This visit was arranged through our Chairperson, Hannarie Wenhold,  who is linked to Waterfront Rotary. She approached Dr Mohammed about the situation that some of our children had problems with their teeth and were in real need of being seen to by a dentist.

Dr Mohammed and his team were very eager and willing to assist in order to help the children and has indicated that he will try to get more dentists involved in doing pro bono work with our children. We are sincerely grateful for Dr Mohammed and his team’s donation of their time and skills to help our children, and I’m sure the children are too – although at the time maybe not so!

Our outing to the Bergrivier Resort

Every year in aid of National Children’s Day we arrange an ‘Adopt-a-child‘ Day outing (read our previous article ‘Adopt-a-Child Day Outing‘).

This a day where host parents, volunteers and friends of the organisation can ‘adopt’ a child for this day and care for them as if the child were their own. This is a special day for the child as each of them feel special: they have their own ‘parent’ or own family that spends time with them and cares for them.

The parents or families that participate also benefit as they get to give something really meaningful to the child – a memory of being loved and being happy and having fun. Many find that through this process they grow in their compassion and wisdom, and that they can give something back to a community needing assistance.

We have been doing this for the last 9 years and have gone to various different places including Avalon Springs in Montague, Wiesenhof Wildpark in Stellenbosch, Ou skip Resort in Melkbosstrand, the Farmyard in Klapmuts, Okkie Jooste Cultural Centre and the Berg River Resort.

Spending time in the pool

Besides the benefit to the children and volunteers involved, it also give us as staff of the home the opportunity to observe the children in a different setup. We are always present on these outings and although we recommend that the adults should be loving towards the children, naturally we exercise caution in setting boundaries.

Some comments from the volunteers:

“We were awarded the opportunity to indulge in quality, bonding time with the children in a setting other than the home. Despite the scorching hot weather, the children were happy and seemed to flourish from the love and care they received.” – Independent Congregational Church, Kensington

“We are blessed to have had the opportunity to spend time with the children. They are disciplined, friendly and adorable. Their faces remain in our memories as our growing love for them is engraved in our hearts” – Danusha Thomas

Happiness is...

“Many thanks for the opportunity to be part of the outing on Saturday, we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and would love to be part of this (and any other similar initiatives) you run.” – Liesl Matthews

“Dankie ek het die dag baie geniet en was nogal moeg teen Saterdagaand.” – Maryka Vermaak (Waterfront Rotarian)

On the picnic blanket

“The little girl assigned to me was ‘Miss C’– a really delightful little girl. Though she started out the day rather quietly, she became more and more engaged in all the activities and appeared to have the time of her life! What really impressed me was how responsive and well-behaved she was – curious about everything. Though she didn’t talk a great deal she was very active, especially in the pool where she stayed till she was cold – emerging just to be wrapped up warmly and sit quietly in my lap till she was ready to jump into the pool again! She was so tired by the end of the day that she fell asleep on the way home and was completely silent during her bath and being dressed for bed! It was really hard to say goodbye and walk away at the end of the day. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to engage with ‘Miss C’ for that day!” – Margie Barrie – Watefront Rotarian

“Saturday was such a fantastic day. I felt so immensely privileged to be there with the children. To see the happiness of their faces was priceless” – M.Sloggett

The pool was very popular

Watch me...

Carols by Candlelight

We are having a Carols by Candlelight evening early December, to which we encourage you to come and to invite your family, colleagues and friends.

You can print out our invitation to hand out to them, which contains all the information we list here below.

Date: Saturday 3 December

Time: 18h00 – 21h00

Venue: Christine Revell Children’s Home, Huntley Street, Athlone

The evening is arranged to celebrate Christmas and to make it something special for the kids, so we would appreciate it if you could bring a gift for a child, and maybe some of the daily needs items from the list as well if possible (but don’t wrap these in with the Christmas present please).

Gift

The gift you bring should be marked whether it is for a boy or girl and the age of the child it is appropriate for. Our children range from small newborn babies to 6 year olds, so please make sure to bring something suitable to this age range. The gifts will not be opened on the evening, but will be kept until Christmas morning to make it a special day for them.

Bring

A picnic basket with some goodies to eat and drink, a blanket and/or folding chairs – whatever makes you comfortable. And don’t forget the candles! A good idea is cut the top off a 2L cooldrink bottle, fill the bottom with sand and stick the candle in this – it will protect the flame from the wind (if it decides to blow on the day).

