Edna’s 67 minutes of doing good

As former President Nelson Mandela spent 67 years campaigning for human rights for every South African, the Breadline Africa team celebrated his birthday on the 18th of July by doing good work and volunteering to help those in need.  As for doing my own part, I  thought of a little struggling community in Grabouw where Breadline Africa  could do 67 minutes of good on behalf of our donors who support us so generously.

Grabouw is the commercial centre for what is the largest single export fruit producing area in Southern Africa. The district of which Grabouw is the centre is better known as the Elgin Valley, also known as the place in South Africa ‘where the apples come from’. Many of the people in this community are seasonable workers who are employed by the apple farmers.   

When I told Lilian that I had chosen her community to celebrate Madiba’s birthday, she was so excited and grateful.  Upon my arrival everyone started singing and it was such a joyous occasion. I was lucky enough to be able to spoil each lady as they were all given food parcels and the children received a packet filled with sweets and chips. All in all, it was a great feeling to be able to help others and do my ‘67 minutes of good’.

Our Bucket Lists

A while back I came across this blog post and absolutely loved it. The idea of compiling a ‘Bucket List’ (a list of things you REALLY want to do before you die) appealed to me on so many levels that I have somehow managed to convinced some of the members of our talented Breadline Africa team to share their own personal lists (they were given strict instructions to choose just top 3 things):

EDNA:

• My own TV show called ‘Edna’s container chats’.
• To retire and live in a cottage right on the beach
• To start a creative charity shop where all my friends meet up

PETER:

• Plant a million olive trees
• Visit the top 10 living monasteries in the world
• Take a long, slow, endless train trip from South to North India

DEBBIE:

• Write a book
• See the world one country at a time
• Get a Harley

LINDA:

• Visit Tibet
• Skiing
• Deep sea diving

CATHERINE:

• Travel the world
• Fly to the moon – Richard Branson style!
• Control my sugar cravings

MARIANNA:

• Sail Croatia and visit Dubrovnik
• See all my Russian/American/London friends at least 5 more times
• Start my own digital marketing and PR agency

These are just some of the highlights from our amazing team. I really do work with some truly incredible people…so lets hope Edna gets her own TV show (SABC are you guys reading this?!) and Debbie gets that Harley (we want photos Debs!).

What does Breadline Africa blog about?

According to Wordle, these are the most popular words that we use on our blog:

You can visit Wordle to get a visual representation of just about any website or body of text.

The year that has been – top blog posts of 2008

Wow, the end of the year seems to come upon us so quickly! In just a few short hours, it will be 2009.

Here are some of the 2008 highlights of Breadline Africa’s blog:

Earlier this year, we posted a recipe for Hearty Bean Soup – one of the most popular blog posts so far!

Edna heard about a community displaced by the xenophobic violence in need of a classroom for their children. We managed to post her 567 CapeTalk interview with Soli Philander, and followed with posts about the container classroom for the children at Soetwater.

We’ve posted about a number of visits from our donors, and of course the visit from all of Breadline Africa’s board members!

We talk a lot about containers, and on World Toilet Day, we got to tell you about containers that are turned into loos!

And of course, we launched the Worldwide Blogger Bake Off with this post on 15 October.

What’s in store for 2009? We’ll keep you posted!

Seaside Party with a Special Father Christmas

For the past week, Breadline Africa has been taking underprivileged children to the seaside for a very special Seaside Christmas Party. For many of the children, it’s their first ever trip to the sea!

Damian and Smallz from Quirk joined the party on Friday, and Damian even did duty as Father Christmas (you can see him dressed the part in the photo on the right). Damian sent in the guest post below:

“The Breadline Africa Seaside Party was held on the Strand beachfront on Friday the 5th of December, where the kids were treated to an early Christmas, which was a first for many of the underprivileged.

After a warm up on the jumping castles and some time spent playing in the sand it was off to brave the waves. Under the watchful eye of the Breadline volunteers, the kids ran through the water, waded and paddled, while some ran up the beach to get as far away as possible from the ankle high breakers.

After all the kids had had enough time in the open Atlantic, it was back to the Strand beach clubhouse for face painting, games and some much needed lunch.

Once we’d all cooled down from a busy day of fun in the sun and enjoyed some tasty chicken and salads for lunch, the kids were surprised by Father Christmas (Santa Claus). Smiles and waves all around, Father Christmas greeted each one by name and handed out Christmas gifts as well as sweetie packs – as if the day couldn’t get any better.

But alas, the day drew to a close as Father Christmas made his way up the beachfront and the Western Cape wind gently started to shoo us off the beach.

Suffice to say, the day was a huge success for the organisers – but the Breadline Africa Seaside Party must have been incomprehensively enjoyable for the many children who experienced so many new things during the course of the day, and are all surely looking forward to next year!”

Thanks Damian!

The Power Of A Thank You (part one)

Thank you (Interjection, noun)

Definition: Expresses gratitude; used to express gratitude to somebody, usually for something given

I work in an environment where we rely on human kindness in order to carry out our work. This is why sending a ‘thank you’ letter in the post in return is so important to me. Although, I am sometimes amazed how our supporters react when they receive a thank you letter from me. I have had every response: joy, laughter, happiness, surprise and even irritation!

