Archive for the ‘Blomvlei Multi-Purpose Centre’ Category

Friday the 25th February was the opening of the Blomvlei Library at Blomvlei Primary School, Hanover Park. This much anticipated event was celebrated with spiritual dance By past school pupils, wonderful food provided by the teachers and local community and music. The guest of Honour was the US Consulate General of the USA in Cape Town, Dr Alberta Mayberry who addressed the children on the wonder and joy reading and a library can bring to their lives.

Thank you to the staff of Blomvlei Primary School who worked so hard to provide such a wonderful opening of the library. The new school library flag was raised by Grade 6 learner, Crystal Barnes, who won the flag design competition at the school.

This is a new dawn for Blomvlei Primary School and whole new world will be opened up for the learners. The TCD Trust has partnered with Equal Education who have already given the library 4000 books which have all been sorted , catagorised and labeled. Partnering together the TCD Trust and Equal Education will train the new librarian over the next couple of months and start to set up the extra mural activities in the library such as literacy development, thinking skills, business skills, career guidance and life skills for their future.

Thank you to all the Friends of the Trust who were able to join us on Friday, it was wonderful that you were able to see for yourselves this remarkable achievement. It once again confirms that we need to work together as an industry, community and country bringing meaningful, accountable and long lasting positive change to desperate communities around us.

Thank you for being a Friend of the TCD Trust, your continued support is appreciated and is changing lives/ communities forever.

Today is Valentine’s Day. Some people love this day and some people want to ignore it. I understand all of the feelings people have about Valentine’s Day, but everyday should be a special opportunity to show your love, not just one holiday.

Accepting love isn’t always easy, and giving love can be difficult for some people too. For Valentine’s Day we wish everybody to find a member of their family, friends or community member who bring you balance, peace, and love. And if you’ve already found them, let them know.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the noise around us. We may feel our gratitude and appreciation for those we love, but we often forget to tell them or show them.

Show your love this Valentine’s day !

If you answer YES to any of the following,you can be involved in this wonderful initiative:

~ Have you any librarian experience to share on a volunteer basis with training
and or organizing of the new library at Blomvlei Primary in Hanover Park ?

~ Do you have a good mind for organizing and would you like to volunteer to help
catagorise and sort out donated books ?

~ Do you have computer skills that you could teach on a volunteer basis to improve
pc literacy lessons during the week or on week-ends for both children and adults ?

~ Can you or your company donate computers, library equipment such as fax machines,
photocopier, scanners and overhead projector ?

~ Are you or your company able to contribute towards the ongoing financial needs
of the Library including paying librarian salary and the library maintenance ?

~ Would your company like to become a Friend of the TCD TRUST?

Contact : Bronwen Wetton, 079 899 2294, E-mail bronwen@tcdtrust.org.za

2010 has been an enormously challenging but good year for the TCD Trust. We began construction of the Blomvlei Library at Blomvlei Primary School in Hanover Park in January 2010. Besides enormous increases in the building costs from the original quotes the construction was successfully completed in August 2010.

The library is magnificent and is already receiving quite iconic status in the area. The learners already have an enormous sense of pride of this beautiful new library on their school grounds even though it is not yet furnished.

Due to the huge building costs we did not have the sufficient funds to complete the landscaping, shelving, furniture, computers and equipment for the library. Since August we have been seriously fund raising for these things. In October we received an wonderful donation from TICE for R100 000.00 and we also held our own fund raiser dinner which was kindly sponsored by the Mount Nelson Hotel, we managed to raise a further R125 000.00 from our dinner.

SATSA members came out to the school at the end of October to celebrate World Responsible Tourism Day – 20 trees were donated and planted by the SATSA members to begin the greening of Blomvlei Library. Further greening and landscaping will hopefully be completed during 2011.

The TCD Trust also received a fantastic donation of R10 000.00 from SKAL International, Cape Town, at their annual Christmas lunch. The TCD Trust was one of three beneficiaries who were chosen by SKAL this year to receive funds raised by the committee and members during their 2010 monthly meetings.

In January we will use the funds we have raised so far to install the shelving and furniture and we hope to officially open the Library in February 2011 which also coincides with the 40 year anniversary of the school.

The TCD Trust has undertaken to assist the school and working in partnership with Equal Education Foundation to find a librarian for the library during the developmental stages in order to get the facility fully operational and functional. Some of the developmental programmes which will be introduced into the library will include literacy development, computer skills, life skills, career guidance, art and dance workshops.

We still have a long way to go to complete the Blomvlei Library, we thank all our sponsors, Friends of the TCD Trust and tourism industry affiliated organisations for all your support in 2010, it would not be possible without you. The Tourism Industry in Cape Town can truly be very proud of what has been achieved this year through supporting the TCD Trust and the work we do.

The holidays bring three special words to mind: Peace, Love, and Joy. They are words that carry warmth, and spread hope. They are what we wish for and what we seek. Wishing you and your families a very blessed Christmas and holiday season and a prosperous and happy New Year 2011.