From US With Love
Current Projects
South Africa
In 1948 Black South Africans were effectively cut off from receiving an adequate education. Apartheid had become an official part of South African policy.
Now, over ten years since Apartheid was officially dismantled, the people of South Africa are still struggling to redress the social and economic injustices that were compounded during the Apartheid era.
Because From US With Love founder Michael Smith was born in South Africa and has a long-standing relationship with the country and its people, the South African initiatives are especially close to our hearts. Our first initiative is in Knysna.
Knysna Initiative, an Introduction
Knysna is a beautiful coastal town along the Garden Route of South Africa. Impoverished townships, also known as informal settlements, rest like a mantle over the shoulders of hills surrounding the prosperous city center. Despite extreme poverty, the people of the townships are noted for their up-beat, friendly communities. Challenges are rampant.
The HIV+ rate is one of the highest in the world, affecting 30% of the population and leaving many children parentless. Schools and daycares in the townships are inadequately equipped to offer children the kinds of learning opportunities that would help them achieve their full potential.
The Knysna Initiative exists to encourage children and their families to embrace joy, unity, learning, and leadership for the bright future of South Africa.
Crèches Project
The Crèche Project is the current centerpiece of From US With Love’s work in Knysna.
Crèches, which serve as daycare and preschool facilities, are not adequately funded by the South African government. The Crèche charges school fees, but when a parent is unable or unwilling to pay, the child is still accepted by the crèche. In Knysna the facilities range from bright, cheerful and solid to cold, dark, and dilapidated.
Many of the children attending Crèches come from loving homes. However, the Crèche is a safe haven from neglect or abuse for some of the children. For some, it is the source of their only hot meal of the day. Children can spend up to 12 hours a day at a Crèche.
The Knysna Municipality has 28 Crèches. FUWL is committed to ensuring that every Crèche provides a comfortable, stimulating environment for the children. Our goal is for every Crèche to have a vegetable garden, a rain catchment tank to water the garden, and fruit trees. Until the gardens are up and running, we are making monthly deliveries of food to enhance nutritional offerings for the children.
We are working in close concert with the Knysna Education Trust, which oversees the Crèches, facilitates training for teachers, and helps to support the needs of the Crèches wherever possible.
From US With Love is accepting donations to support the Knysna Education Trust’s “adopt a child” program, which matches donors with individual, Crèche-attending children. $185 covers a child’s school fees for the year and provides one hot meal per day.
FUWL is currently funding $275.00 per month to provide 16 of the 28 Crèches with a “Food Pack” each month to help with the children’s nutrition. We are looking for Donors to help us provide every Crèche with a “Food Pack” each month. The cost of 1 “Food Pack” is $17.00 and contains fresh fruit, vegetables and a portion of meat.
Donors are also encouraged to support the general fund for the Crèches Project, so that needs from large (building projects) to small (art supplies) can be addressed adequately.
Dorothy Broster Orphanage
Residents at the Dorothy Broster Orphanage in Knysna are orphans and at-risk children who have been removed from a dangerous or inadequate home situation by the South African government. Sometimes endangered mothers also reside at Dorothy Broster. Although the government subsidizes the center for the care of each child, the funding is inadequate. There is a shortfall of almost $20,000 per year to care for the children. In addition, the State provides funding for only 30 children; currently there are 43.
From US With Love has funded a state-of-the-art security gate with buzzers and an intercom system to enhance security, which is a serious issue. We have also planted a meditation garden with a bench to provide a peaceful place for the children to sit, planted and help maintain a vegetable garden and fruit trees and also had some donated playground equipment built by the men of The Knysna Round Table.
Two needs that FUWL is seeking Sponsors for are 4 clothes washing machines and dryers and a renovation of a room to be used to shelter women that are victims of domestic violence.
4 Clothes Washing Machines and Dryers…..$3200.00
Women’s Shelter Renovation…..$3000.00
Smutsville Primary School Voluntary Clinic
Five professional nurses run this voluntary weekly clinic at the Smutsville Primary School. The clinic attends to over 200 children at the school. Most medications are provided by the Municipal Clinic.
Reinet Barnes, one of the founding volunteer nurses, is a patient, compassionate woman who sees the ongoing need for providing free healthcare to the township children.
The children’s health issues are usually minor, and include coughs, colds, cuts, sores, worms, and skin diseases, but there are occasionally fractured arms, infectious diseases, poor oral hygiene, serious ear infections, and suspected TB and AIDS cases. When the clinic opened, impetigo, a contagious skin disease, had reached almost epidemic proportions. This is one of the main causes of rheumatic fever in children and called for urgent intervention. This is now totally controlled.
Dental care is one of the most urgent needs of these children. Dental decay is rampant, and on any given day around half of the students suffer from toothache. FUWL is funding $340.00 per month so that 20 students can receive dental care each month.
