Letters from the Highveld

From Dean David Bannerman concerning the political unrest :

“I thought I would send a few words on our situation. It is very, very tragic. Originally this started in the Pretoria area but gradually it has spread through the Gauteng region, and is now affecting the Cape.

Obviously it is strongly related to the unhappiness in Zimbabwe, but is also related to the very poor socioeconomic conditions in Mozambique, Malawi and further north as far as Somalia. South Africa is the “pot of gold” at the end of the Rainbow continent, and those who do not have come flocking. When the government has not been able to sufficiently assist our own poor, for whatever reason, we have had a problem waiting to happen.

The faith communities have really come to the fore, as well as the wider South African Society. The trauma, loss and suffering is incredible.
There has been a great deal of violence in the Ramaposa settlement and the parish of St Vincent’s has opened its church and hall to the victims, feeding and clothing them in whatever way they can. People have fled to the Germiston/ Primrose area, where they are being cared for. At the Cathedral, with All Souls, other faith groups and local government are involved in caring for approx 200 in Benoni City Hall. This is being mirrored in all other entres/churches as clergy and parishes around the diocese “do their bit”.

You need to know also that the Diocese of Monmouth is here, caring, through the knitted teddies and soft toys that are being given to children who have lost everything. We have also used clothes and other items that you have sent. So we are collaborators together with God in this work of compassion.

As “extended family” I thought that you needed to be in the picture! Pray for us as we pray for you”.

David Bannerman

From Lynn Coull on behalf of the Highveld Anglican Board of Social Responsibility

On behalf of Bishop David and members of the Highveld Anglican Board of Social Responsibility (HABSR), I would be most grateful if you would kindly convey to your clergy and laity our deepest gratitude for the incredibly generous grant of R464,685.70 which was raised during your Lenten Appeal last year. 

Of this amount, R44,685.70 was placed in an account for feeding schemes at the Diocesan Office on 31 August 2007 and the balance was placed in an investment account. This investment provides the Diocese with a steady income which further supplements the funding that is available for the use of feeding schemes.

The main beneficiaries of these feeding schemes are orphans and vulnerable children of various ages although some of our feeding schemes also reach out to the unemployed, the elderly as well as those who are sick. HABSR’s OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) Programme is co-ordinated by Bafana Kunene. He has been responsible for training 162 child care advocates who work in the urban and rural communities in the Diocese. 

Many people who live in these communities are severely impoverished. The child care advocacy programme is funded by the Elton John AIDS Foundation. The child care advocates have to date serviced the needs of over 11,000 children and offer assistance with regard to accessing social grants through the Department of Social Development for children in child-headed households or their guardians on behalf of the children. 

The child care advocates offer the children ongoing support and counselling. In addition to the work of the child care advocates, HABSR, in partnership with the NACCW (National Association of Child Care Workers) has established two Isibindi OVC projects (PEPFAR/USAID – funded) whose child and youth care workers service the needs of 1,500 orphans and vulnerable children in the urban communities of Katlehong and Thokoza in Ekurhuleni as well as the rural communities of Rooikoppen and Sakhile in Mpumalanga.

Comic Relief funding has enabled HABSR to develop its home-based care programme. 49 community home-based projects in both the rural and urban regions of the Diocese benefit from this funding. It has also enabled HABSR to develop its Early Childhood Development (ECD) programme. Comic Relief funding pays for the training and stipends of the ECD educators who work in 7 out of 10 creches, pre-schools/day care centres. Over 600 infected and affected children attend these facilities during the week. 8 of these ECD centres benefit from funding from the Bishop Simeon Trust which contributes towards the cost of feeding the children. A ‘support-a-child’ scheme developed by Mother Marlene Rodda benefits 249 children who live in the Dukathole informal settlement in Germiston. This scheme provides each child with a food parcel each week.

Once a social grant application is submitted to the Department of Social Development, it can take up to six months for it to be processed – sometimes longer. It becomes complicated where a child does not have a birth certificate or a parent or guardian does not have an ID document or a child has a parent who is a migrant. This means that children in families who have no income are having to go to school with empty stomachs. Several parishes in the Diocese are running feeding schemes to address this need. In most cases, children drop-in after school for a cooked meal, homework supervision, games and sports activities under adult supervision and counselling is offered to those who need it. Small grants of R5,000 are offered to schemes and projects involved in feeding. Those parish feeding schemes and projects that benefit from these small grants have to account for its use before accessing further funding.

