Xmas cheer

The Xmas season brought us some good spirit and more happiness. First up we had staff from Build It come to the home to host a party with the children and hand out presents. 

Hands on Africa kindly donated some colourful t-shirts to all the children.

The children danced and enjoyed the holidays.

Hendrico made us all proud by winning the Junior Model of the Year in KZN at Summer Heat.

The children enjoying a nice break away, cooling off in KZN.

Our Talents

A photo of the Young Little Stars with Nate Butler from the US at the ARTS Johannesburg. Hendrico and Cecil have been invited as models to go to Florida in July 2017 as part of an International Talent showcase! 

The gumboot team put on a great performance and with some more time to develop their show they'll have a good chance of being invited too in 2018. They had very positive feedback from international judge Kim Myers and we are extremely proud of them. 

We are also looking for sponsors for Hendrico and Cecil as it will come to a large amount of R73,000 each to cover all their costs to attend the showcase. This is a huge opportunity for children from a children's home, boosting their self worth and confidence. It also inspires the others to do better and to be disciplined in what they can achieve. If anyone could find it in their hearts to help with sponsorship this could make dreams come true for these hard-working and ambitious children. Please can get in contact.

And here's the welcoming committee back at the home ready to celebrate the Little Stars return with some home made cakes.

Here's an example of the certificate each boy got for their involvement. Well done - a great achievement!

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.

Capitec Birthday Party

The staff members of Capitec bank held a party for the children at Emmanuel on Saturday 13th August. It was the birthday of Ronaldo (one of the bank's employee's) so they decided to celebrate by sharing the occasion; setting up a jumping castle for the small ones and some lovely gift bags for all Emmanuel children. It was a team effort from all staff at Capitec Bank Middelburg. A heartwarming occasion - happy birthday Ronaldo!

Celebrating Women's Day on 9th August

The girls and care workers (Abigail and Bulelani) had great fun dressing up!

Mandela Day

The 'Young Little Stars' gumboot dancers performed at Huis Silverjare, an old age home in Midros, in aid of Mandela day on 18th July.

The Grootfontein cell group, led by Jon Manunu (a board member and part of the Family Church) blessed the children with song, prayer and some delicious cupcakes on Mandela Day; their contribution towards their 67 minutes.

Natasha from Kingdom Connexion in Port Elizabeth sent the children boxes with presents. Thanks to everyone who has been so thoughtful with the children and helped enriched their lives! Lots of smiles all round.

Riders Visit Home

The Empyrean riders visited the centre on Saturday 28 May handing some goody bags to the children, delicious soup and home made bread.  The children were pleased to see them and performed a gumboot dance in their honour.  It was a great day in the sunshine!

Our Talented Children

A group of our children auditioned in Port Elizabeth for the Summerheat Model and Talent Search. The gumboot dancers "The Young Little Stars" made it through to the Summerheat finals in Wild Coast Sun next year, as well as for Just You talent search in October at the IATS (The International ARTS Talent Showcase). This is an Annual Talent Showcase held in Johannesburg, which brings talent from all 9 provinces in South Africa to showcase their performance abilities for an opportunity to be scouted to represent South Africa at The Applause Rising Talent Showcase in Orlando Florida, USA. If they make it international artists will work with them in boot camp. This is huge! 

Hendrico, Cecil and Thobeka also made it through to the next step with modelling. Our social worker Xolani also got in with modelling. We are very very proud and excited, the event will take place in JHB as a black tie event where the gumboot dancers also have been asked to open the show in traditional South African colours as the welcome the international judges. These guys are making history for our childrens home!

Photo from a recent visit from Kingdom Connextion from Port Elizabeth, who donated time and items towards the children. It was great to spend time with them and the children were kept busy with trying out some bead work and other crafts.

Young Little Stars dance group practising ahead of the auditions in Port Elizabeth for the Summerheat Model and Talent Search.

Emmanuel Gumboot Dancers

Emmanuel Gumboot Dancers, Young Little Stars at the SummerHeat Awards, Wild Coast Sun. We are proud of Ashley, Hendrico, Cecil. Waynne, Badanile, Attie, Blondie, Ronaldo....you guys shine like the stars that you are!

August News & Photos

It's been a busy few months at ECYCC with lots of work going on behind the scenes with the Department of Social Development and also our building works (getting closer to finish extra bedrooms and bathrooms in the new wing of the house).