For the most part, donors who receive my thank you letters really appreciate being acknowledged for their donation. I think that this is important: sometimes donors are sceptical that their gift has made it to me, or that it will make a difference to the projects we support. This is my chance to let them know what a big difference these gifts make.

But sometimes I receive irritated replies asking me not to waste funds, time and effort thanking people. This is feedback that I do take into consideration. Because of feedback like that, I have begun thanking donors via email – and I’m proud to report this is going extremely well.

Personally, I love to thank everyone that supports Breadline Africa’s work. I believe that it is a blessing that we pass on to make others feel appreciated, and when they leave with a smile it is a reward that no one can take away. When our donors send me news as well, I know how much they appreciate hearing from me.

Below is an excerpt from a letter I received recently:

“Dear Edna,

Thanks for your news. You have really done great things over the years. I remember when I first contributed to your charity (with your predecessor) you were very much a small-time charity, struggling to get going. But how you have grown! Fancy paper, a bright magazine and real ambition – more power to your elbow! But you and your team are doing a great job, bringing hope to those in no way able to help themselves. I don’t know if you are a Christian, but certainly God would smile on your mercy to others.“

I would love you to share with me your thoughts on whether you think a charity organisation should acknowledge donations or not, or how they should acknowledge donations. I think some people find this topic a double-edged sword. It’s human nature to want to receive some form of recognition (if only to have a confirmation of receipt), but many people are also aware of the cost and time that it put into such things.

I hope to post more donors comments on this subject as I think it is an interesting debate.

With much love,

My favourite syrupy vetkoek recipe

I love this recipe and I cook it nearly every Sunday with my family.

Vetkoek (pronounced “fet-koek” and literally meaning “fat-cake”) is a traditional South African recipe. The dough is deep-fried in cooking oil and to make a complete meal it can be filled with a meat and vegetable filling. Though, I prefer mine served plain and still warm with jam or golden syrup.

You may remember in my last post I wrote about Shirley, one of our long time Breadline Africa supporters. Shirley cooked vetkoek with Nonhi for the children of Nonhi’s Pre-school. They certainly were a hit!

You can view my recipe under the Breadlne Africa team on the Blogger Bake Off website.

Please do try making it and let me know what you think.

Enjoy!

WOR(L)DS project update: Beach Calligraphy

Andrew van der Merwe has written a report about the Beach Calligraphy which was part of the WOR(L)DS Project. You can check it out by visiting the Japan Letter Arts Forum.

BEACH CALLIGRAPHY – Andrew van der Merwe

WOR(L)DS in general

This calligraphy project, brainchild of stone-carver Maud Bekaert, has a number of components, the most important being the stones, designed by South Africans and carved by Belgians, which were auctioned on 28 September with the proceeds going to Breadline Africa and Sprinkle, for the benefit of children orphaned by the Aids epidemic here. Read more.

There are also two previous WOR(L)DS articles available for viewing:

Bruges, Summer 2008

A petite young woman, who is a lettercarver and a dyanmic ball of energy, dreamed of using her talents to reach out and make a difference. When Maud Bekaert first visited South Africa at the end of 2005 she was horrified by the AIDS pandemic and the 2 million orphans. She was also surprised to discover that there was a group of calligraphers who were prepared to share her dream. A year later she was back, this time with poetry and promises. Read more.

The Stone Walk: The Process in South Africa.

In South Africa the first part of the process was to bring people interested in words and letters together in a week-long workshop to develop new and interesting scripts that reflected the continent. Maud Bekaert came over with over 30 “word-fragments” from Belgian and South African poets and songwriters. Over 30 people from various places in Southern Africa and from the refugee community in Cape Town worked with each other for a week. Read more.

Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity

“Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life.”

Nelson Mandela’s words from Wisdom: 50 Unique and Original Portraits by Andrew Zuckerman (via Timesonline.co.uk.)

I was going to write a post on the above, but somehow the words speak best on their own.

“Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice.”

What happens to a shipping container before it is converted?

Shipping containers can make good buildings. We’ve converted shipping containers into classrooms, nursery schools (there’s a picture of a bright nursery school with this post), clinics and more. There’s something quite spectacular about taking a container that has been all over the world and turning it into a really useful building for a poor community.

Containers don’t just change the lives of people in these communities. Container shipping changed the world as we know it. When Malcom McLean put 58 containers on a refitted container ship in the US in 1956, he effected global change in the transport of goods around the globe – making it faster and more cost effective to move large shipments around the world.

Earlier this month, the BBC launched a special one year report on shipping containers, aptly named “The Box“. They have placed a GPS tracker in a shipping container, and are tracking its global progress over the course of a year. Right now, the box is off the coast of Spain, on its way to China with whisky from Scotland.

You can keep track with The Box on the BBC website on the regularly updated map which shows its location. Who knows, maybe after its journey we’ll see it turned into a classroom!

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