I CANNOT BELIEVE HOW TIME FLIES !
Before we know it, it will be Christmas – well, Christmas in July at any rate which is we are hoping to use for our Mandela Day distribution.
It is great to see your interpretation and creativity on the forum under the Mandela Day challenge for July – thanks for initiating this, Anne. As you will undoubtedly know, Madiba is still in a critical, but stable condition in hospital and has been for almost a month now. His life is in the hands of the Lord and we know that He will know what is best.
It has been another busy week this week. We have sent boxes (compliments of Peter’s company), filled with your contributions, to people in various parts of South Africa for distribution. These include:
- Sister Joy in Ladysmith for the Ruth Mailbag Group.
- Maureen in Durban who in turn will distribute the items at an outreach based at the Pietermaritzburg hospital.
- Our friends in Port Alfred who will distribute again in an informal settlement we were able to assist a while back when the area was gutted by a fire.
On Monday, 1 July Wendy and I were invited for tea at Wandile’s home where we met up with two amazing ladies. Let me tell you a little about them. Irene is from Chiawelo and collected KAS blanket packs for the ladies in the community to sew together. When they are ready, we will meet up with them and wrap the children, in that area, in your love. Then we met, for the first time, a delightful, retired nursing sister - Sister Susan. For 40 years she worked at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital which is the largest hospital in the world, occupying around 173 acres (0.70 km2), with approximately 3 200 beds and about 6 760 staff members. She told us that on average 80 – 100 babies are born at “Bara” everyday and because of the lack of space, if the mom and baby are healthy, they are discharged immediately and do not stay over. She recalled having to wrap these newborns in cotton wool to send them home. Imagine her absolute delight when we were able to give her baby blankets, KAS cuddles, tops and beanies for the babies. Having totally underestimated the number of items she would need, we are arranging for more to be delivered to her. This is Sr Susan (left), Wandile (middle) and me, in front of the items piled up in Wandi’s small lounge.
We also left a large number of blanket packs, beanies and tops for Tuki who will distribute them in the Thembalihle area (we visited there last week); Pastor Bantos who will distribute in Evaton and for Kelly, Kate and Karen who are therapists at the Zola Clinic in Soweto and who have also planned a distribution on Mandela Day at the Emdeni Children’s Home. By the time we had unpacked, Wandi’s home was beginning to look very much like mine with all the items stacked and waiting to be collected for distribution, but Wandi assured us that she does not mind – bless her dear heart!
On Wednesday, we joined up with Sanne from the Sprout Foundation and did a small distribution at the Lungile Dube School very near the famous Soweto Towers. We spent time bundling the children in warm tops, scarves and blankets and then gave each of them a beautifully hand knitted toy. Wendy paged through some picture books with them and we were touched to see how eager they were to impress, by shouting out what they recognised. She was nearly swamped in children at one point while helping them count items in a book! Sanne and her friend Maryke will join us for the Mandela Day distribution we have planned in Alexandra. But, we will give you more details about that closer to the time.
Yesterday we received the first two boxes sent from the UK with funds raised by Knit for Life – MANY thanks to Pam and Elaine!!!
Well, we must start opening mail – chat again next week and God bless you all. And because I cannot help myself, a few more photos for you, with love to each and every one of you!!!!
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Anne Powell on
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Thank you Ronda - what a busy week you have had. It is wonderful to read about how far our "KASarms" are reaching now.
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Permalink Reply by Ronda Helen Lowrie on
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Hello dear Anne - more boxes received from you and your group at St Paul's this week ... so generous !!! Just want to thank you, also, for the animal pics you sent. Wendy and I took them to Lungile this week ... subject of the weekly report. Just thought you might want to know !!! xoxoxo
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Permalink Reply by Pam Antink on
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Very much appreciate these detailed reports Ronda & Wendy - they make the children and people, like Sister Susan, who are doing their best to help them, 'come alive' in our minds!
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Permalink Reply by Mary Anne Fellows on
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Thank you again Ronda, for sharing your week with us! My, you are SO busy, but there is nothing better than being busy with what you love and have passion for! The photos are beautiful and what wonderful connections you made this week! I love how KAS just continues to ripple out from the center, touching others and spreading awareness around the world!
God bless you and all of the wonderful individuals who assist you in South Africa!
XOXO
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Permalink Reply by Christine Johnson on
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This has become my favourite part of the forum. Thank you so much for finding the time to share with us Ronda and making everything seem so 'immediate.' And please don't try to stop yourself posting photos. We love them (especially when we spot things we made - another hat this week, maybe two.)
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Lovely to hear from you, Christine - we have opened DOZENS of parcels from you in recent weeks/months, and 7 more just yesterday ! Thank you, thank you, thank you !!!
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Permalink Reply by Gitta Seyfert on
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Thanks for sharing this with us and all the photos :) It is so great to find out where all the KAS contributions "land up" :)
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Thanks to you all for your ongoing interest and support - it's a pleasure to share with you, since without you we wouldn't be visiting these adorable kids or doing any of the stuff we love !! Parcels are pouring in, and the pile of requested/required acknowledgements begins to look a bit like Table Mountain on my desk !! Apologies - Wendy and I really do try and get through them as efficiently as possible, and are currently on our knees for 48 hours each day, rather than only 24 !!!!
Keep sending in trust, please - your parcels ARE getting here !!!!
Thank you all xoxoxoxoxo
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Ronda - Please don't worry about acknowledgements too much. You have enough to do, and folks can check the square lists to see when their things arrive, Please do conserve your energy for the important things like unpacking, distributions and hugging kids.
If you are going to write anything at all, make it another Report - they are just wonderful.
Thanks for all you do........ Hugs and blessings
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Permalink Reply by Pam Johnson on
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Have just seen this Anne after I wrote my message below - hear, hear - we need to let Ronda focus on the really important unpacking and distributing - nice to be acknowledged but it is all growing so big!
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Thank you so much for taking the time to write this for us Ronda - you have so much to do but you can tell how much we all appreciate it - and it is great to print and pass on to all of my knitters who do not use a computer so they feel totally valued and can see that everything is being put to such good use. I do worry about all these acknowledgements - such a huge task for you. Can we not move to encouraging everyone to see the photos as proof that so much arrives? The square lists were a great idea at the beginning but are becoming a monster for you I fear. I very soon decided that if any parcels went astray they were hopefully taken by someone who needed a blanket too.
So wonderful to see the KAS arms extending so far and reaching so many. We are thrilled that the boxes arrived safely - more will be packed soon. x
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Permalink Reply by Jana Benitez on
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Love to see all these pictures of distributions. You are busy ladies. No moss growing on your feet for sure.
Keep up this Heart Warming work!
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