Here are a few bits of news and accompanying photos. First off, our new social worker Xolani has settled in well - he has a great relationship with the children and he's very efficient and capable. Here he is helping Ashley and Hendrico fix some broken shelves:

We've had some new arrivals at the home, so a big Emmanuel welcome to Zander, Hilda and Blondy. Here they are with Ronaldo, just before heading off to school:

ECYCC manager Carol and the care workers went through training on FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder) in order to learn to handle behavioural problems that can create. With a number of other NPO's from Middelburg attending too, the training course took place for 3 days in July at Agape church and was kindly sponsored by Hands on Africa. ECYCC sponsored the food for the sessions, Agape sponsored the venue and HoA sponsored the accommodation so a great team effort and social spirit. Here is everyone proudly displaying their certificates:

Other snippets of news:

• The building works continue on at a good pace with tiling and plastering of inside and outside walls. We still need to raise an estimated R60,000 in donations to complete all the works and be able to start using all the new rooms.
• We are getting assistance from Hands on Africa for items like beds, wash basins etc which they will being from Cape Town to furnish the new building - another reason to thank them.
• Mr Donald Smiles, retired teacher and Emmanuel board member, is giving extra tutoring lessons to the children on a weekly basis, including Maths.

Hands on Africa Holiday

Recently some our children returned from a visit to Cape Town where they were hosted by Hands on Africa. The children were able to experience many new things and it will long live in their memories. We've taken the liberty of sharing Hands on Africa's newsletter on the children's visit. We are so grateful for the experience that everyone shared and the kindness in all of their hearts. 

Here's some thanks that Hands of Africa wished to share:
Thank you to the host-parents who opened up their homes to these children: Francois and Karen Cronje; Diana and Erhardt Theart and their daughter, Jolene; Giovanni and Carminda Mangliavalli; Kobus and Nina Barnard; Carina Howard and her family; Marius and Marthe Malan; Werner and Monica Jurgens; Johan and Amelia Kroes and Charl and Corlia du Plessis. Thanks to our sponsors, the V@A Aquarium; Ster-Kinekor, Melkbos Spur and Pinnacle Marketing. Thank you to the individual sponsors, Johann and en Tania de Clerk; Jenny Bosman; Hellani Briers and Elmarie Marais. 

Thank you to Lydia du Plessis for hand knitting a teddy bear for Angel. Thank you to Erhardt and Diana Theart for driving the bus that brought the children here and back. Thank you to everyone who had us in their prayers. Thank you to the Melkbos community who opened up their hearts and flooded us with bedding, clothes, snacks, toys and clothing vouchers to be used by Emmanuel. 

Thank you to the volunteers who assisted at the outings: Nerinna Fourie, Thomas du Plessis, Dawie Albertyn, Yolande Mellet, Michelle Calhau, Lindy Hearn and Lonah Boshof. Thank you to everyone who popped in to meet the children. Lastly thank you to Bertus and Carol Deysel for trusting us with this group.

Loom Bands

Over the Xmas and New Year holiday we had some visitors from the UK who brought with them one of recent toy crazes from their country: loom bands. These colourful elastic bands provided hours of fun and concentration for the children. They quickly picked up the skills to twist and thread them, making multi-colour bracelets which they proudly wore the following days or passed onto their friends. As you can see from the photos there were some great creations.

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.

Hands on Africa Holiday Club

We recently had the Hands on Africa group visit us and they provided some lovely activities for the children during the school holidays. At the local Agape centre, which had been beautifully decorated for the occasion, there was music, dancing, singing and blessing which they were involved in. We thank Hands on Africa for putting this on, and also for helping with renovation of the garden, where new vegetables were planted and a worm farm set up with the help of Francois and Karen.

Here are a few photos to remind us of some happy days...

Charl du Plessis from Hands on Africa wrote us a nice letter afterwards which included:

"We would like to thank you for the opportunity and privilege to minister to the children during the last week. It was a great blessing for the whole team. Given the enthusiasm displayed by the children we can see that this could become an annual event... 

During our last semester at the Middelburg (Eastern Cape) Bible School in May 2014, the hearts of some of the team members were touched by what God is doing through you at the Emmanuel Child & Youth Care Centre. We realise that you have the thankless task of looking after the many orphans under your care and as is often the case, you hardly get a chance to rest. God laid on our hearts spend a few days with the children during the July holidays with a view to share a little bit of His love to the children, but also to give you a much needed break.We trust that the children enjoyed the holiday club events in the mornings. In the afternoons the team members helped some of the older children with schoolwork. We trust that this will also reap fruits – even though it was very basic and very little."