Building skills

Ashley and Hendrico volunteered to help with a building project at the home and have done a fantastic job, learning many new skills. They even completed the brick work themselves. Both of them want to own their own building company one day.

Recent Photos

First off, some exciting news - a number of our children have been invited to dance on stage at the Summer Heat Gala Awards event. Eight of the Emmanuel gumboot dancers "Young Little Stars" will perform on the 13th of December at the Summer Heat Awards, Wild Coast Sun! They are so excited to take this trip to the South Coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal, which will give them the chance to see the sea as well.

We also have some new photos to share - from the top to the bottom:

1. Volunteer Jonathan leads our building project - a excellent pair of helping hands!

2. Volunteer Nick and some of the boys all putting in some hard work.

3. Hendrico enjoying the chance to use his painting skills.

4. Everyone doing their bit of teamwork.

5. New Apostolic Church visit the home to donate tinned foods and sing Xmas carols.

September Progress

We're happy to share below some more photos of the building work. The work continues at pace and it's very exciting to see the progress toward expanded facilities for the children including 6 additional new bedrooms, a bathroom with 4 showers and new large recreational hall. We recently had a donation to contribute to the roof do that will be the next stage of building. Any donations for finishing the building and decorating would be gratefully appreciated - please get in touch.

In other news, Sister Arendz from Huis Karee is visiting the home on a monthly basis to present in-house training for the staff about general hygiene, self care for the care worker, handover procedures, basic first aid, etc.

Sanmari Groenewald started music lessons on a weekly basis with the kids, she starded off with the recorder, basic music reading, will move on to guitar lessons and drum lessons later. Her mother Nelia assists. The older children aim to perform in public and also take their gumboot dancing to the next level. The boys already performed successfully at Agape church and are practising now for a street show. We need funds for overalls and white t-shirts for their dancing outfits.

A Big Milestone

This day has been a long time coming for ECYCC but it's finally here and testament to the hard work of everyone associated with the home, especially the founding managers Carol & Bertus. This week we finally received registration from the Department of Social Development, which authenticates ECYCC as a child and youth care centre which is operated to the highest standards. It now allows us to work hand in hand with DOSD to care for a greater number of vulnerable children (up to 24 at any one time) and give them a caring safe home, whether on a temporary basis or more permanently. 

We are so happy with this news after waiting many years for this moment. The home will continue to grow from strength to strength and we will stay one united big 'family'...

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.

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

Renovations

The home continues to be improved as resources allow us: some of the most recent projects have seen the TV room walls replastered and given a lovely light paint job to make it a nice environment to relax in. Thanks to everyone that helped make it happen, and to Clayton's extra efforts to finish it off with Carol. Now that spring has come we're also starting again in the vegetable garden in the yard, and we've had Ashley, Hendrico and Ronaldo helping prepare the ground and take an interest in planting. Well done boys...

Home Improvements

Over the last few weeks the home has been a hive of activity with a lot of work being done to improve the home's facilities and environment, and carry out much needed repairs. This has included creating a new office, cleaning carpets and mattresses, repainting the kitchen, putting new doors on the rooms, and fixing the back gate. Led by all round handyman Bertus, with the help of the volunteers and the children, the improvements are really making a difference and helping the brighten up the home. It's only the beginning for Emmanuel Children's Home and we have many other projects in the pipeline.