Reflecting on 2018 we wish to thank everyone who has supported our foundation in our endeavour to bring help, hope and love to orphaned and vulnerable children in the Westlake Community. The partnerships formed have been incredibly valuable to ensure the continued success of our Foundation. We bring you some of the highlights of the year.

Movement

We started the year off well with guest professional contemporary dancer, Keanu Bergman and his dance group, teaching and inspiring the children who love dancing. Alison Moolman & her dance studio gave us a Ballroom Dancing demonstration with local pensioners invited as special guests.  We also focused on physical exercise and we had a few fun aerobic sessions with Andile.

Environmental Education

Water Conservation was a theme repeated through the year because of the lived reality of the severe drought. Guest speaker Szilvia from Imagine S.A. ran an informative session. Abby Dooley, a Miss Earth SA entrant, did a Water Conservation presentation for Environment Week.

Lions Tokai brought their “Bag A Burger” project to Westlake whereby 100 Westlake children filled 100 bags of rubbish… Lions provided an environmental talk and hamburgers to the kids.

Soetwater Environmental Education Center invited 25 of our vulnerable children on an educational day fully sponsored by the Lions Tokai. An opportunity to help enrich the children’s lives, getting them away from their environment and close to nature to learn, respect and enjoy it.

Education Enrichment programs

Our “Literacy and Numeracy Enrichment Program” was extended to 15 children once a week after school. The program has been identified as a major need and growth area where additional volunteers would help us extend the reach of the program and funding would enable us to pay something to the local facilitators and to supply snacks.

We always use the opportunity each year during Child protection month to inform and remind these vulnerable children of their rights, self-esteem, self-respect and of others, and how God made each one of us unique and special.

Westlake Early Childhood Development Forum (ECD), an Orphan Care Foundation partner, assisted with coordinating and hosting a successful “Safety and Awareness” morning with speakers from the Fire and Traffic departments educational officers.

International acclaimed educationalist & neuroscientist from the USA, Dr Caroline Leaf, presented at Westlake Primary School. Drawing from her years in clinical practice, Dr Leaf gave us the practical steps that can truly transform our lives: spirit, soul, and body. She donated training manuals & videos to help our educators and will return on her next visit to do more training with our educators. For more information please see https://drleaf.com/

Henry, our “teacher” from the UK, taught a session on types of leadership, celebrated Mandela’s 100th Birthday and explained new concepts like “legacy” and “centenary”, with a Madiba Jive competition just for fun! He also had some sessions teaching the kids about the Solar System and with the lunar eclipse on the 27th of July, he helped prepare them to observe phenomena on the evening.

Visitors

We welcomed the special visits from our loyal sponsors; Maria, Alios, Julia and Peter from Germany, Liesl and Ash with their twin baby boys from Australia, and also Anja and Sasha from Switzerland. We appreciate their continuous love, encouragement and support.

Matrics of the Portland High School, Mitchells Plain, bonded with the kids and brought enough soup to feed over 100 children with the leftovers distributed to other vulnerable kids in the Westlake community. The day was so well enjoyed that the matrics returned before their final exams and brought enough pasta to feed over 100 children.

Wynberg Boys High School Rugby coach and teacher, Mr Joel Erasmus, brought three top rugby-playing students to present their life stories as inspirations to the kids at Kids Club. All were impressed with the very diverse inspirational testimonials of Inga Halu, Luthando Woji, and Mika Schubert and how they reached their level of achievements against some immense challenges.

Mr Mark Rousseau, the Chairperson of(CAFDA) Cape Flats Development Association and a member of Lions Tokai, chose to celebrate his 50th birthday at a Kids Club by bringing treats. He presented a motivating testimony of how he’d grown up in a similar area.

CBN Africa/ SUPERBOOK has been introduced to Orphan Care Foundation, offering high quality animated bible stories with facilitation and activity guidelines. The Kids Club has proven to be a great vehicle to reach the children and a build up to a big launch at the end of November with the Nativity story. This should lead to a valuable partnership in the future.

Some local Westlake young volunteers were interviewed and published in the “Youth on the Move” series of articles in the Constantia Bulletin.

Christelle, a qualified electrician used to work all over Cape Town. But all this changed four years ago when she and her boyfriend were visiting a friend in Capricorn Park.

