We spent a morning driving around the poorest part of the village and saw lots and lots of babies and small children who were not being cared for. The Mayor and his council agreed to visit Goedgedacht  and will do so later this month.

In the meantime Ingrid has taken a group of 13 POP staff and POP members to Prince Albert to examine the need for a POP centre for children and youth. The research tool we use is called a ‘community ennumeration’ and it is a way of getting the local community involved in counting every single person in the community and getting them to identify their needs.

While they do house to house visits during the day they organise fun workshops  in the evenings and get to know the local young people.  Included in the POP team are Susan and Phillipa, two young graduates from the UK who have joined us for two months.

Bazaar banner

Last Saturday the Goedgedacht staff got together to run a bazaar in our POP centre at Esterhof/Riebeek Kasteel. The idea was for us to raise money to sponsor a blind local athlete JAN NERO who is trying to qualify for the para-olympics in London in 2012.

A great day was had – fabulous vibe – gym in the street, lots to eat, mountains of clothes for sale and Jan enjoying himself. The little girls had such fun dressing up  in clothes found in the piles. Arn’t they gorgeous.

All clothes remaining were taken through to HELP THE RURAL CHILD shops in Cape Town where they get sold and the profits accrue to our projects.

We had such a lot of fun
Love,
Annie

Ingrid on designated land

The pictures show Ingrid Lestrade – Goedgedacht director and POP Co-ordinator on the land designated for the building ….last night it rained and all the carefully marked areas were washed out !! The other picture shows her with Everton Baron (left) and Tony Sellmeyer our faithful volunteer building works supervisor looking at the plans. Building starts tomorrow!!!

Ingrid Lestrade with Everton Baron (left) and Tony Sellmeyer

learning chess

In the evenings – hungry tums well fed by the wonderful Goedgedacht cooks the young leaders quietened down and went through the  programme they will run in their own communities for the next two weeks of the school holidays.  They learnt to play  board games like monopoly, drafts and chess that they would teach children younger children.

puzzles

They practiced reading to  little children,  did puzzles, and learned songs and dances. The week ended off with a lekker braai and a special evening of karaoke.  The holiday programme for almost 1000 children from 6-14 years old starts on Monday 4^th July in six centres.

learning to play monopoly

Keep watching this blog.

Working in the olive factory

In the afternoons the youngsters on the leadership programme spent time being ‘servant leaders’ – doing things for others. Some cleaned our olive factory, another team painted a new Safe House  for vulnerable children on one of the nearby farms, a group helped  in the vegetable gardens and others cleared invasive bamboo off the land.

Cutting out invading bamboo

Painting a safe house

Painting the safe house

Day one. The start of the leadership training June 2011

Last week 72 young leaders from 6 rural villages to came to stay for a week of training at Goedgedacht Farm.  Ingrid and her POP team ran a really exciting programme called “ An expedition in search of your gift”. The aim was to help these young leaders to understand themselves, broaden their horizons, grow in confidence and learn the skills they need to manage a holiday project in their own communities.

Climbing the Kasteelberg

Mornings we spent being exposed to many different challenges – a climb to the top of the Kasteelberg, an incredibly exciting obstacle course – completed in freezing cold and pouring rain, doing the myers-brigg personality indicator and flying kites.

Creeping through mud

Flying kites

Crossing the dam Obstacle course

During the recent POP Easter school holiday programme one morning 100 young leaders from six different rural communities learnt how to make a pot of rice, lentils and curry in a Wonderbag. Each Wonderbag had been donated via Ingrid’s Facebook page over Christmas by friends all over the world and was destined for a poor family. The food was put on the stove for 5 minutes and then popped into the bag and taken with much excitement out to their own families where they are going to monitor how much electricity they save by using the Wonderbag on a regular basis for cooking.

Our pre-school children made a big effort to dress up for Valentine’s Day celebrations. I thought you might like to see our latest batch of babies seen here with their carers -
Sussy, Yvonne and Sannah.