Book drive for Nelson Mandela Day

PRESS RELEASE

Book drive for Nelson Mandela Day

The Nelson Mandela Foundation, together with Breadline Africa, one of the biggest suppliers of converted containers for poverty relief in Southern Africa, have launched a book drive as part of an initiative that will see 10 library containers being placed across the country. The campaign forms part of the international Nelson Mandela Day celebrations.  

The disused shipping containers have been renovated by Breadline Africa and recycled into libraries. Over the next few months they will be placed in some of the most poverty stricken schools across the country. The schools, which were identified by Soul City, an institute for health and development communication, are severely affected by poverty. Basic access to facilities and qualified teachers is limited.

“Literacy and the right to education is a human right,” Director of Breadline Africa, Tim Smith said. “We are delighted to be working with the Nelson Mandela Foundation to ensure the roll-out of the container libraries and we encourage everyone to get involved in whatever capacity they can offer. We hope to expand this programme in the future, this will be entirely dependent on public support and finance.”

The libraries will be placed in junior schools and Breadline Africa is asking the general public to take part in the initiative by donating books to the campaign. “We need books that are new or in excellent condition, most importantly, they need to be age specific for six to ten year olds.”

“Every school should have access to a library and every child should be able to read, write and be given the means to learn; sadly this is not the case in many schools across the country. The library container initiative needs the support of the general public and corporates. We encourage everyone to get involved and help in some way on Mandela Day,” Smith said.

The following drop off posts for the books have been arranged:

Cape Town: Breadline Africa: The Salesian Institute, 2 Somerset Road, Green Point.

Johannesburg: Soul City: 1st Floor, Dunkeld West Centre, 281 Jan Smuts Avenue, Dunkeld West, Johannesburg:

For more information and to get involved email production@breadlineafrica.org.za or call 021 418 0322.

Other organisations, corporates and sponsors participating in the initiative include the Vodacom Foundation, FirstRand, FNB, LegalWise, Maskew Miller and Longman, Soul City, Biblionef, Oxford University Press and Container Conversions

ENDS

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Distributed by Media Spot on behalf of Breadline Africa:

MD:  Tim Smith

For more information, contact Media Spot:

Beverley Houston

beverley@mediaspot.co.za

082 824 8617

Breadline Africa’s Big Make-over for Zukolwethu Educare Centre

Here at Breadline Africa I am always called out to communities who have an urgent need for proper infrastructure.  Their desperate plea is to have better and more spacious facilities for their children.  They are anxious to have better classrooms than just a little shack which is extremely hazardous to fire.  They need proper and more hygienic toilets.  Many of the children in the educare centres are still exposed to the bucket system. The lack of proper ablution facilities is a big worry as it is extremely unhygienic and one of the major causes of diarrhoea .  Many of the educare centers also do not have a proper kitchen.  The cooks have to cook in one of the classrooms with the big gas stoves on the floor and the washing bucket on the side of a table.  The kids then have to pile into a corner to make space.

Recently, we were approached by the Principal of the  Zukolwethu Educare Centre in an informal settlement in Monwabisi, Khayelitsha.

She was at her wits end as parents kept bringing their children for enrolment at her school but her facilities were  not at all suitable. She did not have a proper classroom or a safe kitchen.  However with the help of our Irish Advisory Committee who raised funds for this project, we were able to have the most amazing make-over happening in this community.

We renovated two second hand shipping containers into a beautiful classroom and a safe kitchen for this Educare Centre.

Before The Zukolwethu Educare Centre, Monwabisi.

After The Zukolwethu Educare Centre, Monwabisi, Khayelitsha

A big thank you comes your way from all the children and teachers at Zukolwetho Educare.

The Principal, the teachers and the community living in this informal settlement could not believe it when these two containers arrived for delivery. It was extremely difficult to get the truck up the road to deliver the containers, but with much perseverance and the help of everyone the containers were successfully put into place.

The children as well as the teachers were extremely happy. They could not believe that these containers could make such a huge difference.   We are very proud of our achievement and grateful to our Irish Advisory Committee and their friends for helping us make this make-over happen.

OUR MAGICAL MOBILE CLASSROOMS BRING SKILLS TO UNEMPLOYED YOUTH

We recently decided that we needed to work more energetically in the field of skills development to make a contribution to the unacceptably high levels of unemployment we face here in Africa – which is a major cause of keeping people in impoverished conditions. We have the extraordinary situation of both a skills shortage and high unemployment. It’s time for us to get the unemployed properly skilled in something that can earn them a living.

With this in mind Breadline Africa has launched a new offensive against unemployment in Africa called Cans4Skills.

Congratulations to our Graduates who has completed a basic bricklayers course

Congratulations to our Graduates who has completed a basic Plumbers course

The difference our shipping containers can make in poverty stricken areas

Patiswa, her teachers and the children extend a big thank you to our board of Trustees and their friends for making this little school possible here on the tip of Africa.

