There have never been so many… we celebrated our Christmas party with almost 200 children.

Dear Friends of Golden Sunbeams

On Thursday, November 30th, our annual Christmas party marathon started its first round!

It started with 15 beaming girls and 21 cheerful boys in the Helderberg Golden Sunbeams kindergarten. Abraham Manuel, husband of the long-time Prinzipal Marinda, who died three years ago and was highly valued by us, organised a colourful Jumping castle to celebrate the day. The weather cooperated, swimming trunks and swimsuits were in the backpack, and the children felt they were at a small pool party.

Because every now and then buckets of water were poured into the Jumping castle. There were lots of screams and everyone had a lot of fun. Afterwards, there was food for the children who sang a beautiful song for us and were then given presents. We were very touched…

The twins Liam and Liza and their friend Nazeem, who all go to the Primary school next door, also celebrated, as their godparents from Germany were there. Hello and cheers – The joy of seeing one another again was huge!

At the end of November, we transferred a small amount of money to the schools where we were unable to hold a Christmas party so that they could organise a small celebration on site with their teachers and children.

A week later, on Thursday 7th December, we celebrated our traditional Christmas party in the garden of the Mondeor Restaurant in Somerset West with around 200 children from the township of Asanda Village and our adult guests from South Africa and Europe. Under clear blue skies and pleasantly warm temperatures, 110 boys and girls from Sikuthale Pre-School and 75 children from Great Beginning Edu-Care Centre gathered in the Mondeor parking area at 11 a.m. and sang cheerful songs accompanied by rhythmic clapping.

Before we enter the fray, we would like to tell you briefly about Paul and his family. Paul is of Indian origin and has been helping us organise the Christmas party at the Mondeor Restaurant for many years.

He helps us pack the many Christmas bags, gets the water toys, provides the technical equipment and lets one of his sons play Santa Claus.

Since Antony was still writing exams, his younger brother took over the task this year: a little Santa Claus, who proudly and happily represented his big brother.

Paul played Christmas songs over a large loudspeaker, little Santa Claus made his rounds, throwing candy around, followed by a cheerful crowd – until the children discovered the microphone. From then on there was one solo performance after the other, the little ones had a lot of fun singing and we adults had tears in our eyes, the songs were so moving.

Santa Claus handed out water pipes, balls and inflatable animals and everyone splashed around in the large pool. Of course that made them all really hungry and so pizza and soft drinks came at just the right time. There were long queues to otain the ice cream afterwards, but this particular ice cream was definitely worth the wait.

After our traditional final photo with over 200 people, the distribution of our coveted Christmas surprise bags took place…

…filled with toys, writing and art supplies as well as sweets, the buses drove back to Asanda Village around 3:30 p.m.

You’ve all already noticed: Unfortunately, for the first time this year, our very dear Bernd Holtkamp, who was unable to take part for health reasons, was missing from our traditional final photo. We are very sad about this because he is our real focus. We missed him very much and hope he gets better soon!

Many thanks to all donors and sponsors who made this Christmas party marathon possible. We are very close to you and hope that you will continue to support and encourage us in the future.

We wish you a Merry Christmas, relaxing days and a happy start to a healthy and peaceful New Year.

Yours

Britta & Bernd