Can you Volunteer????

Mike and Laura from London helping us put up fence posts.
Laura playing with some of our orphans.
Adam and Hannah taking food to orphans.

Come volunteer!!!!

We have started the building project and now we are looking for teams or individuals to come and help build. As a volunteer you will help with the building work taking food to orphans and help with teaching our life-skills with the children. We are looking for people with and without experience, all ages, all backgrounds!!

Can you come and give some time to help us to give these children a home.

Wheelbarrow to the clinic.

This month saw the launch of our much anticipated mobile clinic.

A couple of weeks ago I was out delivering food to some orphans. As I was driving in the landy up a very steep hill, I came across a 70 year old grandmother who was helping her daughter home from the clinic. The daughter is dying from AIDS and can no longer walk. The grandmother had helped her into a wheelbarrow and wheeled her the whole way there, waited for a few hours to be seen by the doctor and was now wheeling her back up the hill.

When I asked her how long it had taken her to get her to the clinic she told me that 5 hours was the time it took her to get to the point that she was at now and that she still had a long way to go.

I put them both in the landrover and drove them home, it just took me a few minutes , it would have taken her a couple of hours!

This is one of the reasons that we need a new Landrover!!!!

It is also one of the reasons that we have started up our mobile clinic.

We have alot of basic medical supplies i.e. bandages, antiseptic cream, vitamins ect. It is all loaded up into the back of a quad and one of our staff members takes a trained nurse or doctor to the people who can not get to the clinic. We have a nurse from the UK staying with us at the moment and we are looking for more people to volunteer their time and skills to help these people in need.

We need people who can teach the women how to care for their babies and people who can minister first aid. Nurses, midwives, doctors we need to to come and visit!

Let us know If you are interested.

Digging with Dad!

Everybody’s getting involved!
It’s a bit noisy dad!
Joe was down at the land early at 7am with dad to help clear the land as we prepare to start the building.

The winter fires (wild fires rip across the bush here every winter wiping out the wild vegetation) spread through here last week making the job of the jcb’s alot easier as now they could see where they were going.

Early morning mist rises slowly over table top mountain at the water front of Project O cluster foster home site, valley of 1000 hills, South Africa

She has finally died!

Sad News............today our Landrover finally passed away!

Her gearbox dropped out the bottom and the accelerator cable has had it. It will cost us more than it is worth to get it fixed and we have been offered a new one for £2500. When I say "new" I mean 20 years younger than the one we have!!!!! This car will be snapped up quickly unless we act this week!
Without this, the homes and orphans will be losing out!
A cash donation for the above amount will see us through
PLEASE HELP US NOW!
In fact a donation of 12,000 pounds will buy us an almost new vehicle to do the work at hand- we are in need!

Help us- help them!!

Please contact us immediately if you are in a position to assist this project!
We need to purchase this vehicle in the next 6 days before I go to London.

If you are able to help please go to http://www.projecto.org.za/ and click on donations.

Please email me with any questions at martin@projecto.org.za

Thank you so much for your support.

Let the building begin!!!!!!

Building begins!
At last the project O building project has begun.
Its been a long time in the waiting as we worked our way through the red tape etc.

We have had to make our own road through the bush approx 400 metres.
This will take some time as we have to flatten trees and bushes along the way but will result in us having our own private access road to our homes and projects down near the dam.
The fences are ready to be erected as soon as the JCB’s move out, and we can't wait!!!

Creche is crying out for help.

Sabtha and her kiddies singing a song.

2 weeks ago I took a trip to Cato Manor squatter camp. We visited a Pastor there who is from Zambia. He now lives in South Africa with his wife and 3 children and has a small church in the squatter camp. Pastor Simon and his wife Sabtha love their community very much but 2 months ago during the xenophobic attacks here in South Africa members of the local community dragged them out of their home in the middle of the night and stole all their belongings. They also smashed all the windows of the church and stole every thing from inside, including all the items that they used for their creche.

Every day Sabtha has up to 22 children dropped off at the church to spend the day while the mother s go to work. some come as early as 6:30 am and are there until 7pm. The babies range from 2 months to 6 years and all are adorable!!!!

My first visit was quite hard for me as the creche was just a small room crammed with babies and nothing for them to do.

No toys, no beds, nothing for them to do. many come with only one nappy and are soaked through, no bottles are sterilized and the formula is made cold as there is no way to heat it.

Sabtha has one lady helping her, but that is not enough and she was very tired.

Yesterday I went back to visit and take some donations that we have been given for babies.