Patiswa Bangani, who lives in Delft on the Cape Flats, has become the ‘mother’ in her community. She started collecting the children that were walking in the street and invited them into her little wooden structured house.  Many of the parents were out looking for work and the children had to look after one another.  Patiswa started to look after the children and cook a nutritious meal for them. But then more children started coming as the little ones brought their sisters, brothers and friends who were at home and needed this basic care as well.  The children ranged in age from two to six years old and soon there were more than eighty children at one time.

Patiswa’s little house was getting too small for all the children. She heard about Breadline Africa who assists communities in need with refurbished containers.  We met with Patiswa and all the children in her care.  She needed extra space urgently and with the help of our Board of Trustees and their friends they raised enough funds to help build a little container school for the children of Delft.

Patiswa is the Principal of this beautiful little container school, called Ulwazi (which mean “knowledge” ) Educate Centre.  She is very proud that she could help the little children in her care with such lovely classrooms and a beautiful ablution block.  One of her greatest concerns is the issue of health and hygiene but with proper toilets and sanitation she is now able to teach the little ones proper hygiene care.

The toilet that is currently being used by the children

One of the three containers that have been converted into a proper toilet for the children.

The Principal, Patiswa Bangani outside her educare centre. This container will be used as a classroom.

Breadline Africa Comedy Show Featuring Don Packett and John Vlismas

Who knew that laughter could heal a soul and bring joy in troubled times?  Our Comedy Show was not just about an evening full of laughter and fun but also about transforming the lives of those little kids that have never seen the sea. The event was held at the Grand Daddy Hotel and the venue was truly grand and magnificent. The finger food platters were enjoyed by all and the guests indulged in the delicious cocktails.

One of Breadline Africa’s projects, Conscious Marimba Band, did a fantastic job of entertaining and bringing a truly ethnic atmosphere to the evening . The comedians, Don Packett and John Vlismas  rocked. These two are the best of the best and brought the house down.   Nadia from Clowns without Borders demonstrates how they use laughter to bring healing to broken children and communities. Richard Hardiman was our gracious MC AND the auctioneer on the night.

All in all it was a great evening  and a brilliant way to inform people of what Breadline Africa does and how we uplift poverty stricken communities. The Comedy show was held in aid of Breadline Africa’s annual Seaside Party and I would like to thank you all for your support in giving 120 extra children the opportunity to forget their situations at home and to enjoy a day of being a child by the sea.

Edna & Marianna with Comedian Don Packett & MC Richard Hardiman

John Vlismas

Nadia from Clowns without Borders

Breadline Africa’s Geek Fashion Show

The words ‘geek’ and ‘fashion show’ tend to be mutually exclusive. Geeks are not known for their ‘model’ looks…rather for their ability to programme, code, develop, tweet and blog. Luckily for Breadline Africa, Cape Town has some helluva good looking geeks. Breadline Africa being the different kind of charity that we are (innovative, amazing, generous, blah, blah, blah) has come up with a rather original (well we say original…some say crazy) idea to throw a Geek Fashion Show featuring some of the top online personalities and bloggers in Cape Town. All proceeds from the tickets sale goes directly to Breadline Africa and our projects. The models include the following personalities (in alphabetical order…yes they are all equally important):

• Alex van Tonder

• Alistair Fairweather

• Aslam Levy

•Ben Wagner

• Carla Fourie

• Christine da Silva

• Claire McGuiness

• Elodie Kleynhans

• Jasna Zellerhoff

• Jonathan Allan-Barrett

• Jon Maliepaard

• Justin Hartman

• Leslie Maliepaard

• Matthew Buckland

• Mike Metelerkamp

 • Neal Tosefsky

 • Paul Cartmel

• Peter Sserwanga

• Sarah Blake

The first ever Geek Fashion Show will be held at Daylight Studio on Bree Street on the 26th of April. David Donde will be our gracious MC while Cigar Clothing, Billabong and Puma are the generous clothing sponsors. eNetworks will be sponsoring the sound and some very fancy snacks and wine (with the help of Café Max).

Our grand finale will be an auction of Ard Matthew’s golf shirt that he wore to Nelson Mandela Invitational, followed by an auction of a mystery voucher for Cigar Clothing AND to end the night on a high note, we will be auctioning off Paul Cartmel and Ben Wagner. These two geeks are hot, super successful and the ultimate surfers. YOU can bid on a morning surf with each of them followed by brunch at Knead. So bring loads of cash

The event starts at 7pm ( there are ONLY 100 tickets up for grabs @ R170 each and tickets can be bought through Breadline Africa in 2 ways.

1) You can make an EFT deposit directly into our bank account with the ref being Fashion. This will immediately place you on our exclusive guest list. To keep track, we would rather you called Debbie on 021 418 0322 to find out our bank account details.

2) You can pop by our offices in Green Point and pay in cash or by credit card (just ask for Debbie and she will process your payment). Our address is: No 2 Somerset Road Cape Town South Africa 8001

HURRY. We expect tickets to be sold out WAY before the actual event