What a wonderful week we had... - The Ilze Halliday Foundation

What a wonderful week we had... - The Ilze Halliday Foundation

It's been a busy week here at the foundation's head office (haha...that's funny...its just my house!). Anyway, last week I started a new group on facebook called Goods4Good.
The idea behind this was to source specific items from people I come in contact with, items needed by those that have none. 

In the past weeks I have witnessed the need for certain items at specific facilities I visited. Items that can make the difference, often between life and death. I mentioned my group in an earlier post and also mentioned very specific things that people should consider donating to the foundation so that we can ensure it ends up in places that can use it. As you will remember, most of the places I witnessed, mentioned and reported on in the past are in crisis. Here are but a few essentials that I think can help them through the coming winter months:

• Blankets
• Throw rugs (for the cold, cement floors of the tin huts)
• Mattresses for the children to sleep on
• Warm clothing for ages 0-18
• Wood for fires to bring heat in the absence of electricity
• Gas bottles for the hotplates they use for food preparation
• Food and medications: Powdered and tinned soups, powdered and long life milk, milk formula for babies, cold and flu medicine, vitamins to build immune systems, tinned meat, fish, fruit and vegetables, maize meal, rice, porridge or breakfast cereal, bread, jams, peanut butter and other types of spreads, cocoa or Milo, sugar, etc.
• Other products: baby bath products like oil, cream, bum cream, vaseline, baby powder, teething powders, soap, shampoo, washcloths and loofas, toothpaste and toothbrushes
• Educational supplies like printing paper, books to read, books to write in, craft materials, other stationery items like pens, pencils, crayons, glue, colored pencils, posters for classrooms, black and white boards 

This gives you an idea of the problems these people are having. Other things neededare furniture like beds and cots, plastic tables and chairs for the children,playground equipment, toys....basically everything you will want your own child's daycare to be equipped with. Some of these facilities have no brick buildings; the classrooms are tin huts with few windows (mostly broken), most of them have no electricity and one tap with running water on the property. None of them have child-sized toilets and while most of them have bathroom facilities inside, some have 'outhouses'.

Some of this may sound unbelievable to most of you, and needs to be seen with your own eyes...take the time to browse through previous blog-posts on this site...you'll be amazed to witness such poverty, yet so much determination to make a difference.

Well....this post started out to be a thank you note to a few generous people who donated to these facilities. The pictures above are just examples (not the real - I was so excited I totally forgot to take pictures!) of the things I received. Let me tell you what I got and what I did with it:

• Forever Angels' 'mother' Ursula van den Berg gave us cots, camping cots, toys, clothes, baby carriages and nappies for Madzibandlela, Ikhaya lami lethemba and Odinberg Community Centre.
• Forever Angels' ALSO donated more clothing, nappies, baby bottles, toys and blankets to Tshwaraganeng and Ditebogo in Hammanskraal.
• Our neighbours, the Murison's, donated a kitchen cabinet and book-cases forIkaneng drop-in and daycare
• The Murison's daughter, Celeste Herbert, donated baby clothes forTshwaraganeng and Ditebogo
• My own brother, Pieter Halliday, donated R500 to buy food for the children ofIkaneng.
• And yesterday I heard about more clothing promised by a retailer, which I arranged to pick up on Monday. I will sift through these and decide where it must go, so I'll keep you posted and this time....I'll remember to take pictures!

Don't you think its been a GREAT week for the people of rural Pretoria! Thank you all who donated. I know I did thank you already in the Goods4Good group (repeatedly), but honestly, you are helping so many by doing your share. 

God bless!!!