I am sure that many of you wonder just what happens to your contributions when they arrive in South Africa so we thought to use today’s report to introduce some of our volunteers and guide you through a “Thursday in the life of KAS SA”.

Wendy and I arrive very early in the morning to set up the office for the day.  I am the designated Catering Manager and like to provide nutritious snacks for the volunteers so they are “fueled” and ready for the day.

After laying out the food of the day, as above, I head to the Post Office to collect the mail for the week and meet up with my trusty friend, Anton, who helps me load the mail, take it back to the office and unload it all.

Our volunteers arrive and jump straight into opening and sorting the mail.  Thanks to Gina (our IT and Admin guru), we have a new chart which will detail what is opened each month which is great motivation.

The number of volunteers varies from week to week, but since moving into the office this figure has more than doubled.  They are so efficient that within a few hours the mail is opened and sorted.  Some of the regulars are:

         Lesley                    Trish                        Cathy                     Wandi                 Moss!

 

When the mail is all opened, the volunteers help to sort stock.

Wendy making blanket packs.

Thanks to your generous contributions via the online shop, I was able to buy reams and reams of white and coloured paper to distribute.

Our stationery room is wonderfully organised and we are looking forward to being able to assist many of the Day Care centres with stationery.

Many of the volunteers design blankets to take home and sew……..  and here are some of this week’s results.

Donna sewed together these four beautiful blankets this week!

They also help to unpick the few “less than perfect” blankets that occasionally find their way through the system.   This happens where campaigns or competitions have been run during which the speed of sewing together blankets can overtake the importance of care.  Thankfully this is not a significant problem and our volunteers are happy to make it part of their contribution to fix them up.

Lindi, Seble and I fixing odds and ends.

We are delighted to have young volunteers from time to time and it is such a pleasure to see them getting involved in whatever way they are able.  It is always good to make children aware of those in their peer group who lead very different lives.

This week we were joined by my daughter Sian, visiting from Cape Town, and my three grandchildren Luca, Gemma and Lila.  Matt, who is a regular volunteer, joined us today too.

At the end of the day everyone helps to tidy up, with Wandi leading the way by sweeping the carpet…. we need to get her a vacuum cleaner!

As always, we need to thank YOU, our contributors for giving us the opportunity to work with the wonderful items they send – everyone leaves feeling tired but blessed and this is the reason they return week after week!

 

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Replies

  • Are there any South African members here that can help Mary over in the Cafe KAS chat thread?  She's in South Africa and wants to know of any typical SA baked goods she can make up for a sale.  So far she's got something called Melk Balls...whatever those are. So any ideas or suggestions, can you please drop her a line over in the Feel Like a Chat thread in Cafe KAS?  Thanks a heap as I'm in snowy Canada and haven't got a clue!

    love, Jeanne

    • BLEEP IT--I keep trying to edit that message and it won't let me.  OKAY, Mary is NOT in SA, I messed that up. However she got "press ganged" into a bake sale by her mum, hee hee hee, and wants to make some typical SA goodies.  Now I think I got it right this time!

      • actually I've pressganged my mom to make the tarts!  

      • senior moment Jeanne???? lol

    • uk here and no clue either

  • Ronda,

    Thank you for the wonderful glimpse of the daily life at KAS! I have just joined the forum (this is my first post :)) and imagine my amazement to see  a pic of one of my blankets that I sent to KAS (the rainbow blanket with the bear in the pocket) put together by Donna in your newsletter!  This really warmed my heart to see the end product, knowing that all of the time and effort knitters and staff put in to help keep all of these beautiful children warm. I truly believe your organization is topnotch and that you and the volunteers are some of God's angels helping those in need. Keep up the great work, and we'll keep sending you blanket squares and clothing. God Bless and thank you for sharing this report with us!

    • Welcome, Paula - thanks to you - and to ALL our wonderful contributors and supporters - for your kind words and encouragement !  We would get nowhere and do nothing without YOU xoxoxoxoxo

    • Hi Paula welcome! isn't it wonderful to see one of your blankets?

  • Things have definitely changed for the better, Ronda! I'm so happy you are receiving this quantity of help. It certainly helps us to know that you're supported and don't have to work as hard. You are all amazing! :o)

  • Thank you everyone for all your support, both by knitting/crocheting squares to those in South Africa who work so hard to sort and coordinate the squares.

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