Donate

With regards to our daily needs, we would appreciate it if you could donate items from the list below besides the Christmas present:

• Bath Soaps/ Tooth Pastes
• Nail clippers/ scissors
• Washing  Powder
• Toilet Paper
• Hair Accessories & Ribbons
• Baby powders/ lotions
• Nappy pins/ snappy fasteners

What would also be great is some Christmas Clothing for the children to wear on Christmas day.

If you need any further information or some explanations or suggestions maybe for presents, please contact Alicia at the Home’s office by phone on  (021) 697 1748/ 083-653 0344 or by email.

Department of Social Development visit

Departmental officials were Mr Woldson, Ms Somtsewu and Ms Stali from Department of Social Development.

Finding:

The oversight visit was a success!

Christine Revell Children’s Home is very well managed and facilitated. According to the standing committee it is a best practice.

Bergrivier Outing 2009

Every year we have an ‘ADOPT-A-CHILD’ day outing where each one of our children is ‘adopted’ by either a family or adult volunteer for that entire day.

The ‘adopted‘ child is under your care and supervision for the whole day and you are responsible to arrange what ‘your‘ child needs for the day:  food, drinks and snacks and for the little ones, disposable nappies. And don’t forget the sun-tan lotion!

This year, on the 19th November, we are going to the Bergriver Resort. We travel by bus, leaving the home in the morning at 08h00 and returning in the afternoon (we leave the resort at 16h00). If you wish, you can also go in your own vehicle and then only pay for your vehicle and your entry cost to the resort.

For more details, please contact Alicia, Anneline or Carmelita at the office.

Bergrivier Outing 2009

We therefore request that when you visit Christine Revell Children’s Home, that you refrain from photographing any of the children (including video recordings). We appreciate your co-operation in this regard – thank you!

Please read our article for more information on Visiting our Home.

Visiting a home such as ours will bring more awareness of the plight of these children and encourage us to a greater sense of gratitude for our blessings. It also encourages our staff and children, and hopefully our visitors will leave with a desire to spread awareness of the home to their friends, family and colleagues.

If you are unable to visit our home you could get involved in other ways – read more about how you can Help Us.

If you are able to visit and would like to bring something for the children, may we ask you to please not bring unhealthy sweets and drinks but to select items from the list below. The children do get opportunities to eat chocolates and sweets, but we need to monitor what they eat and when, so we prefer it if our visitors rather bring items from our list.  We appreciate your assistance in this regard – thanks!

Please choose healthy snacks

• Fruit
• Vitasnack
• Marie biscuits
• Provita biscuits (Crunchyvites)
• Fresh juices or Ceres/ Halls mixes
• Yoghurts/Yoghurt drinks
• Fruit rolls, Raisins & Dried Fruits (visit SAD for ideas!)
• Cheese straws
• Glucose lollipops
• Popcorn

NB: NO PEANUTS PLEASE (as these end up in their noses and ears most of the time!)

Visiting Hours & Rules

Morning: 9h00 – 11h00

Afternoon: 14h15 – 15h45

Groups: Please preschedule the visit. Please plan activities with the children when visiting in order to interact with them.

Please arrange telephonically for a 10-15 min tour through the building.

NB: Photographing/video recording our children is unfortunately not allowed.

Babies Cots before renovation

Thanks to our generous and caring sponsors Acceleration Media, Mazor Steel and Stigting tot Steun Chritine Revell Children’s Home (from the Netherlands) through Waterfront Rotary we managed to get all the expenses covered for the children to have virtually brand new cots.

Not only were the cots fully repaired, galvanised and dipped in a non-toxic coating, but the wheels and brakes were also replaced.

We are very grateful to our sponsors for enabling us to give our babies and toddlers these snazzy looking cots!

If you would like to be involved by donating or volunteering, please contact us.

Out cots looking brand new after renovation

It is such a pleasure to be able to treat our children to outings and we greatly appreciate sponsors and donors who make this possible. The environments many of our children come from means they don’t often get treated to special outings, so it means a lot to them.

If you would like to become involved in sponsorships or volunteer work, please Contact Us.

Why don’t you get a group together? If you have 10 or more people in a group you can reserve a table, so think about who you can invite to come along.

We need and welcome the support of the community: former host parents and volunteers, current volunteers, old school friends, older children that were at Christine Revell when they were younger (but are now old enough to join our dance!), staff, supporters, donors and all your friends and family!

Elbees, the DJ,  has a wide selection of music and the patrons always enjoy his interaction with them. So come along an support a worthy cause and enjoy yourself at the same time!

Contact us for your tickets.

Venue: Athlone Civic Centre

Date: Friday, 11th November 2011

Time: 19h30 for 20h00

Ticket Price: R 65 p/p

Bring own XYZ!

Previous Snack Dances