Dear friends

Jackson Brown Jr, author of “Life’s Little Instruction Book”, said: “The happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more”. That makes us extremely happy and in the first quarter of 2019 we had many happy moments that I would like to share with you.

We were delighted to have received a visit from Sweden’s Queen Sylvia on Wednesday, 16 January 2019 along with members of the board of her World Childhood Foundation. The Foundation is a funder and a supporter of our organisation.

The Queen was given a tour through the community which ended with a conversation with parents and teachers. She also visited the Touwsranten Primary School and spoke to its excellent principal, Robert Draai, played with the children, and engaged with parents who have participated in the Seven Passes’ parenting programmes. The school works very closely with us to ensure that children in Touwsranten are well cared for and are able to realise their potential.

Britney Adonis (13 years old), participated in Bloemfontein in the Free State Open Fencing Competition in the Under 17 category. She won three out of five of her poole rounds. She beat a girl who won a bronze medal three weeks ago at the Junior African Championships and she also beat a girl (who is 2m tall), who eventually received the silver medal. In effect this means that Britney beat the gold and silver medal winners in the poole rounds. She lost in the elimination rounds 8-15 but showed a lot of determination and a fighting spirit up to the end by using all possible techniques and tactics to try and earn points. This competition was only Britney’s third national competition while the other girls have been competing nationally for 2-3 years. She shows marked progress from one competition to another and she has moved up in the national rankings from 19th to 12th place!

We are so proud of what Britney has achieved and a huge thank you to volunteer, Susan Agrella for guiding her on the way.

Jenny Foster with the help of Melanie Groves gave computer lessons to high school learners during the March holidays. The youngsters really enjoyed the classes and learnt a lot.

Maaike and other volunteers helped with our March holiday programme. The children enjoyed the activities immensely.

Our Afterschool, Life Skills and Education programmes are underway. We had 341 children who attended in January ‘19, of which 62 were high school learners.

13 mothers are currently participating in the Thula Sana (Mamma-Baba) programme. These mothers reside in Touwsranten, Wilderness Heights, Lancewood and Tura Kina. Thank you to Roslynn and Sheridan who are working hard to visit these mothers regularly.

For the months of January – March 2019 we have delivered two Book Sharing programmes, Sinovuyo Kids and Sinovuyo Teens.

We were invited to take part in the Wilderness Arts Festival, held on the 16th of February 2019. Our Drummies were asked to perform and they started off by a march from the garage to the open space in front of the Wilderness Hotel. There the Djembe Drummers entertained the crowd with their awesome musical skills and sounds. The Seven Passes creative group also showed of their arts pieces that they have created in the arts and craft classes presented by Maaike, one of our volunteers.

HELP NEEDED PLEASE:
• We urgently need our own building or funding towards a building.
• Financial contributions to attend the Afterschool Gamechanger Symposium in Cape Town and Infant Attachment Training Opportunities in Cape Town.
• We need all your second-hand clothes and homeware to sell on our Market Day that will be held on 1 June 2019 at 7am at the D&M shop.

FINALLY …….. Thank you all for being involved and for caring. We thank you for supporting us in our efforts and helping us to grow in the process.

– Wilmi and the Seven Passes Team