Tag Archives: A small but effective grassroots heath and welfare project in rural South Africa

SUPPORTING LETHABO KID’S CLUB 2015-2021

Africa, Charity, Community projects, Education, HIV awareness, Limpopo Province, Nonprofit, Orphans, South Africa, The Waterberg Trust, Uncategorized, Vaalwater, Vulnerable Children, Waterberg, Youth

Lethabo Kid’s Club – a place of fun, food and life lessons has been closed due to Covid Lockdown. They usually come running every Wednesday – 300 to 700 children each week.  It is their special day where they know they ‘belong’. Lethabo means ‘happiness’.

The Waterberg Trust has been supporting Lethabo Kid’s Club’s ‘Back to School’ project since 2015. The aim is to ensure every child is registered to go to school at the beginning of the school year in January by whipping up enthusiasm and ensuring they are equipped with school uniform.

The foundation also aims to:

  1. Teach the children about Jesus, and that He loves them
  2. Provide good nourishing food to supplement sometimes meager diets.

Exciting Bible Stories that teach ‘Jesus loves you’ and life lessons are taught by the older youth and young adults.

Yummy peanut butter and jam sandwiches and fresh farm milk satisfy their hungry tummies. Many may not have had anything to eat all day and this is after school. Eager hands and anxious faces reach out for food.

Special days during the year are ‘Sausage Roll Day’ where each child gets his own sausage roll, yogurt and cool drink. These are lovingly prepared by the local Academy who love participating in this gift to the children. At Christmastime, we give each child a t-shirt, bright and colorful with a special logo on it, such as, “Jesus loves you”, “My best friend is Jesus”, and “Jesus is my Good Shepherd” Psalm 23, and a little lamb. All year, we see older and new t-shirts around the community and at Kid’s Club.

    Our biggest project the past few years has been buying school clothes. With so many children in need, we specify ‘one’ thing each – most need shoes or a new school bag. This is so important to them as they are often mocked by other children if their shoes are broken or their shirts are too small or torn. If we determine that a child has a greater need, we buy the whole kit for him. This huge project is sponsored by The Waterberg Trust (TWT) with much love.

    Hard-wearing school shoes costing under £10 a pair

    Assisting high school matriculants with tertiary studies is a natural outgrowth of Kid’s Club.  Most of these students have grown up in Lethabo Kid’s Club and now are looking forward to getting their futures established. Our organization for this is The Kholofelo Association, ‘Giving Hope to Youth” –  a registered NPO in South Africa. Students are assisted with school fees, accommodation, food and transport where necessary. We’re seeing wonderful growth in them as young adults studying diligently and preparing for jobs as chefs, in tourism, electrical engineering, child care, office management and IT studies. While their courses are not on a university level, they do give a ‘step up’ in qualifying for a job. With only a High School Matric and no experience, they otherwise find themselves without hope.

    We’ve spent more than 20 years giving and loving children and youth! Now we see many as young adults with jobs. They always come back to their ‘roots’ at Lethabo Kid’s Club. There is still that sense of ‘belonging’.

    We are confident that the children and youth are being taught life lessons which will stay with them all their lives. Will you join us in changing lives! There are a number of different ways you can donate here

    News on Food Parcel Distribution in the Waterberg for families in need

    Africa, Charity, Community projects, Healthcare, HIV awareness, Home Based Care, Limpopo Province, Nonprofit, Orphans, Palliative Care, South Africa, The Waterberg Trust, Uncategorized, Vaalwater, Vulnerable Children, Waterberg, Youth, , ,

    Thirty families in need of support in the Waterberg are being visited to ensure they have enough food and essential supplies. Education on basic hygiene measures is also offered. We are helping two child-headed families, some who are chronically ill, a man badly bitten by a dog, women with small children left with no means of support, an old woman with no ID card and many other needy cases.

    120 individuals benefited in November and 94 in December 2020

    TWT aims to support those who do not receive any social grant money, who are unemployed with no source of income or support, and are in urgent need of help. Those already on the Social Development system have been handed over to a social worker who has provided 18 families with food parcels donated by Shambala Game Reserve.

    Nurse Grace works with Choppies supermarket and volunteers from St John’s Church who help to pack food parcels and deliver them to the elderly and those who can’t reach the supermarket due health issues.

    We have been able to help those in crisis: thieves broke into one man’s house, stealing all his groceries whilst he was at a funeral. Another man had a fire at his house and needed clothes for his six children.

    If you would like to make a donation to The Waterberg Trust Covid-19 Appeal to assist the needy, please click here.

    A WIDOW AND HER DAUGHTER BOTH COME FROM LESOTHO HAVE NO ID BOOKS . THE DAUGHTER HAS NEW BORN BABY.  AFTER LOSING HER HUSBAND IN AUGUST 2020, HER INLAWS TOOK THE FURNITURE AND LEFT THEM WITH NO SUPPORT OR FOOD.

    Progress!
    School children attending school benefit from the feeding scheme program
    Those receiving grants are able to buy essential supplies for the family.

    Some people are back at work while others now sell produce at the local market
    Job opportunities for local community members in various sectors are emerging.

