I would like to introduce myself to the Friends of the Trust, some of you may already know me as I have been involved in the tourism industry for many years. I was born in Zimbabwe and grew up with a genuine love and passion for Africa which has never left me. I have, as a tour operator, travelled Southern Africa extensively. For the past four years I have worked on a part time basis with a social upliftment project in the townships in Cape Town which has given me great joy and a deep respect for these communities. The project also involved the tourism indusrty and I saw how the project changed many people’s lives from living in a shack to owning a home of their own.

I look forward to working together with the Trustees and the Friends of the Trust to continue the good work which has already been achieved by the TCD Trust and to see the reality of the dream for the new multi purpose centre at Blomvlei Primary School in Hanover Park.

I recently visited Blomvlei Primary School for the first time and met with the head mistress, Dawn Petersen. She proudly showed me around the school and the new sports flieds which were being laid, the first step towards the bigger picture of creating an enviroment for these children that they can be proud of and play in a safe area. We were there on a scorching hot day and the children were having their school assembly out in the school courtyard, Dawn said she could not wait for the day when they will have the centre open and the children won’t have to sit outside.

I hope to meet with many of you as soon as possible and look forward to working together.

Bronwen has been in the tourism industry for over 20 years and has, for the past four years, successfully coordinated projects involving the tourism industry and raising funds to build houses for shack dwellers living in the townships of the Western Cape.

With her passion for the upliftment of grassroute projects in South Africa and a vast knowldge and understanding of the tourism industry, Bronwen will continue to expand our Friends of the Trust and work with our various projects which the Trust supports.

The multi-purpose centre at Blomvlei Primary School in Hanover Park will be the focus of fund raising efforts and ensuring that the project continues to become a reality for this community.

We welcome Bronwen onboard and look forward to working together.

Today we have posted a donation of R400 through Postbank, Netherlands on your account with the Absa Bank in Wynberg. There should be no costs for you, since we indicated to our bank that all costs are for the sender.

We would like the amount to be beneficiary to the Chris Hani school, as we explained in previous messages.
The money was collected in the service on our wedding day, 9 september. We thought maybe it would be nice to include a picture of us in our best wedding dress…

We hope (and trust!) the school can make good use of it. If a special project is supported with this amount, we would be pleased if it were possible to inform us about it.

With kind greetings, and all the best,

Baukje Kingma, Jogchum Reitsma

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Many Thanks to Baukje Kingma and Jogchum Reitsma for their donation of R400. They are pictured alongside in their best wedding dress!

Their donation will go a long way towards fitting the computer room containers with security doors and burglar bars – as well as desks & chairs for the computers.

10 teachers began their training on Mon 10 Feb at St Francis Computer Training & Business centre in Langa. The centre is close to the school, which solves the transport problem and at a very convenient time (15h00 – 16h30 – 4 afternoons a week), which still allows them to be home with their families in the evening as well as keeping the revenues in the townships, which is an added bonus.

The latest and most exciting development is the involvement of The Angel network, established by popular talk-show host, Oprah Winfrey.

In December 2004 Trustee, Enver Malley of Grass Routes Tours took Oprah out to visit the school and she agreed to pay the salaries of all the teachers for the next 3 years. She has also donated a mini library to the school.

Dr Tim Kuypers, Director of the Network Economics Consulting Group in Sydney Australia, has also donated a number of computers and software, which are currently being shipped to us. They will also be financing computer training for the teachers, to enable them to effectively utilize the computers.

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Watch this space for further developments…