Be a blessing this Christmas
Biggest orphan Christmas party in Zululand - help needed
FOR most parents, the beginning of December is a time to carefully plan their Christmas present shopping, school uniform budgeting and the purchasing of pretty pens, pencils and work books for their children.
Imagine then the sense of responsibility to those who have to provide all of the above to Zululand’s rural HIV/Aids orphans – with no government funding.
That is the task facing the management team at Izulu Orphan Projects (IOP), a non-profit organisation that feeds, educates and clothes the most desperately poor and abandoned children in rural Zululand.
On Saturday, 12 December about 1 800 excited children and their widowed carers will descend on the IOP rural support centre at Ngqamuzane outside Empangeni, anticipating an event at which they will receive a healthy meal, a new Christmas gift (their only treat of the year) and their school supplies for 2016.
IOP receives no government funding and is wholly reliant on the kindness of private and corporate sponsors to pull off the biggest orphan Christmas party in Zululand.
‘It’s the best day of their year by far,’ says Kate Bain, who founded IOP and is now facilitating the 14th annual orphan party.
‘Each year is a complete walk of faith, and this year is no different,’ she says.
‘We are in urgent need of volunteers on the day, gifts for girls and boys and financial sponsorship for uniform purchases.’
IOP is an education-focused Christian organisation, and all beneficiaries are expected to attend school to remain supported.
This support includes social support by trained office staff at two centres, a daily feeding programme run by the IOP kitchen staff at their Ngqamuzane support centre, after school education support provided by IOP through ‘I Learn to Live’, health care support and ministry.
List of materials items needed:
Gifts: Primary School Girls x 250.
Gifts: Primary School Boys x 250.
Gifts: High School Boys x 400 (soccer balls/toiletries).
Gifts: Gogos/carers x 500 (umbrellas, toiletries and so on)
3 600 viennas and tomato sauce
1 280 party packs containing chips, Fizzer, suckers and sweets.
‘We would like to invite corporate teams as well as families and groups of friends to register as volunteers on the day,’ says Kate.
‘The tasks can include anything from face painting to nativity play acting and hot dog preparation, but whatever volunteers do, they will leave with a spring in their step having been emotionally enriched by the experience.’
Volunteering involves committing oneself to working at the party from around 7am until mid-afternoon.
For further information on the various programmes run by IOP, visit their website www.izuluorphanprojects.co.za, and for registration as a volunteer contact Kate Bain on 083 6499990, or e-mail kate@izuluorphanprojects.co.za.
For those who are unable to donate their time, funds are most welcome and can be donated at FNB Empangeni, cheque account 62094657908, branch code 220130.
