Counting our Blessings

2013 has been another successful year for ECYCC. We're very happy to have 11 children staying with us currently and the support of lots of people to do this. The home is now 4 and half years old since it took the Emmanuel name, and it continues to flourish, touched by the kindness of everyone who helps ECYCC in whatever way they best can. We would like to make special mention of people who we give our thanks to and wish a happy festive season:

For their support: Karen McEwan, Rhett Newton, Kobus van Straten, as well as Vicky and Gill for from Production Four13.

For their donations and sponsorship: Marna de Vos, Kevin Goddard, Mr. Cunningham, Agape Church,  St Barnabas Anglican Church, Bertus Deysel from Auto Body Repairs, Spar Middelburg, and Tinus du Plessis.

The staff; Dolly, Martha, and Martie who are our hard-working carers, as well as Johanna our administrator who has recently successfully started a Pastoral Care course.

Our board members; including Alfie and Jaco, who has taken on the role of Treasurer this year.

Our kind-hearted volunteers who come to experience life with us; Alex and Sophia, both from Germany.

And other people who have touched our heart:

• Trevor from Erin Country House who organised and ran an Art Auction fundraiser.
• Nehemia Ministries for the kids Xmas party.
• Hands on Africa for their special visit to the home.
• Transkaroo MTB for their long-distance cycling fundraiser event.
• The staff from the Wellness clinic and the Occupational Therapist for their successful help towards the well being of the kids. 
• Dr Willem van der Walt for his efforts with treating Sinakwe towards better health. 

Thanks to all and special wishes for everyone to have a successful 2014!

Photo Album

Some nice memories of the children in the last few months...

 

New News

We have a mystery donor, named Kevin who supports us with a donation each month, but we're not sure from where or how, it just appears in the ECYCC bank account. We would like to say thank you to this kind man, whoever he maybe. A good samaritan it seems.

It was recently a national initiative on 18th July for people to celebrate Nelson Mandela's birthday by giving 67 minutes of community service to symbolically mark 1 minute for every year of his public service. We had these nice contributions:

• Our local Grootfontein College sent a large group to cleanup the yard, the home and repair the swings on the 18th July.
• Quintin Vlooh of Eastern Cape Security, also helped with repairs at the home.
• Middelburg Begrafnisdienste, Rhett Newton's office, delivered gift parcels to our children.
• Methodist Church ladies in Midros, also sent parcels to the children.
• Vionolia, Auxiliary Worker at ECYCC, painted their puppet house.
• ECYCC's own contribution towards the 67 minutes was to provide the sound and truck towards a substance abuse and drug abuse event held in Middelburg, which featured a local choir organized by the local DOSD Middelburg.

Thanks to everyone that took part and supported us. A really great way for people to come together and help one another.

And finally, some nice photos from our TransKaroo friends which they shared with us. Their efforts look epic! This is fundraising in the extreme.

Well Done & Thanks!

Well done to all the riders of the Trans Karoo Mountain Bike Tour for completing their massive 500km in 5 days and helping raise funds for ECYCC. An amazing effort from everyone involved - thanks so much! Here's a couple of photos - more to follow soon...

Special thanks go to Warren and Sue Horne who were key members of the crew that set up camp for every night – all the tents, erected 4 hot water showers, unloaded the luggage and the food boxes – then packed them up again the next morning to move to the next venue – whew, heavy work indeed. Sue was the sweep vehicle pulling the big bike trailer – travelling at 30km/hour through the Karoo for 5 days over 500km – she also set up the breakfasts each evening for the following morning and cleared up and washed up before setting off behind the riders – all with such a good grace.

Warren & Sue have kindly donated 3 solar panel tubes for the home's solar system which was installed last year. Their kindness knows no bounds, so thank you to them for helping make the home a better place.

Trans Karoo Mountain Bike Tour

The excitement is growing, the days are flying past and riders and crew are preparing hard for this year’s great event from Middelburg to Port Elizabeth. 500km in 5 days on mountain bikes following gravel roads and jeep tracks across the Great Karoo raising funds for Emmanuel Child & Youth Care Centre.

It's one week to go until this tour starts so we hope the training is going well for all the riders. We would like to take this opportunity to pass on our gratitude to all our sponsors for their support of this tour and special thanks goes to Billy Teeton for organising this. 

Thanks also go out to Rhett (ECYCC Chairman) and Michelle Newton, as well as Agape Church, for accommodating the Transkaroo Team over the coming weekend. The team will visit the Emmanuel home on Saturday and we look forward to their arrival. Thanks also to Bertus (Board member) and Jaco Meyer (new Treasurer of the ECYCC board) for their part in making the team comfortable during their stay in Middelburg.

