final application workshop for the Creative Arts in Psychosocial Support. The Fire Maker Workshops were over a period of a year and were very useful, we learnt more about ourselves and to deal with children from many different backgrounds. We will continue to have a support group over the next couple of months in order to deal with problem areas concerning the children’s psychosocial progress.

Caregivers, Martha, Katy and Carol, started a study group amongst ourselves, working through the “Amos, living and farming God’s way” handbook. The main purpose is to uphold a better life and to achieve better problem solving skills. Happy caregivers are healthy caregivers.

Our wish list for coming months consists of: 

1. new pair of school shoes for each children for the summer
2. toys and games for the playroom
3. cash towards a trip for the children for the upcoming holiday
4 a DVD player as our current one is now broken

Other much needed items for the home: Cleaning materials, bread spreads, maize meal, fresh fruit and vegetables, toiletries (soap, toothpaste, Vaseline), tea and juice will also be more than welcome. Donations in the form of cash, towards the running costs of the home will be much appreciated.

We will be happy if any kind donors can assist in any way.

June News

Thank you to all the people and organisations who have supported ECYCC in recent months. As always we are grateful for their kindness and we have some nice updates to report on:


This month is Child Protection Month in SA, ABSA Bank in Middelburg will have a box out inside the bank in order for their clients to donate items.

Also the children,their families and teachers at  Kleingeluk Gedenk Skool (a pre-school from M/B) donated some teddy bears for the ECYCC children, some clothing items and some funds in order for our children to have a little party at home. The funds were used for the kids to have a movie night and some snacks to keep cosy from the cold.

Handelshuis M/B donated rolls of material for us to make new curtains and table cloths for the home. Katy (care worker) will do the curtains as she is trained in this area. We have recently welcomed Katy into the home as a new staff member. She is a caring and loving person, very patient and responsible.

Last but not least, a big donation! Donald Smiles (politician and advisory board member of the home) donated funds for tiles, tile cement and grout towards the renovating of the boys bathroom. This will be a great gift and we are grateful for the opportunity to further improve the facilities in the house.

Please see some new photos below:

1. Kids baking with Bertie (our very kind night volunteer)
2. Teachers from  Kleingeluk Gedenk Skool M/B donated teddy bears for Child Protection Week
3. Kids doing a prayer before dinner-time

Spring News

We have some little updates and thank yous to share which affect the home our 'little ones'. 

Photo 1- this is of Chrissie and Nakwe being looked after by a volunteer while the adults made 350L of soup for the KMMC (Karoo Mighty Men Conference). Rhett Newton (Vice Chairman of the Board) donated the materials towards this cause in order for the ECYCC to have soup, curry & rice and other refreshments exchanged on a donation basis available at the camp. The soup was made at the home where Martha, Dora, Jovonne & Carol had to make the soup, veggies and meat (veggies sponsored by Wolwekop Fruit & Veg, Mr. Appelgryn and meat sponsored by Deon Schoombie, a local farmer). Craig and Jovonne Erasmus got the gas, bottles, pots and generator sponsored by individual people from the Middelburg area. 

The food and drinks were divided amongst the ECYCC and other charitable projects in the district so everyone could benefit. All together we (ECYCC) received R16 000.00 in total from donations which makes all the hard work worthwhile and provides much-needed funds for the running of the home. We were happy to feed people at the KMMC as this was a Christian Conference and a good cause all together. We thank you Rhett for your generosity and belief in us. 

Photo 2 - Veronica enjoying some outdoor activities at a recent event. Through these good Samaritans we can have the children do exciting stuff like youth camps. Without these faithful supporters we cannot do this.

Photo 3 - the children enjoying the day out on a farm with Nehemia Ministries doing some outdoor activities and song & dance. Days like this are some our happiest.

Photo 4 - Carol (home manager) and Martha (carer) attended two training courses recently which are certificated. The Fire Maker Wellbeing workshop in February 2012 focussed on self care for the carer. Then in May 2012, a Fire Maker workshop for the Creative Arts in Psycho Social Support. This is done through the Zakheni Arts Therapy Foundation, a local NGO. We are looking forward to the next workshop in July 2012.

We Have The (Solar) Power!

We had some exciting news last week - Tinus du Plessis donated a solar heating system towards the home, it's already been delivered and waiting currently for people to install the system which Tinus has also organised. We cannot thank Tinus enough for making this happen and we look forward to seeing it installed - photos and a final update will come in a few weeks.


This will make a big difference for the home, it will certainly help a great deal with high electricity bills!

Counting Our Blessings

We would like to share thank you for all the recent kind support we've had from our community of friends and colleagues - without them it would not the same spirit driving forward the home...

1. Kevin Chetty who made a donation in memory of a loved one. We were really touched by this generosity.

2. Marna de Vos and Elzanne Vosloo (two Occupational Therapists from the local hospital) who left Middelburg this  last December - we thank them for their love and support for the home and the children, and Marna for her faithful contributions the past year.

3. Sanet van Graan and her husband for sponsoring the Xmas party for the kids.

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4. Alf & Brenda for presents and other support.

5. Nehemia Ministries for the kid's Xmas party on the farm and for their presents.

6. Karen McEwan for her support and commitment.

7. Rhett Newton for his donation.