Sabtha was so happy to see us and I had the opportunity to sit down and have a chat with her. She really loves these little ones and is trying to do her best to care for them so that their mothers can go out and try to earn a living, but she is frustrated that there is so little that she can do with what they have. There are a few toys (most are not age appropriate) and a couple of crayons but not enough for all the children to use and there was nothing for the babies to do other than lie on a mat on the floor.

Sabtha wants the children to learn and grown, she teaches them basic English and sings with them. She is a wonderful, generous woman who has a compassion for these little ones.

When our team from BCC were here one of the team members called Emma decided to do something to help and went out and got 200 nappies for the creche. The nappies cost about 10 pounds and have already made such a difference to Sabtha and certainly the babies who are wearing them, no more wet bums!!!

If you feel that you can in any way help this little creche out through toys, baby clothes, nappies or formula please let me know.

You can email me at vashti@projecto.org.za

Please pray for the safety of Pastor Simon, Sabtha and their children. Also pray for the church Emmanuel Ministries and their congregation, and please pray for Little Disciples Creche.

Helping the Helpless.

This month we had a team of 18 come and visit from Bournemouth Community Church to spend 2 weeks with us. They came bringing childrens clothing, medical supplies and willing hearts to help and love these children.

We had a great time and made some friends for life! The team was very diverse in age, life style and talents and all had different things to bring to the table when it came to working with the children and Project O staff. We laughed, we cried we worked them hard!!!!! All came willing , all left changed.

I'm pretty sure that many of them have fallen in love with South Africa and its people, and most have promised to come back.

It is so exciting for us to have so many people come here to visit and to watch as they have their hearts broken and their lives rocked and then to see them catch the vision and run with it. This team have really encouraged us as an organization and as individuals.

We are so thankful for their love and support and can't wait for next years team!

Bike race!!!!!

On the 22nd of june four of our orphans and two of our Project O staff rode in the Kwa Ximba bike race. The bike Race was 10km and our guys all came in the top ten!!!!

Lindani, 14 years old.

Linda, 14 years old.

Agreement, 13 years old and Khayelihle, 15 years old have all been orphaned due to Hiv/Aids.

They have been members of our bike club for a while now and are some of our stronger riders which is why we picked them for the race.

They had a great day and the fact that they came in the top ten was amazing as there were around 100 people in the race!

We would once again like to thank Sean's Power Cycles, Group 5 and Action Pad Print for your support and for the bikes!!!!!

Crisis Center really cares!

A couple of months ago we had a team from Living Waters Missions crisis center come and visit us. God has really put our organization on their hearts and wanted to help in any way that they could.

Diane and her team came by one day and we all went to the Valley to visit some of our orphans. With them they bought food, toys, clothes and Zulu childrens books. We went to see a number of our orphans and the team had a chance to bless these children with the gifts that they had brought with them.

We had such a great day, the children loved their gifts and were so happy to see that some people care about them and their family. The team prayed with each family and I know that this was a huge blessing to each and every person under the sound of those prayers. The day was full of joy and laughter.

And I cant wait for their next visit in august.

Thankyou Diane and the team of faithful friends for coming to bless these children and thier families, I want you to know that not only did you bless them but you also blessed myself and the Project O staff. Thankyou for the encouragement and love that you have shown to us in the short time that we have spent together.

Teddy Bears all round!

We have some friends in the UK who had a great idea of how to bless our orphans. One day while cleaning out her toys Laura Cowen saw that she just had too many teddy bears and didnt know what to do with them. So after talkng with her dad they came up with the idea of sending them to our orphans here at Project O. When we recieved the box stuffed with bears and other soft toys we were so excited. The orphans that we work with do not have any toys and for them to be given a cuddly toy from a little girl in the UK was such a treat.

I shared with Laura and her Dad (Mike) what a blessing the bears were and how the children loved them so much, Mike came up with another idea. He is one of the leaders at the Kids club run by their church. He spoke with the children at Mighty Kids and they started to bring their soft toys in so that Mike and Laura could send them to the orphans of Project O.

We now recieve boxes of soft toys every couple of months and we love getting them.......more importantly our children here love to get them.

Such a simple idea from a little girl in England has made such a difference to these children here.

Thank you Laura for seeing a need and sharing it with others, now we have many happy little boys and girls who have a teddy to snuggle!

Thank you Mike for caring enough to get behind Laura and Project O.

And Thank you for all the children at Mighty Kids who gave your bears for an orphan. We belive every child should have a teddy bear!!!!!