FOLLOWING a successful shadow shift fund-raising event held by Nova Pioneer Ormonde at the Spur at the Glen, R13 000 was raised, which was donated to Amazing Grace Children’s Home.
The Pioneer Outreach Programme (POP) team handed over the money to the home in Eikenhof on April 14. In an AGM held at the home on March 24, POP was elected to serve on the board of directors for the home.
“During this time we found out that the caregivers had not received salaries for months and we decided to allocate part of the money to them by giving them the day off to spend vouchers from POP at The Glen,” said Thobile Nkosi, head of POP.
Members of POP, educators and parents all had the opportunity to be fully immersed in the life of the children at Amazing Grace. Nova pioneer arrived at the home and entertained the children with music, song and dance. Children from the home also sang for the parents and educators. POP handed out goodie bags to the children but they all had to dance for it (watch videos of this online). The Spur mascot was also present and entertained the children.
A humbling experience
“I’m very humbled and overwhelmed about what Nova Pioneer is doing for us today. I give glory and honour to God that we are being helped by Nova,” said Mamma Grace Mashaba.
The caregivers all left for their day off at the mall while volunteers were given a tour of the home, served the children and cleaned the dorms and bathrooms.
“I was overwhelmed when I read the review of the home. When I heard that the caregivers had not received their full salary for a few months, I just knew that they deserved a reward. I visited two babies here and being a mother it broke my heart to see them not constantly being carried and smothered like we do with our children,” said a parent and volunteer, Thilo Naidoo.
Later, the Spur staff arrived and gave the children balloons and, together with the volunteers, painted the children’s faces. Lunch for the children was sponsored by Spur at the Glen. And in the afternoon the volunteers prepared supper for the children.
We spoke to two alumni’s from the home. One is professor Msibi (34), who works for metaWEAVE in Centurion, and the other is Myandoye Sithole (19), who is studying towards his bachelor of education degree at the University of Witwatersrand.
Msibi has been working in IT for about six years now. He lived at Amazing Grace since he was a little boy and attended primary school. He completed school in Mpumalanga and studied construction. He was then privileged to have metaWEAVE pay for his IT studies.
“I choose to still live at Amazing Grace Children’s Home because it will always be home for me. I am now helping the board and am a committee member. I feel that it’s not enough to say thank you but this is how I show my gratitude,” said Msibi.
Sithole attended Elethu Themba and one day hopes to become the minister of education.
“Education is my passion and after starting off as a teacher, I want to become the minister of education,” said the student majoring in English.
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