Audley quiz night update: how the money will be spent
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A week ago we held a quiz night which raised over £600 for two African charities we support – Uthando in South Africa, and the Mara Rianda Charitable Trust in Kenya. We’ve just received these emails from them describing in detail how this money will be spent and just how valuable these contributions will be.
Uthando, South Africa
As promised, here is a brief outline of what we most urgently need for the families we serve:
There is a great need for food parcels for 30 of the 120 families we serve in the Isibindi Programme. You may recall that Isibindi is a community-based programme serving orphans and vulnerable children in Imizamo Yethu.
Most of the caregivers of the 147 children currently in the programme are unemployed, and live in shocking conditions. To quote just one example, we serve a child-headed family, where a 19-year old young woman cares for her five siblings, ranging in age from 5 to 15. Both parents died of AIDS-related causes, and there are no other family ties. This family of six lives in a shack measuring approximately 4m x 4m.
This is one of three child-headed households we currently serve. Most of the other families are headed by single mothers whose only form of income is a child support grant of R250 (£22) per month.
In addition to ensuring that all the children in the programme attend school, and providing the material support to enable their attendance (uniforms, stationery, school supplies, textbooks, transport costs), we facilitate access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment for caregivers and children who are HIV-infected, provide grief counselling and life skills training, and also help caregivers to access government grants.
This may take many months, and in the interim, the food parcels are vital to the wellbeing of the families. Malnutrition is a serious problem among many of the children we serve, and the ARV treatment is rendered useless if not supported by proper nutrition.
A standard food parcel costs R120 (£10), and consists of non-perishable staples such as samp, soya beans, flour, maize meal, cooking oil, sugar, rice, tinned beans and fish. We also try to include basic toiletries and household cleaning products.
Any contribution towards the purchase of food parcels would be greatly appreciated, and will make a huge difference in the lives of the families who receive them.
Christo Read
James House Child & Youth Care Centre (Uthando), South Africa
Mara Rianda Charitable Trust, Kenya
You have asked me if there are any specific projects that the money could be put towards.
We learnt last year the reason why the girls were generally performing poorly in their exams in their last two years at primary school and that was because they were missing virtually a week every month of schooling. We are now purchasing sanitary towels from Narok and giving them to the female teachers to dispense. We have one very gifted supporter who has made 150 small drawstring cloth bags as modesty pouches, which we shall be taking with us.
Richard Long
Mara Rianda Charitable Trust, Kenya
For more details of the James House Child & Youth Care Centre, visit the James House website
