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The year has seen half a dozen ladies on the Red Light programme. Volunteers with specialised skills have been involved in training the ladies in critical areas like budgeting and nutrition and the Red Light staff continue their work with the ladies to bring them to the wholeness and healthy self-images God has designed for them.

The beautiful Vachellia xanthophloea, commonly called the Fever Tree, is found in the Northern Province, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga. Its striking sulphur-yellow bark provides the base material which The Domino Foundation’s Red Light programme uses in its jewellery-making. The programme has an on-going need for bark supplies and is appealing to friends of Domino and members of the community to collect the bark from the numerous fever trees in and around Durban. Only the bark which has fallen off the trunks of the trees is useable. Any bark collected may be handed in at The Domino Foundation’s offices at 37 Mackeurtan Avenue. The jewellery has recently undergone a facelift as a result of a collaboration between ladies presently on the programme and those who have been with Red Light. The new-look range has an attractive combination of ethnic beadwork and the natural beauty of the Fever Tree wood.

The programme is now feeding JAM porridge, soup and sandwiches into 67 schools, churches and clinics and the distribution of JAM porridge is going well in 12 new crèches in Waterloo. The two sandwich kitchens are well-supported by volunteers for the various shifts every weekday. Five new schools have been added to the programme in the Amanzimtoti area and two crèches and a primary school have asked for help.

On World Hunger Day (May 28), a below-the-line meal of samp and beans was served to the community of Kingsway Church International in Amanzimtoti on Volunteers Day for R30 a tub.  This was well-received and the congregation was  enthusiastic about the whole morning.  It was very successful and the Toti Feeding programme will be  holding a soup morning at the end of July to raise more funds. The kitchen employed a kitchen co-ordinator since the start of the second quarter.

Pipe bands converge on Amanzimtoti from all over the country every year for the annual Highland Gathering. This year saw over 10 000 people came through the gates for a very loud and very festive time. The Toti kitchen had a stand at the event creating awareness of the Feeding programme with many people visiting the stand and asking questions.

A new way of doing sandwiches has been piloted in several schools. Rather than the sandwiches arriving anonymously from faceless people, the bread, peanut butter and Rama are being sent to the schools so that a collaboration of service can happen. This can take the form of a few non-working Mums from the community making the sandwiches, or a roster of school classes making the sandwiches for one-another.  The concept is that the community takes care of the community, rather than outsiders coming in to “fix” the community.

Improved and streamlined systems have been put in place and are enabling the programme to partner with many more churches, NPOs and local communities so that the programme can facilitate the work those groups are doing.

We are blessed with the willing volunteers who come on an ad hoc basis and those who are regulars at the Babies Homes. This programme is the one which attracts most volunteers, because it is easily accessible and because the little ones pull on heart strings very easily.

We have had two adoptions over the course of the year, though there has been a moratorium placed by the Department of Social Development on adoptions in KwaZulu-Natal over alleged child trafficking. We have also seen several placements of children and others being reunited with their birth families.

Approaches have been made to other babies’ homes with a view to establishing a network so that information and ideas can be shared and help given where needed.

Weekly management meetings have been instituted where development of the children is discussed, progress on adoptions is reviewed and surveys of repairs and maintenance are made.

Over the past few months, an informal pre-primary school has been running three mornings a week at the Babies’ Homes, giving the toddlers opportunity to learn about the basics: numbers and letters, colours and shapes. Liezel Andersson has done a wonderful job in setting the school up and engages with the children wonderfully well. A second volunteer has taken on the remaining two weekdays and so the school runs every morning for two hours during term time.

It has been an incredibly busy two quarters for our ECD team as we officially launched the Sibaya Trust Bright Beginnings programme as part of The Domino Foundation’s Early Childhood Development Programme in the Waterloo community. We met with 12 enthusiastic and motivated ECD owners and began Mentoring and Monitoring at the end of January 2017. The team visited each crèche on a weekly basis to oversee, support and empower owners and educators in implementing fundamental ECD practices as well as general governance of the ECD centres.

