From US With Love
News
The Knysna Playhouse
FUWL is sponsoring 5 High School students from the Mad About Art organization in Knysna, South Africa to attend The Knysna Playhouse Young Actors’ Theatre Academy (YATA.)
The Performing Arts is a tremendous part of the South African culture. FUWL is passionate about giving children and young adults in the impoverished communities the opportunity to be mentored and trained in the Arts.
Your gift of $225.00 goes directly towards tuition, travel and costume fees for each participant.
Making the Kids of Smutsville Primary Smile Brighter
US based charity From US With Love, together with the Smutsville Primary School Voluntary Clinic, is currently funding a project that is helping the children of Smutsville Primary with their dental care and oral hygiene.
What is a daunting visit for anyone having to go to the dentist is like a gift for these children of Smutsville Primary in Sedgefield. Most of these children have no access to a dental practitioner and very little knowledge of basic oral hygiene. FUWL and the volunteers that run the clinic arrange monthly visits to local dentist Dr Sunet Senekal in Sedgefield.
A typical visit will start off with the waiting room filled with inquisitive, yet nervous faces waiting in anticipation to see the dentist. One by one they quietly venture into the procedure room and are warmly introduced by Sister Reinet Barnes. You can see a trust from the children that have been won over with many caring words and actions by her in the past. Once they settle in the dentist chair, Dr. Sunet Senekel gently asks each child which teeth are bothering them. It is heartbreaking to see such decay and damage to young teeth. Many of these children have to bear pain as a result of rotten, painful teeth, like not being able to eat, sleep or concentrate at school. Once each child’s problem has been identified the dentist will either extract the rotten teeth, which are sometimes permanent teeth or perform a filling for permanent teeth that can be saved.
The children are very brave and the care from all involved is wonderful. The children’s smiles are big and bright at the end of each visit.
What FUWL hopes to achieve is not only assist with helping these children once off with their dental care but to educate and assist them in maintaining the health of their teeth. Through these efforts we hope to provide them with the basic tools such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss, posters and educational materials.
There is nothing that warms your heart more than the smile of a child. How can we afford not to ensure that each child has just that?
FUWL is looking for Sponsors to fund the Dentistry Project. The cost to send 20 children to the Dentist each month is $340.00.
Classroom Kits from Colgate
Colgate has donated Classroom Kits for the Crèches in the Knysna Municipality comprising of various oral hygiene items. In total we received 379 kids tooth brushes, tubes of toothpaste, stickers, coloring in pictures, a note about oral hygiene for all the parents and educational DVD’s. They also included educational posters illustrating how to brush correctly, wash your hands before meals and the right foods to eat to maintain healthy teeth.
FUWL will be distributing these kits to the various Crèches and with the involvement of the teachers we hope to see regular brushing and education on oral hygiene become a fun daily routine for the kids.
Each organization can apply for one kit. From Us With Love is accepting donations in order to continue purchasing supplies to keep the children practicing good oral hygiene.
Marti Rooi
Marti Rooi is the leader of a group of volunteers in Smutsville Township, near Knysna, who provide free emergency first aid and basic medical services to people in the township. She works from a small wooden structure attached to her small home, and is ‘on call’ 24 hours every day.
Weekends are her busiest time often meaning she works through the night. Most of the patients at this time come from the many nearby Taverns where alcohol abuse is the cause of stabbings, burnings and all sorts of physical injuries.
With the nearest hospital in Knysna, approximately 28 kilometres away, the only way to get a chronically ill patients there is by ambulance. As there are only two ambulances in the area, there may be as much as a 4 hour delay until one actually arrives.
Without Marti’s first aid many patients would simply die before the ambulance arrived. Day to day illnesses and injuries fill up a lot of her time too. There is always someone on call at the Recovery Room, and materials used on patients are generally financed irregularly by donors; the rest being supplied by Marti and the volunteers themselves. Two of the seven volunteers are children aged 11 and 13 years old. Both boys and both trained to Level 3 by Red Cross Training Services. They take their time spent ‘on duty’ seriously, and are competent in bandaging, taking blood pressure and any emergency work that needs to be done.
Reading her ‘Records Book’ tells graphic stories. She sees an average of 65 people a month, and the book shows things like “eye lost”, “drank paraffin”, “ bleeding from ear”, “leg ulcer”, “stabbed in neck and burned”, “premature labour”, “injury to head with bottle”, “full body burns”. There are also babies being born and sadly a few deaths.
Marti Rooi has been tending to the sick and injured for more than eight years, she has a proven track record, is a respected member of the community and has received numerous awards for her contribution to society. By donating relatively small amounts of money, specific materials could be purchased to help Marti and her volunteers to work more safely, be more effective and offer more comfort to their patients.
From Us With Love Charity has been supporting Marti with financial donations on a monthly basis, and in July 2008 she was able to purchase and erect the wooden structure for her desired ’waiting area’ roof. She now requires further funding to complete the project and put the roofing onto the structure.
FUNDING REQUIRED:
1) Patio type roof outside Recovery Room. At the moment patients waiting for attention have to stand outside in wind, sun and rain until they can be received in the Recovery Room – not much fun if you are sick, bleeding or having a baby. COST: $900.00
2) Oxygen Cylinder with regulator and mask. Many people in the townships suffer from asthma, mainly due to the fact that they use open fires every day for cooking, warmth and lighting. On my last two visits to Marti, she said a person had died the previous night due to asthma. If she had oxygen to be able to give them, this probably wouldn’t have been the case. Needless deaths that could be simply avoided. Cylinders are hired by the month, annual cost and filling would be as follows. COST=$550.00
3) Stacking plastic chairs x 6. To be put under the roof so patients can sit while waiting for attention.
COST= $50.00 for 6
4) Safety equipment. Basic safety equipment like goggles and plastic gloves are not always readily available. “We often work with people who are bleeding profusely and know that our lives are at risk through the chance of contracting Aids, but we have a service to perform, and we have to get on with it whether we have the safety equipment or not.” Basic purchases of safety materials are required.
COST= $350.00
This is not a project that can be considered as ‘Self Sustainable’, but nonetheless is very relevant and has urgent needs. Anyone spending a day with Marti and her volunteers would be able to see the wonderful service this woman provides and how simple things would go a long way to making her life easier and even more effective.
100% of donations will go directly to Marti and her Volunteers, tracked and monitored by From Us With Love staff.
Johnson and Johnson
From Us With Love has recently partnered with the Johnson and Johnson company. J&J has graciously donated some much needed products that have been distributed to organizations in our targeted project areas. A big thank you to J&J from FUWL!!!