Child sponsorship update from Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Update for child sponsor supporters from the SOS Children's Village Port Elizabeth, South Africa from Winter 2008.

Dear Sponsor

We warmly greet you from Port Elizabeth, our bustling metropolis and home to all our children.

The Eastern Cape is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and interesting regions in South Africa and our biodiversity is unmatched in Africa. Spring has arrived, with the weather fluctuating every day from one extreme to another. The trees and shrubs are blossoming in a lovely array of colours from white to vivid pink and orange. Nature has her party clothes on, and summer is not far away.

Our Village
We have admitted fourteen new children to our village since April. They range from three to fifteen years of age. Seven of our youth and children have been integrated during the last six months and reunited with families or are living independently on their own while they work or study. Twelve of our children are attending occupational therapy and thirteen are attending tutoring to assist them with their mathematics. Twenty three children and youth attend remedial classes every week to assist them with their school work. Five children received spectacles to assist them with their sight and eight children had dental work done during the last six months. Overall the health of our children is good, but the occasional scrape or cold that sends them to our paediatrician for treatment.

Twenty children have been receiving psychotherapy - most of it ongoing. We recently appointed an additional five aunts to assist the SOS Mothers with the children. At present we have forty eight staff members and one hundred and nine children and youth in the village which includes our youth facilities. Our social workers and youth leaders recently did sexuality education workshops with the youth so that they can be empowered to make informed decisions as to promote healthy lifestyle choices. Our SOS Mothers and aunts attended workshops on financial skills, first aid training and child care training. The training is popular with the staff and the feedback is always positive. The training gives the mothers the necessary skills to cope and in the long run the children will benefit.

Sport and Cultural Activities
Our children are actively involved in sport and we are proud to report that eighteen children that are doing ballroom dancing attended the Regional Ballroom Competition in Queenstown, and four children brought back gold medals. We are extremely proud of our children’s achievements. Our karate children competed in numerous local events and recently attended karate Guchku Camp at Suurberg to prepare them for a big international event early next year.

The children are enthusiastic athletes; rugby and soccer remaining the favourite sport for all the boys. Recently our under fourteen boys were invited to carry the national flags at an international soccer match between Nigeria and Bafana-Bafana (our national soccer team). They were very proud to have been asked and were in the fortunate position of meeting all the team members after the game. It was a wonderful experience for them all!

Working with children and communities at Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Family Strengthening Programme
We are supporting seventy six HIV/AIDS affected families at present. Fifty five of these families are headed by terminally ill parents of whom most are mothers. One hundred and sixty nine children are benefiting directly as a result of our intervention. Other children from poor family circumstances within our service points as referred to and requested by partner organisations receive material support, mostly food and clothing. We also pay scholarship fees for thirty children to attend a Kindergarten in the Missionvale area where they receive two meals per day at the school they attend. As part of the education of the children we pay for thirty grade one pupils to attend a daily after school programme in Walmer area to assist them with their school work.

Regular home visits take place to monitor conditions at the families we assist. Care giver support groups gather on a regular basis to assist where necessary. The care givers are motivated to visit their area clinics and to make use of anti-retroviral medicine. Very sick care givers receive assistance in accessing the best care available to them. The ideal is to help all these families and to guide beneficiary families to become self sufficient. Our sewing project that was started in Missionvale is slowly but surely showing the fruits of all their hard work.

At present we focus on the very ill, as many live in appalling conditions and the low literacy rate and bad health prevent many becoming self sufficient. There are many challenges such as abject poverty, poor living conditions and poor service delivery in these areas. These are only some of the challenges that the staffs have to deal with on a daily basis. SOS Children’s Village as an association is working very hard to help those in need and your support is very important to us. With funding we can reach out to assist these extremely vulnerable children and their families.

Children growing up at Port Elizabeth, South Africa

SOS Nursery School
At present the nursery school has sixty five learners of which ten is SOS children. Educational and nursing students and volunteers assist our teachers and complete their voluntary training and practical at our facility. To promote Child Protection Week in May our teachers and learners made posters and students from a nearby college came to do a puppet show.

In June we had a celebration to honour grandparents and senior citizens, and invited guests from Ekuphumleni Old Aged Home. The children gave the guests a small concert, tea and refreshments were served afterwards. The invited guests received a small gift and were made to feel very special.

Our SOS Nursery School celebrated its 18th birthday with a funky hat parade party on the 1 August. The little ones had a great time, parading and showing off all their different hats.

The little ones had an educational outing to a nearby fire station in September and were given a tour and talk on the dangers of fire. They explored the fire-engines and met some of the brave firemen.

Nurses from the Department of Health administered immunizations to all learners under the age of five on 15 September. The eye vision centre offers free eye screening to our learners on Thursdays.

The SOS Nursery School celebrated Heritage Day on 24 September by dressing up in cultural clothing and giving a concert to invited guests. The children enjoyed sampling the cuisine of the Xhosa, Chinese and Cape Malay cultures. This is an important part of understanding our diverse cultures in South Africa and celebrating our differences.

Events
As part of our village energy saving drive our fundraiser negotiated free energy saving bulbs for all the family houses. National roll out and awareness of saving energy followed due to huge load shedding country wide. We were nominated as the charity of choice by a national food chain and they provided our village with a truck load of groceries. The value of this donation is in that our SOS Mothers are extremely pleased as it saves on their food budgets. In May Mr. Colin Stock took “Mr. Biggles” - a teddy bear as our SOS “ambassador” with him on his trip across Africa. Three Morris Minor vehicles travelled from Cape Town all the way across Africa to the United Kingdom. Along the way they visited communities and handed out pamphlets on the work of SOS as well as school stationery donated from our children to school pupils in the different countries on route.

Our children were once again enthusiastic volunteers during the annual Sappi beach clean up in September. The children had a lovely time and enjoyed spending the day contributing towards our wondrous marine environment. They were equipped with gloves and bags to clear all litter from our beaches and tidal areas. At the end of the day they had the satisfaction of being active participants in caring for our marine environment.

We wish to thank you all for all your unwavering support and kindness. The projects and programmes that our village and organisation undertakes will not be possible without your sponsorship. We wish you all a blessed festive season and a prosperous new year. Kindly feel free to visit our village if you are visiting our beautiful part of the world.

Yours sincerely,

Werner v.d Westhuizen
Village Director