FUWL has also funded miscellaneous projects for the Clinic from a pair of shoes to a pair of reading glasses for the children.
FUWL is looking for donations to continue the Dentistry Program and assist the Voluntary School Clinic with the children’s needs.
Sinethemba Youth Development Centre
The Sinethemba Youth Development Centre is a center for at-risk children and teens, who beg and live on the street. The organization’s mission is to help children at risk make good choices for their future. The center also runs a crèche. Facilities include classrooms, a pre-school, a kitchen, a meeting hall, bathing areas, and a playground. Two meals a day are provided.
Sinethemba staff members gather street kids daily and bring them to the center. The kids come because they know that they will get a bath, hot meal, and clothing. They are required to do chores and participate in literacy classes. Children are encouraged to go back to school or they are taught marketable skills. Projects for the older children emphasize self-sufficiency. Skills taught include cooking, sewing, making crafts and gardening.
FUWL has funded a Carpentry Skills Center on the property in February of 2008. The start up cost for the Skills Center was $1340.00. These funds were used to rent a used shipping container and purchase the carpentry tools needed.
FUWL is asking for donations to purchase materials for the Skills Center.
Knysna AIDS Council
The Knysna AIDS Council provides the greater Knysna area with HIV and AIDS-related services and support. Given that at least 30% of the population is HIV+, AIDS affects many households and the lives of a great number of children.
From US With Love has donated baby items, including bottles, diapers, formula, clothes, and blankets. The need for these items is ongoing.
FUWL has also funded the Gardening Project, Carpentry Skills Center and Women’s Sewing Project.
FUWL purchases seedlings from the Gardening Project for other Garden Projects that we support in the Knysna Municipality.
FUWL is looking for Sponsors to help fund the projects at the Knysna Aids Council.
Knysna Sport School
From US With Love is working with the development program at the Knysna Sport School to expand athletic offerings, including archery, to township children. To that end, FUWL donated 4 Mathews Genesis bows and 5 dozen aluminum quivers for use by the school. Using this archery equipment was a highlight for many township children at the 24th annual Pick ‘n Pay Knysna Oyster Festival’s Sport Fair in July 2007.
FUWL has also donated 200 soccer balls to the school.
The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be held in South Africa. Ironically, many township and rural children in that country have limited or no access to sports equipment of any kind. Anyone who has played, coached, or watched a sport recognizes the physical, mental, and social skills (not to mention fun!) that organized sports can foster. In a country where people are still struggling to heal from deep divisions of many kinds, creating opportunities for people to play together is a powerful gift. The importance of sports to township children for fostering a sense of belonging, pride, and possibility cannot be overstated.
FUWL is looking for Sponsors for the 2008 Sport Festival, which is facilitated by the Knysna Sport School and gives all children in the Knysna Municipality exposure to a wide range of sport disciplines. The Knysna Sport Festival will be held on July 8th.
Holy Family Care Center
Situated at the foot of the Drakensberg Mountains in Ofcolaco, Limpopo Province, South Africa, Holy Family Care Centre is responding to the needs of the sick and vulnerable, especially orphaned children and mothers with HIV and AIDS. Each person who comes to Holy Family Centre is helped to find peace of mind in beautiful surroundings and is treated with reverence and respect.
An International community of sisters, The Daughters of the Lady of the Sacred Heart, administer the Centre which is non-denominational. Working with the Sisters are a dedicated team of staff and volunteers who provide individual and loving care.
FUWL recently treated the children to an afternoon Braai (outdoor BBQ) and provided entertainment from a local Drum and Dance group. The children of Holy Family prepared a Dance Performance for FUWL and our guests in appreciation of our visit.
FUWL donated bedsheets, pillow cases, trash cans, a T.V., DVD player, antenna and many other items to Holy Family. We also planted 12 fruit trees on the property with students from Siyafunda Conservation Project and local volunteers.
Holy Family is in desperate need of another structure to be built on the property to accommodate the children. The cost of the structure is $140,000.00. FUWL is asking for donations to fund the building project.
The Western Cape Street Soccer League
The Western Cape Street Soccer League (WCSSL) uses football as a means of involving children and youths that live, work and sleep on the streets in positive activities that will assist them in moving off the streets to better lives.
The WCSSL is an initiative of local NGOs (non-profits in South Africa) who work in close cooperation with the Departments of Social Development and Sports and Recreation in the City of Cape Town. These groups have come together in the WCSSL because of an acute awareness of the role that football can play in changing the lives of homeless and disadvantaged people.
FUWL donated 200 soccer balls and funded the construction of 18 sets of goal posts to be used in the districts.
FUWL is seeking sponsors to help fund the WCSSL and the South African team that will participate in The Homeless World Cup, to be held in Melbourne, Australia in December of 2008.