Visit the tour website for updates and photos of their progress: transkaroomtb.blogspot.com

Rest in Peace

Olwam would have 1 year old today but she never lived to see this birthday which makes all of us at ECYCC very sad. She was living in the home starting from late 2012 and left in Spring 2013, removed from our temporary care to a supposedly better life to grow up in. We prayed that would be true. But a few weeks ago we heard the bad news that she had passed away in unfortunate circumstances, which we feel could have been avoided. We'll never know the full story of what happened to her after she left; all we are left with is numbness about the situation and some photos of a beautiful child which we'll treasure.

We will always miss 'baby', who was our little ray of sunshine and who we have fond memories of. Some things in life seem so unfair but while we express our deep disappointment and frustration with what happened, we try to look forwards and make sense of it the best way we can - it's for children like this ECYCC provides care. While they under our roof they are happy and always protected. We just wish that every child who moves on from the home stays this way and gets to grow up loved.

Latest Fundraising

The KMMC (Karoo Mighty Men Conference) was recently held in Middelburg, which hosted 10,000 people! It's a growing cause and ECYCC has some good opportunities to get involved with the events. Some of our teenage boys (Ashley, Renier and Cecil) attended the conference and they had an awesome time which will be a great memory for them. Our dedicated activist Bertie ran a stall selling cool drinks and snacks for fundraising and said he never attended to so many people in his life in one weekend! Rhett Newton organized the stall for us and we are grateful for his input and commitment as Chairman on the board of ECYCC. Thanks to Bertie and the girls (Jannie's daughters) for their hard work selling.

ECYCC is lucky to have friends like Rhett and his colleague Billy Teeton. They have organised and are riding in the Transkaroo bike ride in June. Through their fundraising efforts they will support ECYCC which is wonderful news which we are very grateful for. Last year there were over 300 entrants and we hope for even better this year for them. Wish them and their team good luck. We'll post more news and photos around this story when they become available.

New Profiles - Part 2

Here's some more profiles of our children, using some recently taken photos. First up is Ashley - he's now one of the oldest children in the home and we've been lucky to see him grow up over many years. He's a boy with a smiling eyes and a big determination to contribute to everything in the home's life. With his brother Hendrico they form the warm energetic heart of ECYCC.

Chrissie never fails to endear himself to anyone he meets. He's very inquisitive and it's been happy times watching him grow up from a toddler into a proper little 'man'. Chrissie loves play-time and his energy never drops - he's often leading the other small boys in games and trying to follow in the footsteps of the older ones.

Calvin is quite new to ECYCC but has quickly settled in. Sometimes quite shy on first impressions, with a little encouragement he gets involved and charms you with affection. He's really starting to find his feet and his new big 'family' at ECYCC seem to have had a positive effect on his development and confidence.

Follow Us...

ECYCC is now live on Twitter - please follow us at @EmmanuelChild to hear regular updates on life at the home.

A Call For Assistance

Dear friends of Emmanuel Child & Youth Care Centre,

This letter is a public address to reach out for help. Every charitable organisation in South Africa is facing tough times, especially smaller endeavours like our own. We have full intentions of continuing to deliver services to our children and the community in the best way that we can. In order to deliver these services, we need your assistance in any way possible.

Assistance towards the raising of funds and sponsorships would be a lifeline to the Centre; especially to provide hands to help out with the day-to-day duties at the home. We currently have nineteen (19) children, with only two volunteer care workers (doing shifts including weekends and night shift) assisting with the day-to-day care of the children. Needless to say that this is a huge challenge: each child comes with their own background problems, learning disabilities, other more serious disabilities, substance abuse etc.

We cannot continue to operate effectively without the funds and manpower to fulfil our duty to take care of the poor and the needy within the local community. We do not receive any subsidy up to date from the Department of Social Welfare.

Ways in which you can assist:

- Monthly donations for as little as R100.00 per month towards staff allowances.

- Monthly donations towards high electricity bills.

- Monthly donations towards food, cleaning materials and toiletries.

- Monthly donations towards other running costs like water, telephone.

In short, the ECYCC need funds in order to keep the doors open and have the children well cared for, all of the above-mentioned are compulsory via the Child Care Act.

We often receive items of clothing and toys, which we already have a storeroom full of to serve the children's needs. We always are extremely grateful for whatever people donate to us, yet if there are not funds to keep the running costs going, we cannot continue this cause successfully. Every monetary donation is put to good use - it goes directly into providing care for the children and there is no middle-men or unnecessary fundraising infrastructure it goes towards.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require any further information. We hope to hear from some good Samaritans...

New Profiles - Part 1

We recently did some arts and crafts with the children and they had the chance to write out their own name-badges. We thought it would be good timing to take their photos, and then we could share some updates on all the children who currently make up the Emmanuel 'family'. We'll have updates for three children at a time: here are our first three, starting with Adumpie:

Adum is one of three brothers who recently joined the home. Despite his diminutive size, he has a big personality and smile. He's energetic and eager to take part in all the learning and play times at the home. Adum is a fast learner and we cannot wait to see how he develops because he is bright-spark and seems to be thriving at Emmanuel home.