    SCHOOL UNIFORM was bought for a boy from a dysfunctional family who now has counseling.
    Current Challenges:
    Increase in food prices.
    Some families arrive late or find it difficult to collect the food.
    Four children below the age of 10 are being neglected by their mother due alcohol. The issue has been handed over to social development for intervention.
    5 families were abusing social grants. The cases were reported to the social worker.
    Some people are becoming dependent on food parcels and do not want to work.

    House break-ins and stealing within the community is worrisome with young boys involved in stealing from their parents.
    Huge families are unable to feed their dependents.
    Re-opening of taverns contributes to insecurity and unnecessary expenditure. This results in many drunken people leaving no food for their family.

    Poor living conditions in informal settlements with poor sanitation and no water. Youth hang around quiet streets where they smoke, drink alcohol and abuse substances.
    Cases of  gender-based violence resulting in physical injury and assault needed to be reported to the Police station.
    One men was severely injured and needed to be taken to hospital.
    Teenage pregnancies remain a challenge.

    Nurse Grace has been making preparations as schools open in the Waterberg

    Africa, Charity, Community projects, Education, Healthcare, HIV awareness, Limpopo Province, Nonprofit, South Africa, The Waterberg Trust, Uncategorized, Vaalwater, Vulnerable Children, Waterberg, Youth, , , , , , ,

    Nurse Grace profile picture in TWT uniform 2020~School nurse, Sister Grace Ismail~

    Schools in South Africa re-opened today, bringing a number of challenges in the light of Covid-19.

    Nurse Grace has written to say, “I have been busy preparing schools, to ensure classrooms are cleaned and sanitised, also to plan the screening area for learners.” Masks are obligatory for all – by law.

    Ever since schools in South Africa closed in March due to shielding, Sister Grace has been helping pupils with their studies at home. “I am attending to issues and challenges presented by learners. I have been in contact with the social development services to seek help for problems in the community.”

    Sister Grace helping learners with studies through Lockdown

    -Home schooling in the Waterberg –

    Thanks to over fifty kind donors in the UK, who responded to The Waterberg Trust Covid-19 emergency appeal, Grace has been co-coordinating the procurement and distribution of food parcels to the needy, working with volunteers from St John’s Church ‘Acts of Mercy’ initiative. You can read more about this here.

    Nurse Grace buying groceries for food parcels

    -Nurse Grace purchasing groceries for food parcel donation- 

    Grace writes: “The next purchase will second week of June.” If you would like to help with the purchase of food parcels by making a donation, however small, please click here for The Waterberg Trust’s Justgiving site or here to send a cheque.

    Winter is on its way, with clear sunny days but temperatures dropping radically at night. “I have been handling clothes to the community which are donated by Horizon and Bulls Eye”. She has also been distributing knitted blankets. “My targets are school children and vulnerable elderly.”

    Grace has now returned to work in the schools of the Waterberg, including Meetsetshehla Secondary School, where she is based. If you would like to read more about her work, please click here.

    Nurse Grace at Meetsetshehla School in TWT uniform

    Food parcels for vulnerable families in the Waterberg

    Africa, Charity, Community projects, Limpopo Province, Nonprofit, South Africa, The Waterberg Trust, Uncategorized, Vaalwater, Waterberg, , , , , ,

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    -Nurse Grace preparing food parcels for the needy in the Waterberg-

    Thanks to over fifty individuals in the UK who made personal donations to The Waterberg Trust’s Corvid-19 emergency appeal, food parcels have been distributed to people in need in the Vaalwater community.

    The original idea was to support those who lost their jobs due to Lockdown, which virtually closed the tourism in South Africa overnight. In practice, Nurse Grace drew up a list of about 40 families / persons in need.

    A local supermarket, which has very good prices, packed the food into bundles. Volunteers from St John’s Church supervised distribution directly from the shop to the grantees, who collected their food parcels to avoid transport costs. The volunteers checked the contents of each food parcel and recorded receipts from the correct grantee. Each package contained a message of encouragement in the local language.

    All funds are carefully monitored by TWT’s local partner, St John’s Church.

    Nurse Grace and volunteers from St John’s Church purchasing the food

    Thanks to careful planning and the support of Choppies Supermarket, each food parcel contained a decent amount of nutritious groceries for the equivalent of about £27.

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    10 Kg Mealie meal – the staple carbohydrate

    2 Kg Rice

    2 Kg Sugar

    4 Tins of fish in tomato sauce

    4 Tins of baked beans

    2 litres Cooking oil

    500g Salt

    3 packets of soup (used as a sauce with mealie meal)

    7 Kg potatoes

    1 Kg packet of powdered milk

    250g teabags

    1 bottle dish washing liquid

    The plan was to include 2kgs of flour, but it was out of stock, so nurse Grace added a bottle of mayonnaise instead.

    -Some of the many people who received food parcels in May 2020-

    Very many thanks to all our donors!

    If you are able to make another donation please click here for TWT’s Justgiving page where donations show up if you leave a message. We can take CAF cheques and normal cheques. The address can be found here.

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    Thanks also to Nurse Grace and the volunteers from St John’s Church at 24 Rivers – it was heavy work!

    Nurse Grace has also able to help a pregnant lady who had been evicted from her home and organize a kind donation of a bed and equipment needed for the baby.

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