We are still in the midst of busyness, but stepping back for a few minutes one cannot help to marvel at the amazing strength and resilience that we are witnessing in the community.
In March South Africa implemented one of the strictest lockdowns in the world. For us that meant juggling work with home schooling. We applied for permits to leave home a few weeks into lockdown as we needed to implement child protection and nutritional support to children and families. Our staff team has been amazing spending days at end on the road to deliver food supplies and sanitation products. At the start of the pandemic we had great concerns as a big proportion of South Africa`s population is compromised and vulnerable, but for reasons that the experts have not been able to agree upon infection rates have not followed expected projections. So as August arrived it seemed as if South Africa had reached its peak and the president announced the reopening of the economy and schools.
There is obviously the threat of a second wave but for now our efforts focus on rebuilding. This means supporting pre-schools to reopen, here access to water has been vital and distribution of protective equipment. We are still in the midst of busyness, but stepping back for a few minutes one cannot help to marvel at the amazing strength and resilience that we are witnessing in the community. Despite months of no income volunteers return to face the challenging task of reopening their pre-schools. We have always tried to approach our work by building on the efforts that already exist in the community and this is a good example of that.
Never has the need for children to access pre-school services been bigger as we see families struggle to survive and put food on the table. By ensuring that pre-schools are able to serve nutritious food, keep children safe and provide opportunities for play and learning we are able to see to the wellbeing of very vulnerable children. With Christmas approaching people ask how they can help and this year we developed a campaign to make it easy for individuals and families to give much needed resources directly to pre-schools. Attached with this newsletter is some information on that for those that are interested.
Our plan for Christmas is to take some time off to rest and regroup for next year. Thank you for your continued support. We have really appreciated all the people that have reached out to
hear things are going in South Africa. It has meant a lot!
Love,
Brian, Maria, Ezra and Aaron
