Latest news from Lucky Beans e.V. - the first 5 months of 2018 in Lidgetton

Since the founding of Lucky Beans e.V. in 2015 in Germany, we have been supporting the Lidgetton Community Project in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa.

Our motivation is to provide a safe, nourishing place for the children of the Lidgetton community to go where they can receive a nourishing meal, play and learn from Nokuthula, our Soup Kitchen “Mother". Children cannot learn or feel optimistic when they are hungry - we start from this premise.

2018 started off with our new Recycled Container Soup Kitchen operating very well for Nokuthula, who has settled into her new home, as well as organising her new soup kitchen on her property.

Nokuthula's new house is in a very central location, where there are a lot of passers by - many folk pass up and down that road all day. They all seem to know her and greet her. Quite a few visit with babies and even other young teenagers come to read books in her lounge. Nok is like a counsellor for these folk and she is respected by the majority of the people who live there. She has bible study in the container in the evenings and also Sunday school for the small children and teenagers so she is kept quite busy. We are proud of her efforts and achievements in wanting to make her community a better place, especially for the children.

Juergen, Anton and I travelled to South Africa for new year, and were fortunate to be there on the soup/food delivery day, which is the first Wednesday of every month. We collected the soup from Amber Valley, which is a large retirement-type community in a town called Howick. A large group of Amber Valley members have generously been supporting LCP for some years now.

We are very grateful to the generous donators from Amber Valley for their continuous support in providing food, and often many other things that are needed, for the children.

Inside our container

The children seem to be very pleased with the new space, and what is on offer for them.

Nokuthula now has proper shelving inside the container for toys, games, drawing materials and books - the children have access to these each time they come for a meal. They eat and then they play.

A kitchen was installed inside the container with a gas stove where Nokuthula can prepare the meals, as well as wash up afterwards, at an open air sink just outside the kitchen door.

At the back door we also had 2x 1000L water tanks installed, which catch rain water. These tanks serve as the main water providers for the Soup kitchen, and are already fill!

Next to the container we had a dry sanitation repit Sanitech toilet installed, which requires no water. This, we hope, will serve as a very efficient long-term toilet solution, which is serviced by the company Sanitech twice a year, who come and pump out the waste from the expandable bladder.

If you are curious how this toilet works:

http://sanitech.co.za/Products-Services/Sanitation-Services/REPIT-Units

The garden

Nokuthula has had some assistance from Sandra and Pat Merrick to set-up her vegetable garden. Sandra and Pat arranged a grader to come in and level the ground, to prepare for planting. She has started growing her own vegetables now.

Nok’s shop

Nokuthula has, for some years now, been selling second-hand clothes to locals from the local trading store, to supplement the small income she receives from us. The store room, which was being rented by LCP, will now become Nokuthula’s shop base. Catherine helped her to sort out and arrange her products on shelves, which were kindly donated by Cynthia from the Funtasy Toy Store in Nottingham Road - thank you Cyn!

Nok is happy to now have a real “shop” from where she can sell her products, and maybe over time expand on her range.

Easter visit from the Teddy Bear Club

A few ladies from the Teddy bear club came to Lidgetton and gave the children a lovely easter egg party with cake and pudding and sweets, plus the teddy bears and jerseys. They played games with the children, which they enjoyed a lot. Thank you to the ladies of the Teddy Bear Club who so generously sew and donate lovely things for the children.

Music Voyage Project

Lucky Beans is also assisting a wonderful Music Project, called Music Voyage.

https://musicvoyagesa.wordpress.com

At the end of 2017 we sponsored the purchase of a trailor, which they desperately needed for transporting their musical instruments. Katherine McClelland is very pleased with the addition to their already sponsored mini bus.

We hope that we can integrate the two projects in the near future, by bringing music education to the children at Angel Ruth’s Soup Kitchen. When it is financially possible, we would like to educate a music teacher from Lidgetton to teach the children once or twice a week after they have had their meal.

Action in Autism - Our new support project

I was recently in touch with an acquaintance, Kirsten Miller, who is doing inspiring and transforming work with Autistic children in Durban - Lucky Beans has decided to support this unique project. They take in autistic children who need the most help and some of these parents are not always able to fund this special education. Our Lucky Beans members have all agreed that we will, for 2018, support a few children through their schooling.

It is my vision to find more sponsors to support these children, who, through this specific system, are often able to reintegrate back into a regular schooling system after the primary level. If you are interested to support this project, please be in touch with me.

http://www.actioninautism.org.za

Sponsorship and membership

We are a small charity who are always happy to welcome new input and new members to our team. If you are interested to join us or have friends who might be interested in sponsoring our work in South Africa, please contact us. It is a low key involvement charity, where you can offer your experience, financial support on any level, and enthusiasm for bringing change at "grass roots". We are supporting children for a brighter more positive future for South Africa, which has always been a pivotal racial hot spot. Imagine a new generation who grow up with tolerance, acceptance and a striving for a united future.

Thank you to Nokuthula for her continued dedication to the children, without her there would be no project!

Also a big thank you to all our supporters from Germany.

Our contribution to this community is a small drop in a large ocean, but that is where the effect lies.

Warm regards

Fiona

Stichwörter: Nokuthula