Sabelo from Andulela Tours visited Blomvlei Library last week with a group of visitors from the UK. The group meet with the school headmistress, Dawn Petersen, who explained to the guests some of the problems which the children face growing up in Hanover Park and that keeping them away from drugs and gangs is an on-going headache for the parents and the teachers. She said that the library has already changed the lives of the children at the school and that the library periods were a highlight of their week, the children love reading new books and each week they give book reviews to their classmates about the books they have read.

We were all amazed to realise how lovely and cool it was inside the library although temperatures outside were in the mid 30c, this is thanks to the eco design of the library which is naturally cool in the summer months with windows strategically placed to allow the cool southeaster wind to blow through the library and then in winter the much larger north facing windows allow for maximum sunlight ensuring no high electricity accounts for heating or cooling inside the library.

After the visit to the wonderful library the guests visited various classrooms where they meet the children and read to them introducing the children to the new books which they had brought with them and had donated to the library.

The purpose of the library was to create a place of safety, inspiration and education for the learners and it seems that it is already a great success. We would like to see more of our Friends of the TCD Trust visiting our projects in 2012. It is wonderful to come out and meet the people and experience for yourself the great work the TCD Trust has done with your support.

Let’s hope that 2012 will be best year ahead for the TCD Trust and hopefully many more members of the tourism and hospitality industry will join us as Friends of the Trust and our longstanding friends will continue to support us. The TCD Trust is providing real, meaningful and long lasting change to desperate communities around us, it is wonderful to be a part of it and it’s going to be great for your business too in 2012, so join us now and enjoy the rewards of being a Friend of the TCD Trust for you and your business.

Blomvlei Primary School in Hanover Park held a thanksgiving service at a church close to the school. As the Southeaster wind howled outside, the school celebrated and gave thanks with dance, music and words of grattitude. The TCD Trust was also present at this special service. Enver Mally, one of the four trustees of TCD Trust, was one of the guest speakers. He said some nice words about the school and he officially handed over the two laptop computers which had been donated to Blomvlei Library from Increadible Connection. In the picture below you see Enver Mally in the middle, with remarkable Headmistress, Dawn Petersen and Deputy Principal Yvonne Adonis.

We salute you Blomvlei Primary School, teachers, learners, parents, you make us humble that you have achieved so much in the past 40 years under such hard and difficult circumstances in your community. May you go forward and continue to be the shining light that you are for the community of Hanover Park.

A special message from Blomvlei Primary School during the service:

”Life is a continuous journey. It is given to us in stages. Do not look back and grieve about the past, for it is gone forever. Do not be troubled by the future, as God will provide. Live in the present and make it beautiful, that it will be worth remembering.”

Thanks so much to Incredible Connection for their donation of two laptop computers for Blomvlei Library. This month four computers has been donated to the library!!!

After the two computers from Andulela Experience, the Library can now work with four computers! This is really great, because we can now set up the resource centre inside the library which will be used by the learners at the school. We also hope to open it up to the broader community in the future and start to give computer training worskshops for adults.

A very BIG THANK YOU to Incredible Connection for their support!

Monique from Andulela Experience was asked by one of her overseas clients to find a suitable project to donate some computers. After a lot of paper work to clear customs etc Monique managed to obtain two computers which were delivered to Blomvlei Library in Hanover Park on Monday morning. Renshia, our librarian, was waiting at the gate to meet us with such excitment to receive the first computers for the new library !

Now the Library can start to give computer lessons after school hours to the children who have problems with using the computer. But also students who like to work on a project after school hours, now have the opportunity to use the computers in the Library. Thank you so much Monique, your support is greatly appreciated.

Sorry to say it AGAIN, but working together makes sense, with these sort of partnerships we can continue to bring Real, Meaningful and Long lasting change to people’s lives. We encourage everyone in the tourism and hospitality industry to come on board and join us as a Friend of the TCD Trust.

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.

Tuesday Evening the 27 September we had the privilage of attending Blomvlei Primary Schools 40th Birthday concert. The concert celebrated 40 years of memoirs from 1971 – 2011. The concert opened with pupils walking through a packed Hanover Park Community hall waving South African flags and singing “Heal the world”. The children sang and danced various musical numbers from High School Musical to Moppies / Klop, klop, Safrafina, Nelson Mandela’s Freedom Speech right up to Disco Inferno and Jail House Rock !!!

It was wonderful to be a part of their celebrations and to feel the energy, excitment and enthusiasim of the children, parents and teachers.The concern raised funds for the school and assist parents who cannot afford to pay the school fees.

The children spoke about the highlights of the 21st century from the 70′s to the 2000′s – a very proud moment was a salute from the children to the Trustees and the TCD Trust for their new library which they said was the highlight of the 2000′s for the school. It is moments like that which make us realise how important the work is that the TCD Trust does and how it impacts people’s lives and inspires them to have a better life for themselves.

The concert was a great success and we thank the children, teachers and parents for all their hard work and continued enthusiams for life and making their lives meaningful. Blomvlei Library will grow from strengh to strengh with committed teachers and parents and will hopefully be a highlight for the children at the school for another 40 years !

Thanks so much to Exclusive Books for their wonderful donation of books to Blomvlei Library. We collected three boxes of books from their Cavendish store this morning which contained a fantastic selection of books for children aged between 6 – 12 years. Included were a number of activity books which can be used by the teachers and librarian to do fun and creative activities with the children at the library.

Other books which the children will really enjoy were High School Musical, adventure stories, fariy tales, educational books, animal stories etc. We think this is a really great new selection of books for the children to read once they get back to school after their school holidays.We are always looking for new books for the children to read now they have two library periods per week in their school curriculum.

A very BIG Thank you to Exclusive Books for their generous donation and support of the new library at Blomvlei Primary School.

The Overland Africa team did the hard work of the day, digging into the very hard ground where they submerged a car tyre rim over the young trees which were planted last year. Soil, compost and mulch was then placed into the tyre rim which will serve the dual purpose of keeping the moisture around the tree and a water wise option for the watering in the hot summer months ahead.

Thanks again to everyone, it was a great experience for all of us and for the children at Blomvlei Primary School.

“Change was the gift given to all South Africans by Nelson Mandela. Now it’s YOUR turn. In the spirit of Madiba and his vision to spread justice and freedom for all, this is your chance to step up to the plate and become a part of a continuous global movement for good. By becoming a Mandela Day Changemaker you can show that actions speak louder than words by giving a little of your time to make a change that’s close to your heart. (or by giving a little of your time to make a difference to the life of someone less fortunate.)” (Nelson Mandela Foundation, 2011)

If you would like to contribute your 67 minutes on Mandela Day, join us at Blomvlei Library in Hanover Park.

Things to do:

Bring a book, read it to some of the children and donate it to the Library.

Bring good quality children’s books in English or Afrikaans and donate them to the Library.

Add beauty to the environment around Blomvlei Library – bring a bag of compost, mulch and a spade and gear up to work in the
garden.

Assist us in cleaning up the litter around the school ground – Please bring black bags with 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!