TRAINING AND SUPPORT

The rigorous schedule saw crèche owners take part in a number of training sessions throughout the first half of the year. Our nutritional partner JAM SA, conducted a training time on the importance of nutrition and began supplying monthly donations of porridge mix to each crèche. Proper nutrition is fundamental to a child’s growth and aids in the physical and cognitive development of each child.

During the April school holiday’s crèche owners attended a training time with our ECD partner, The Unlimited Child, where they were provided with high quality curriculum and resources which is focused on the social, emotional, physical and cognitive development of children between the ages of 0 – 5 years of age.

To ensure training was implemented in the crèches, our NQF Level 4 qualified field workers continued to visit each ECD centre on a weekly basis, providing much needed support, guidance and mentoring. Our team also held bi-monthly lesson planning and stimulation workshops at the Waterloo community centre where vital themes, techniques and lessons where re-emphasised with the educators.

RESOURCES AND DONATIONS

Our ECD team and beneficiaries were extremely encouraged by a number of volunteers and donors who have supported the programme this year. Blue Sky Society donated thousands of Cherub baby wipes to a number of ECD centres on our programme and students who attended our Community Service Work Week made story books, resources and playdough for each of our crèches.

We are extremely excited to see how the rest of the year unfolds in the ECD space and how the lives of the 683 learners are impacted through quality foundation phased Education.

The Durban staff of one of South Africa’s largest home loans providers, SA Home Loans, moved into Siyakhula Crèche in Waterloo to renovate, restore and repaint classrooms and playground equipment. This was the first project they had undertaken in partnership with The Domino Foundation and Angel Projects to establish a relationship with the Waterloo community.

Angel Projects, whose aim is to facilitate community projects with corporates, had identified the crèche through The Domino Foundation’s Early Childhood Development programme.

Angel Projects’ Managing Director, Brenda Scheepers, said “The long-range objective of the exercise is to upgrade the crèche’s infrastructure to help pave the way for Siyakhula to achieve compliancy for registration with the Department of Social Development”.

After an exhausting but thoroughly satisfying day, Mpilo Vilakazi, SA Home Loans CSR Chairperson, spoke for all the participants in the day’s programme: “Our aim is to use the impact of this refurbishment to open up greater development opportunities in the Waterloo community in the future”.

Seen in a break from wielding a paintbrush with Mrs Angela Nhlangulela, owner of Siyakhula Crèche, are Tarin Stephenson (Donor Relations Manager at The Domino Foundation), Brenda Scheepers and Mpilo Vilakazi.

Graffiti artist, Giffy Duminy’s dexterity astounded his audience of learners at Zwakele Primary School in Durban’s informal settlement of Amaoti as he conjured up a mural of a half-peeled orange on a face-brick at the school. The occasion was part of an initiative by bonhappi-T.com , whose vision is to connect those who can with those who can’t. Giffy’s amazing creation will now appear on one of bonhappi-T’s new T-shirt range. “With every T-shirt purchased from our online store a donation, on behalf of the purchaser, is made to FoodForward SA, to provide enough meals to feed a person for a month”, said bonhappi-T’s Susan Wright. The Domino Foundation, who works with learners at Zwakele and through whom FoodForward SA has benefitted learners at the school, was delighted at Giffy’s artistic achievement.

With a programme impacting lives in Amanzimtoti, Durban City  and communities North of Durban, The Domino Foundation’s Feeding programme produces 98 000 meals a month. On its Global Impact Day, the La Lucia-based branch of international information, data, and measurement company, Nielsen, was hosted by The Domino Foundation. Around the world that day, some 23,000 Nielsen volunteers participated in more than 1,400 community projects. The Durban band of 13 volunteers rolled up their sleeves and tackled making 640 peanut butter sandwiches. These will be distributed to crèches and schools through the feeding programme. Nielsen’s Tarryn Smith said, “we donate our skills and time to help nonprofit organizations through pro bono work, in-kind giving and hands-on community projects”. The Feeding programme welcomes enquiries and support from corporates and individuals through donations of much needed ingredients for the making of the sandwiches.