The following feeding schemes/projects have benefited from the Diocese of Monmouth funding:

1. Ithemba Lethu Women’s Project:  feeds 200 families twice a week as well as 150 orphans and vulnerable children who attend a primary school down the road from the St Albans Anglican Church in Daveyton.   Anglican Women’s Fellowship as well as Mother’s Union members carefully assess each family before being registered through the scheme.   All families who are registered have no family member who is earning an income. The project also runs a Citizen’s Advice Bureau, food garden, beading project (just started) as well as a sewing and knitting project.   It has also asked for assistance in feeding 20 members of a support group which has just been started at St Albans.
2. St James Ikageng Orphans Project:  feeds 120 orphans and vulnerable children who attend the Kabelo Primary School across the road from the St James Anglican Church in Katlehong. The children in need are identified through the principal and teachers. Ongoing support is offered to the children and their families.
3. St Peter’s Chains Anglican Church: feeds 240 orphans and vulnerable children who attend primary and high schools in close proximity to the project after school each day. The Mother’s Union is very involved in cooking for the children who are identified through the work of the child and youth care workers in the Isibindi OVC project.
4. St Phillips Anglican Church in Thokoza through its Unabo Children’s Project provided cooked meals and good parcels to children in the community.
5. King’s Kids Day Care Centre provides breakfast and lunch for 30 pre-school children aged 3 – 6 years each school day.   This day care centre is situated in the eThandukhanye township outside Piet Retief in rural Mpumalanga.
6. Tholakele Children’s Home in Kwa Thema feeds 78 orphans daily.   23 of the orphans are permanent residents of the Home and the other children attend Tholakele after school for a cooked meal before returning to their homes.
7. Kwasa Centre in Daggafontein, Springs:   feeds 163 creche and pre-school children who are given breakfast and lunch. In addition to this 80 primary and high school children are provided with a cooked meal after school. Monmouth funding is used to purchase bread for the project at a cost of R2 500 each month. This project falls under Mother Sharron Dinnie, priest in charge of St Peter and St Paul’s Anglican Church in Springs.     
8. Tshepo Ya Bana OVC Project is feeding 58 orphans and vulnerable children who visit the project for a cooked meal after school each day at the St Boniface Anglican Church in Vosloorus. The Mother’s Union members are involved in cooking meals for the children and in conjunction with the child care advocates in the area offer the children care and support.

Bishop David and HABSR members as well as project members and their beneficiaries would like to convey very many thanks and appreciation for the containers which have been sent to the Diocese filled with soft and other toys, material, wool, knitting needles, books, stationery, blankets, clothing, sewing and knitting machines etc. 

The items in the container which arrived in January 2008 have been distributed and received with much joy. Many of the items from the container which arrived in May 2008 have also been distributed much to the delight of those who received them. The following parishes/projects have benefited:

1. St Dunstans Cathedral:  seven boxes of wool.  A group of elderly women have knitted jerseys and knitted caps for many of the children who attend the Khayalethu Pre-school in Daggakraal as well as a group of 60 orphans and vulnerable children who attend the Shukuma primary school which is surrounded by the Rooikoppen informal settlement outside Standerton in Mpumalanga.
2. Tshepo Hope Care and Counselling Centre/Day Care Centre/Caritas Care Home, All Souls Anglican Church in Tsakane. A group of women knit jerseys (2 boxes of wool) for the children who attend these facilities. A group of Tsakane women called the Golden Girls were given a box of material that they could use for sewing purposes.
3. All Souls, Northmead: 1 box wool and 1 box material – used to supply women in projects who knit and sew and are supported by All Souls.
4. St Andrews, Kwa Thema: Fr Jerry Dibeto took 3 boxes of clothes, soft toys and stationery for the use of orphans and vulnerable children in his community. He also took 1 box of wool for St Stephens Anglican Church in Botleng outside Delmas.
5. Fr Michael Bosman took 1 box of wool and 1 box of material to an old age home.   The elderly folk are now happily knitting and sewing for the benefit of the children in the Diocese.
6. Fr Armstrong Kwakwari (Church of Resurrection – Wattville), Mother Maki Bodibe (St Matthew and St Luke’s Anglican Church – Eden Park), child care advocates and others took quantities of seeds for their parish and project food gardens.  (One of the child-care advocates in Tsakane has been given the use of a very large backyard on the premises of an undertaker and she has used all this space for the growing of her veggies – wonderful to see.)
7. Stationery and children’s books were given to a literacy project which has been started at the Anglican Church in Etwatwa.
8. Fr Reuben Simelane took boxes of clothing and blankets for distribution in the Daggakraal and Vukuzakhe areas.
9. Fr Elijah Koloti, Mother Marlene Rodda, Deacon Barbara Morrison and others were given boxes of wool for projects they are involved in.  
10. Fr Wilmot Ngobese, Fr Thabo Masweu, Paddy and others were given plastic bags and boxes marked for their attention.
11. Clothing and blankets were also given to child care advocates for distribution during xenophobic attacks – our urban region was the worst affected region in South Africa.   Many homes belonging to migrants were burnt down and they lost all their possessions.  

While some stationery items have already been distributed, the child and youth care workers, child-care advocates, ECD centres are assessing the need of the children at the moment with a view to distributing the items of stationery.

Bishop Dominic, we are very grateful to you and the wonderful clergy and laity in your Diocese for your incredible generosity. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you require any further information.

Lynn Coull