They were sitting in the lounge chatting when shots were fired. Christelle said she was tucked into a safe corner of the room and feeling safe until she saw her boyfriend had been hit. As she went over to help him, she was shot.

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Creativity

Twenty kids were invited to watch the “Python and the Wunube Tree” performance, an interactive African tale performed by the Jungle Theatre at the Masque Theatre in Muizenberg. They had the opportunity to be creative and make new friends with other kids from the community whilst painting a mural at the Jungle Theatre offices. There are exciting plans for future collaboration.

Lions Tokai invited Westlake Primary School Grades 5,6 & 7s to enter the International Peace Poster Contest again and OCF helped facilitate the entrants using space in the school library as there is no art class. The interest had grown from 3 entrants in 2017 to 18 in 2018.  Westlake Primary’s 1st place, Sainet Chirwa, went on to compete in the regional competition. He also received one of only 10 Honourable Mention awards –  a great achievement! Lions Tokai and OCF were invited to present the award at the Grade 7 prizegiving. There is great anticipation to partner up again next year and there are prizes to be won by each entrant and the school.

Lucy G Craft Cafe in Tokai invited 15 children to a fully sponsored fun afternoon of painting their own pencil bags while enjoying snacks and special cupcakes. The café is a project of The Lucy G Foundation and offers employment to people with disabilities.

The last Kids Club of the year, the annual Christmas party, was on 7th December with entertainers, a magician, and 400 party packs.  Food and yummy ice lollies were thoroughly enjoyed by all. Just under 400 children and volunteers attended. The children made all the decorations from newspapers as recycling was the focus of the term.

We wish you all a peaceful and prosperous 2019!

Current Fundraising Drives

 

Your donations help fund our projects to provide help to orphaned and vulnerable children in need and to maintain the weekly Kids Club program which provides a platform to educate and provide a meal to the children of the community.

Donations are critical to the continued operations of our foundation.

With your help, we can support more children better

By clicking the “Donate Now” button below you will be redirected to the PayFast payment gateway to make a safe and secure once off or recurring payment.

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Be a Volunteer

The love, kindness and encouragement you have to share with these delightful children, has such an immense impact on their young lives. YOU are as important as they are, and together we can make a difference!

We need your time and talents. If you can read a story and give a hug or work as a volunteer on our literacy and homework groups or help with extramural activities.

Westlake Community is easily accessible from all around Cape Town.  Please come and join us and embrace our growing family.

We are in need of stationery, uniform and shoe to help our primary school children (ages 6-14) in the new year.
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We need a Fridge!

With our weekly donations of “Sell By Date” produce from Woolworths Constantia, we are in need of a functioning standard size fridge. If you can help please call Martin to discuss.

Ongoing Programs

Kids Club

Every Friday afternoon over 300 children ranging in age between 4 and 9 years old from the Westlake informal settlement queue excitedly at the community hall to go to Kids Club.
They do arts and crafts, learn skills , have fun and are fed in a safe and encouraging  environment.

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Literacy Enrichment program

Thursday afternoons for 2 hours after school, paired reading, phonics and general assistance for grades 1 to 5 . Main Tutors – a retired teacher & matriculated local student and visits from high school students. This last term a volunteer, trained teacher has been observing and may assist developing the program in the new year.

Numeracy Enrichment program

Every alternate weeks incorporating numeracy games on a Thursday afternoons for 2 hours after school, paired reading, phonics and general assistance for grades 1 to 5 . Main Tutors – a retired teacher & matriculated local student and visits from high school students. This last term a volunteer, trained teacher has been observing and may assist developing the program in the new year.

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Homework Tutoring program

Once a week for 2 hours for 2 foreign nationals in senior primary by Meg a Grade 11 student from Reddam school, this is a pilot project this past term. Volunteers and a suitable space will be required to expand the program.

Our Volunteers

Student Volunteers

We are very grateful for the joyous commitment of the large Interact group coming to Kids Club on Fridays and have had the pleasure of meeting learners doing community service from:

*Reddam Constantia

*Steenberg High School

*Heathfield High School

*False Bay College

Regular Volunteers

Without the hard work and commitment from our regular volunteers we would not be able to touch so many lives, thank you!

Our Partners

Thank you to all our sponsor, without you we would not be able to do what we do!