It takes only one person – the story of Zulufadder

Zulufadder

“The world is filled with chil­dren and adults who need help. I was never ter­ribly con­cerned by for­eign aid work, nor by Africa, says the founder of Zulufadder, Mari Maurstad. “But when you meet with chil­dren of whom you had pre­vi­ously only seen pic­tures, then another room in your heart opens. You then real­ise that all the energy you use to sat­isfy unne­ces­sary enter­tain­ment, that same power can be used for some­thing so much more rewarding.”

Zulufadder is a children's trust star­ted six years ago to help chil­dren mar­gin­al­ised by HIV and AIDS in the rural areas around Eshowe in Zululand. It began when the former Norwegian act­ress, Mari Maurstad, met Aurelia Mhlongo, whom she calls a 'female ver­sion of Nelson Mandela' where she was strug­gling to feed chil­dren soup once a week in the Umlalazi Reserve ... Continued

Call for volunteers for an extreme makeover of the St George's home for girls in Wynberg, Cape Town

Call for volunteers

Many of you must be famil­iar with the tele­vi­sion series Extreme Makeover – Home Edition, where fam­il­ies who are down and out, who have faced hard­ships in life or are des­per­ately in need of a bet­ter and some­times safer liv­ing space are sur­prised by a team who rebuilds, extends, upgrades and improves their home.

Well how would you like to take part in an extreme makeover? I’m sure your imme­di­ate answer is yes, how­ever this extreme makeover is not one that involves you or your house get­ting upgraded, but this involves you mak­ing the lives of some very spe­cial chil­dren a whole lot bet­ter and giv­ing their home an extreme makeover ... Continued

Fundraising Spinnathon for child protection

Are you feel­ing a bit out of touch with your com­munity and you would like to do some­thing for a good cause but are not sure what, then why not head down to Canal Walk in Cape Town on Saturday 5 December and take part in the "Make a Difference Spinnathon".

Virgin Active and Canal Walk are join­ing up with the Friends of Child Protection (FCP) to host a fun­drais­ing Spinnathon and the pro­ceeds of this event will go towards the much needed Comfort Packs that FCP sup­plies to the fam­ily viol­ence, child pro­tec­tion and sexual offences units of the South African police. This is def­in­itely some­thing we should all get involved with ... Continued

Keep your tea bags!

T-Bag Designs

How many cups of tea do you have dur­ing a day? And if you are in an office how many tea bags do you think get put into the bin at the end of the day? Even if you only use one tea bag a day don’t throw it away, keep it because there are some spe­cial people loc­ated in the Imizamo Yethu informal set­tle­ment in Cape Town who could really turn your old tea bag into some­thing special.

"Original T-Bag Designs is a col­lect­ive of artists who live in an informal set­tle­ment in Hout Bay, South Africa. With recycled tea bags as their canvases they are paint­ing them­selves out of poverty".

If you haven’t yet heard of the Original T-Bag Designs then you are miss­ing out, this is such a unique and cre­at­ive way of job cre­ation and util­iz­ing the cre­ativ­ity of people ... Continued

The Oliver Foundation has a mission ...

Oliver Foundation

The Oliver Foundation has a mis­sion. To work with local com­munit­ies to help build a sus­tain­able future for people and the envir­on­ment. The UK-based organ­isa­tion made a com­mit­ment in 2007 to focus its sup­port in the Eastern Cape. It works pre­dom­in­antly in rural areas, bring­ing about change by devel­op­ing and sup­port­ing pro­grammes that have a social, envir­on­mental, edu­ca­tional and eco­nomic impact on those it effects.

And with good reason. Over seven mil­lion South Africans live in dire cir­cum­stances,  sur­viv­ing on less than R5 a day. 26% of the country's poverty stricken house­holds are based in the Eastern Cape. As a res­ult of a lack of proper edu­ca­tion, unem­ploy­ment rates are believed to be as high as 70% ... Continued