Archive for the ‘Baphumelele Educare Centre’ Category

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On Wednesday morning 02 November I meet with Claus and Christine from City Sightseeing Cape Town outside the aquarium at the V & A Waterfront. As the City Sightseeing buses pulled off to show visitors all the sights of Cape Town we took off in the opposite direction to visit the TCD Trust projects in various disadvantaged areas of Cape Town. City Sightseeing Cape Town is one of our longest standing Friends of the Trust who have continued generously to support the work the TCD Trust does throughout the years. It was a great pleasure and honour to meet Peter and Jill Newman from the UK, Peter is the founder of City Sightseeing franchise.

Our first stop was at Baphumelele in Khayalitcha where we visited abandoned babies who are cared for at the center.Claus was amazed to see how bright and beautiful the nursery is for these children, colourful paintings on the walls of Elephants and animals and each cot equipped with clean and warm blankets. We also visited one of the house mothers who look after a small home which accommodates eight children of different ages. A delicious and warm meal was being prepared in the kitchen by the house mother and a volunteer from Canada read a story to some of the children in their lounge area.A much more noisy greeting meet our visitors at the Educare across the road, screams of delight and laughter rang out from the children who were enjoying a mid-morning snack. The Educare cares for approximately 300 children; this includes children from Baphumelele orphanage as well as children who come from the local community. The TCD Trust continues to support Baphumelele with maintaining the Educare building which was completely renovated by the TCD Trust in 2005.

Rosie’s Soup Kitchen was our second stop on our visit. We received a warm greeting from Rosie who for the past 20 years has provided a bowl of porridge to 200 children on their way to school in the morning. Rosie told us that the children preferred a slice of bread and jam or peanut butter but she knows they need the porridge to keep them strong and healthy. She tells them they can have a slice of bread and jam but they must first eat their porridge. She is a real angel on this earth. Our City Sightseeing guests visited the fully equipped and fitted kitchen which was built for Rosie by the TCD Trust in 2006.

Our final stop was at the new and magnificent library on the grounds of Blomvlei Primary School in Hanover Park. The Headmistress, Dawn Petersen, welcomed our guests with great pride and showed them around the library. Dawn explained that there had been another gang shoot out in the area and an innocent woman bystander was shot and killed. The woman’s body was in full vision on a field across the road from the school, many of the children saw what had happened, and although it was nothing new to them, the level of violence and fighting in the classrooms had escalated dramatically with Dawn having to take two girls from the classroom to hospital. We explained to our visitors how our dream for the library was to give the children a place of safety, learning and inspiration and provide them with the necessary life skills to go beyond their immediate circumstances and find options in life away from drugs and gangs.

Once again we thank City Sightseeing Cape Town from the bottom of our hearts, without your support these projects could not be done or supported by the TCD Trust. You are helping us to bring real, meaningful and long term change to people’s lives, Thank you.

June 21st, a glowing sunny and warm day for an outing…

Come Wednesday June 22, and the rain and cold gusts that seem to have taken the woes of the world were our wake-up alarm for the dawn of a new day. Not a great day for an outing sure but an outing to some of our projects it was – and a fabulous experience for all!

The outing had been organised to enable our Friends of the TCD Trust to visit the projects they has so generously contributed to and meet the amazing people we work with in the disadvantaged areas of our community.

At 10:30, we were all present at Ashanti Lodge, geared up for the weather and keyed up on the idea of visiting our projects. Our first stop was Khayelitcha where we met Rosie Mashale, the fabulous woman behind the Baphumelele Educare Centre where they met and played with some children, followed by a visit to the Baphumelele Respite Centre.

After Baphumelele, we visited charming Rosie in her Soup kitchen in Macassar, where the lingering scent of superb and healthy food truly made us hungry. Always smiling and welcoming, Rosie however shared with us her distress at being unable to cater for as much children and TB patients as she would have liked due to lack of subsidies.

While we were in her kitchen, we even witnessed some people from the community coming and asking if she has any soup left, and her sadness at having to turn them down since the soup was all finished.

Our last stop was Blomvlei Primary School in Hanover Park and the new library the TCD Trust recently opened there. After a brief chat with Dawn Pettersen, school headmistress, our Friends of the Trust had a look at the library and chatted a little bit with pupils.

Too soon, it was time to return to Ashanti Lodge, to the great disappointment of our visitors who all agreed that it was an awesome experience, an incredible eye-opener.

“The kids were so sweet!”

“ I wanted to stay there the whole day!”

“It was a heart-warming experience and I would love to do it again!” were some of our Friends’ comments on the way back.

Indeed, it is truly a heart-warming experience to be with these people. Their sense of dedication and ability to make the most of the little resources they have is undeniably inspiring.

A very big thank you to everyone who was present that day despite the weather! Thank you for your support and it was a real pleasure to meet you all!