October News

This month we just want thank the Lord for his grace and blessings over Graceland.  Here at Graceland we can see everyday how great the
Lord is for every one of us.

From this quarter we are going to get the children ready for their graduation which will be taking place on 30th November 2011. We are also starting with assessment to see if they are ready for Gr.R next year.

We had three excellent workshops to refresh our brains again. With the help of an occupational therapist Anoeska De Villiers and two students Simone and Sandi from Cape College.  We really want to say thank you to them for their help.

We also want to thank Helen and Jenifer from Texas for giving us fans for our classrooms for the summer and wall clocks and a DVD as well as some lovely dolls. Distell Winery from Stellenbosch also want to help us with Donations towards Graceland. I will tell you all that exciting news in the next newsletter!

Finally, thank you to Every Nation Church Students and Stellenbosch University, that made the day possible for the children to go to Tygerberg Zoo this month. The kids had a ball!

September News

Wow we had an amazing day this month. We had the official opening of our Library and Sick room!!

It was the culmination of a dream that began 5 months ago when I heard some startling statistics regarding literacy levels for primary school children in SA and the lack of access to books.

I have always believed that stories are such an important part of a child's life. They open up a whole new world, for language to develop, emotions to be experienced as well as the opportunity for nuturing to occur. Graceland is blessed to have a number of potential story tellers who visit every week in the form of Students from the University of Stellenbosch!!! These students have come on board and are beginning to read regularly to the children which is fantastic and very well received.

It is such a beautiful thing to see a child pickup a book and find pleasure in its pages. We have witnessed times when a group of children have been excitedly showing each other their books and other times when a child is just sitting quietly engrossed in the pictures of a story. Of course we still have some way to go regarding 'book etiquette' but we will get there!!

Elizabeth has some great ideas for incorporating the library into everyday use as well as looking at how it might benefit and bless Devon Valley in a wider sense in the future.

It is also wonderful to have somewhere for the children to go when they are feeling poorly at school. The new bunkbeds and bedding are superb as is the new vinyl on the floors in all the rooms. These come courtesy of a generous donation from Lewis stores. This library and Sick room has been a real team effort from not only within Graceland but the wider community also.

The opening gave us the opportunity to say a big thankyou to those who faithfully support Graceland, and we were honoured to have over 20 of them join us. Including Marilize from Devon Valley hotel, Ginny Swart, Katherine Berger, Louis Van Schalwyk, Caitlyn Keal and some of the Uni Students.

Following the cutting of the ribbon Katharine Berger read a wonderful story to the children who were enthralled. We then had coffee and cake on the stoep which was ably served by Grade 11 learners from the School of Hope who also baked and decorated some amazing cup cakes for the children.

Finally I came across a paragragh on a leaflet the other day which sums up what I feel about this project.

"If we can teach children to love stories, we can teach children to love reading. And the children who love reading will make this country's story one worth telling everywhere" (Nathalie Koenig 2011)

Zoe Lee, Volunteer

August News

Graceland has had a very blessed month!!

It started with us recieving a generous donation of R5000 from Lewis Stores. We were then treated to a visit from Mrs Van Schalckwyk from Devon Valley who brought with her some very tasty chocolate cupcakes for us all to enjoy.

We were also pleased to host a visit from His People Baxter Church who spent time with us getting to know what Graceland is about. It is always a pleasure to have the opportunity to share the testimony that is Graceland and it reminds us how far we have come and how faithful God has been to us.

Our regular monthly visit from the mobile clinic has been a real encouragement. The nurses are giving good reports on the children's health and all of them have gained weight. This is especially fantastic news for those who are underweight and have been recieving nutritional supplements (prescribed by the clinic) with their breakfast at Graceland. The clinic feels Graceland is doing a 'great job'.

One of our little learners has been out of school for 2 months following a bout of Swine flu. We are so thankful to the Lord that he is now fully recovered.

Our library project is nearing completion and we recieved a generous donation of R1000 towards books from Zoe's home Church in England. Zoe and Elizabeth will enjoy doing a bit of book shopping!!! We are hoping to have an 'official' opening next month so will post some pictures then.

This month has also brought us a wonderful volunteer from New Zealand via the Cayman Islands!! Jenny a primary school teacher spent 2 weeks beginning to teach some basic English. The children have taken to it really well and are trying out their newly accquired words!! We hope she enjoyed her time with us as much as we enjoyed having her.

Finally we would like to say a big thankyou to Hayley from Highmead Wine Estate who is donating R1000 per month to provide each child a sandwhich at lunchtime.

We continue to be humbled by the generosity of those near and far which enables us to serve the children and community of Devon Valley.

A big thankyou from us all x

June News

June is Happy Birthday month for 4 out of 5 of the staff so they were making full use of the 'Happy Birthday hat' Zoe bought back from the UK on her last trip home!! The children also love to wear the hat on their birthdays and enjoy the special feeling it brings.

The preparations for the library are fully underway. Leon (premises manager) and Zoe and Andy (long term volunteers from the UK) have been hard at work. We expect to be up and running when the children return after their school holidays.
We are hoping to have an 'official' opening ceremony so watch this space!!

We also have a lot of thank yous this month: We received plastic motorbikes and blankets donated by Mr. and Mrs. Van Schalkwyk via the Farm Association. Melissa and the folk at Woolworths donated some nutritious snacks and food. Ronel has donated a bed for the sick room. Seaton Farm donated a dreinerings klippe and Azalea Court provided us with some fresh soup and bread. We are so blessed by these items and they make a huge difference.

May News

This past month we have been blessed by three separate amazing donations:

Firstly, our local hotel, The Devon Valley Hotel, presented us with a cheque which is made up of proceeds from their Giving Room Initiative (www.devonvalleyhotel.com/csr.php). It’s a fantastic initiative where every night that Room 53 of the hotel is occupied, 10% of the revenue is given to us!!! So if you are looking for accommodation in the Stellenbosh area you know where to go!!!! 




On top of that they blessed the children with Easter eggs and in June one of their employees, Marilize Stander, is going to be walking an amazing 796km across the Pyrenees from France to Spain to raise money for us. Thank you Marilize! - If you'd like to sponsor Marilize for her efforts you can do so here. You can also follow her progress on her blog here.

The children really did do very well over Easter as they also received Easter present boxes His People Church in Cape town and Ronel from Kuilsriver provided a big cupboard and some toys for the children. We can never have enough storage and the children are having a fantastic time exploring the new toys.

April News

Last month, students from Every Nation Church in Stellenbosch took our children to the beach.  One boy, Christiano, just played in the sand cause he was afraid of the water! The other children enjoyed themselves very much.

We have other thank yous too: Devon Valley Farm Association who have donated 10 Plastic Scooters to the children. They kids love them! And some German Visitors have donated paint so we can give our sickroom and library a much needed facelift. Graceland staff and children appreciate it vey much.

Leon, our caretaker, and Zoey, a volunteer, have given our storeroom a spring clean and been through all the things that we don’t use any more. We were able to send some of the things through to the other Thembalitsha projects in Grabouw. It was nice to be able to bless them.

February News

Happy New Year to you all! We have been back from holiday for a few weeks now are getting back into the swing of school life once more. It is very hectic. We now have 40 children with a lot of new starters this year. They all seem to be enjoying themselves so far and only two of them cried on their first day (which isn’t bad going!)

We’ve already had a group of people come to visit from America and we are looking forward to going on a trip to Cape Town aquarium next month which has been generously arranged by a student from Every Nation Church.

We don’t have much more news for now but please keep praying for us and our project!