If you would like your company to be involved in a similar impact day at The Domino Foundation, please contact Rowan at volunteer@domino.org.za.

Through The Domino Foundation’s Life Skills programme, a partnership between Love Church and the Sharks Soccer School saw a group of enthusiastic Amaoti 3 Primary School Grade 4 soccer players having their football skills put on a firm foundation. The day, held at Soccer 5 Crusaders’ courts, consisted of fun-filled learning exercises and was rounded off with teams facing off in a series of mini matches. Spur sponsored each child a burger, chips and cold drink and Football4All provided Adidas Balls for the day. The day was about much more than just soccer…it was a chance to impact the children with opportunities which rarely come their way. The vision is to see the Amaoti community running its own Sharks Soccer School using soccer to make a difference in the children’s lives.

Every year, Durban North-based “Live Love Give” organises a ‘woman-for-woman’ challenge to raise money for local charities. The 2017 challenge saw 25 intrepid ladies slackpacking for three days in the Ukhahlamba mountains, battling altitude and chain ladders and raising R25 000 for The Domino Foundation’s Early Childhood Development Programme which focuses on the emotional, educational and nutritional needs of children in 55 crèches as well as the development of the crèche owners. “We had an absolutely amazing trip and we’re excited to be able to contribute to the sustainability of such a worthwhile cause as The Domino Foundation,” said Wendy Horn, one of the founders of “Live Love Give”, along with Janine Hall-Jones and Carmen Lofstedt.

A buzz is beginning to build! The Cape Town Cycle Tour (affectionately known as “The Argus”) is just ten days away. Now in its 40th year, the world’s largest timed cycling event is set to have some 35 000 riders in 2017.

A group, the #DominoRiders, has entered the race wearing the colours of The Domino Foundation because they fully subscribe to the amazing impact this NPO is making each day on the lives of some 5000 of the most vulnerable people in South Africa. The valiant crew who are pedalling specifically in support of The Domino Foundation’s Recycle Swop Shop programme in the Western Cape are: Sarah Kennedy; Richard Mun-Gavin; Richard Seiler; Shaun Tait; Riaan van der Westhuizen; Nathan van der Westhuizen; Mark van Pletzen; Tim Batchelder; Brad Joyce; Matthew Wilkes; Kieren Vels and Jonathan Salzwedel.

Towards the end of last year, we saw The Domino Foundation go “national” when the Western Cape initiative, the Recycle Swop Shop, came into the Domino “Family”. With the Foundation’s hashtag for the 2017 Argus being #Cycle4reCycling, the #DominoRiders saw it as a particularly strong reason to ride for this dynamic organisation.

We are excited to invite you to support the #DominoRiders’ tackling the 109 kilometres by pledging financially to their efforts. This way, they won’t only have carried the Domino banner on 12 March 2017, but they would also be able to give into the impactful work of The Domino Foundation which creates essential structures to support their seven programmes meeting individuals’ and communities’ needs physically, emotionally, cognitively and spiritually.

As a friend and supporter of The Domino Foundation, you can find the #DominoRiders’ profiles on the CTCTFundracers website, the fund raising platform they are using to raising funds for their ride. They have set a target of R10 000 (R1 000 per rider) and so are keen to see you pledging in support of their efforts!

The platform is easy to use, safe and secure and people can leave messages with their donations which can be made through Visa, MC, AMEX, Debit & Credit cards, PayPal & Bitcoin.

Overseas and local friends and family can donate easily and securely. Donations go directly to the Domino Foundation via the Cape Town Cycle Tour Trust account.

Companies who want to support the #DominoRiders, can be issued a Section 18 tax receipt by The Domino Foundation. However, the donation would need to be made directly to The Domino Foundation bank account and not through the online Fundracers’ platform.

In anticipation of your positive response, the #DominoRiders and The Domino Foundation say a big “Thank You”!