Dear Friends of Golden Sunbeams
Today we would like to inform you about all the small projects that we have supported so far this year. And we can only do that because you help us with a variety of different types of donations. Be it sponsorships, monetary donations or donations in kind: all types of donations help to make the lives of our children, kindergarten teachers and also those of our workers and their families a little easier.
Many of these projects are too small to write an entire newsletter about, but in total they make a big difference. Since we have often reported about ourselves and our organisation in the first half of the year, we would like to use this newsletter to give you a little more insight into the small daily needs.
In this way, the kindergarten, Great Beginning, received its long-awaited shade roof so that the children no longer have to play in sand pits and romp on the jungle gyms in the blazing summer sun.
We frequently receive donations of clothing for the children, but also for our kindergarten teachers and our workers. We are grateful for these and would like to thank everyone who thinks of us in this way. It is always a great pleasure for us when we are able to distribute the items of clothing.
Our principal Nomalizo has been trying to apply for the Government registration for her kindergarten EmfindiSweni in the township of Nomzamo for a long time. The health department had complained that the sanitary area only had a linoleum floor. That’s why we decided to completely tile this area. Since we were already at it, we also tiled other areas in the kindergarten that also had linoleum floors.
Even though we are generally very happy with the way the tiles were laid, we would have liked Nomalizo to have chosen a different colour scheme for the bathroom. Sometimes we can give recommendations, but that doesn’t always mean that our advice is followed. And we want to encourage the independence of our principal 😉.
And at Helderberg Golden Sunbeams in the township of Macassar, part of the roof above the kitchen area had to be replaced. Now this area has also been sealed and rainwater can no longer penetrate the electrical cables or through the ceiling into the kitchen.
At Sikuthale Pre-School in Asanda Village, the gas cooker was damaged and the kitchen ceiling collapsed during the last storm. As reported in our July newsletter, we have repaired the ceiling and also replaced the gas cooker, which we would like to add here.
And for our Small World kindergarten we bought a new refrigerator with an integrated freezer compartment and a new oven with 3 gas stove rings and an electric stove top.
At Playway Pre-School in Helderzicht, the sanitary area previously had no interior ceiling, and so birds and other animals, for example, could enter through the open, unsealed ceiling area. That’s why we put in an interior ceiling at this point and connected electric lights.
A few days ago we received a “cry for help” from Florencia, the principal of Lekkerbekkies Edu-Care Centre. Due to the heavy rain in recent weeks, the interior walls of the school, which was only newly built in 2019, started to become mouldy.
Now we are in the process of sealing all the joints in the brick building outside.
Before we could start painting the interior, all the walls had to be cleared of mould.
Another topic that should not go unmentioned is our sponsorships. Our godchildren are supported by their godparents in a variety of ways. On the one hand, the school fees for the sponsored children are covered, but also for clothing, such as school uniforms or equipment for sports lessons. In addition, the costs of transport to school by school bus are also partially paid. We would like to thank all our dear godparents who make it possible for us to support our godchildren.
While we looked at the damage to the walls at Lekkerbekkie’s Edu-Care Centre in the township of Rusthof, the children played at their future dream jobs. There were no limits to their imagination: there were pilots, police officers, firefighters, construction workers and a large team of doctors and nurses. It was nice to see the joy and enthusiasm with which everyone played out their new roles.
We would like to thank all our sponsors, godparents and members for your commitment, without which we would not be able to support all these many big and small projects.
Warm greetings from spring-like Cape Town,
Britta & Claudia