Beyond Christmas toys...

It has been overwhelming to see the generosity that people are showing towards the aftercare Christmas project.

Despite having reached our target donations are still coming in.  A big thank from all at GAPA!

This has afforded us the opportunity to dream beyond Christmas and start considering the new year as children will be making their way back to school. 

This been considered we will use the donated money for the following:

• school supplies for the children as they return to their new classrooms (I remember the joy of starting a new year with new stationery)
• equipping our aftercare classroom with much needed art and creativity equipment. Paper, pencils, paint, art aprons etc.

We really appreciate the opportunity your donations are giving us to plan our services for 2009.

Donations can be paid to the GAPA bank account: 

Please reference as Aftercare

Cheque Account (G.A.P.A.)
  No 4055545538
  Town Centre Branch
  Mitchells Plain 7785
  Cape Town
  South Africa
  Branch code is 632005

Donations to GAPA are tax deductible

Christmas gifts so far...

Thank you so much for these generous gifts:

Charmaine Sparks and the ladies in her church (we hope to meet you soon) for the 20 dolls

The Laser Group (Feroza for organising) for 25 soccer balls (Thank you Charmaine and your husband for arranging this!)

Joan Kleynhans for her generous contribution of R500

Henk Kleynhans for his generous contribution of R200

Fionna and Toby for  their generous contribution of R500

Ian and Annamarie Barry for their generous contribution of R500

Simone Jacobs for  beautiful teddy bears, jewelry and make-up

Andrew Thompson for generous donation of $50 Australian dollars

Alan Taylor for generous donation of $100 Australian dollars

We've made it!! Thank you so much to everyone for making it happen! We can now go do shopping to make dreams come true!

Opportunity to get involved in our Christmas party!

Grandmothers Against Poverty and Aids

J-415 Qabaka Rd www.gapa.org.za
Khayelitsha 7784 www.gapa.org.za/blog/index.htm
Cape Town altheab@gmail.com
Tel/fax 021 3643138 NPO no. 019-642
C: 074 198 2500
___________________________________________________________________
27 October 2008

REQUEST OF SPONSORSHIPS OF OUR AFTERCARE CHRISTMAS PARTY

GAPA is a Non-Profit organisation in Khayelitsha. We are a voluntary organisation that implements programmes to support grandmothers affected by HIV/AIDS in urban and rural communities to continue with their lives and to cope better as providers of care and support for their infected children.

In January 2007 GAPA started its Aftercare Service for 50 vulnerable children who attend the local primary school. The headmaster and teachers identified children who went home after school to empty homes, lived in shacks or were sickly. Currently, there are 100 children who attend the aftercare. The ages of the children range from 6yrs to 16yrs of age. Five grandmothers coordinate the enrichment programme for the children. They get help from other grandmothers that are able to teach skills such as knitting and beadwork. Home work is supervised, the children are fed and a choir has been formed. The grandmothers teach English literacy, tell traditional stories and teach traditional songs. This year in August, I joined the programme bringing a focus on health promotion through occupation.

As the year comes to an end, we wish to create a Christmas party for the children to celebrate the year that has past and enhance their sense of belonging.
Last week the children created a wish list for Christmas, attached are some of the pictures. The whole process of being given the opportunity to dream and hope for something is an important component towards building the children’s ability to cope with the difficult circumstances they find themselves in.

This table indicates the toys they chose:

Boys
Age 6-16
No. wanting balls
28
No. wanting cars
11
Girls
Age 6-12
No. wanting dolls
43
Age 13-16
No. wanting make-up, clothes & photo albums
18

Total girls 61 Total boys 39 Total children 100


We would greatly appreciate any donation (either of the actual toys or financial) you are willing to make in this regard.
At a budget of approximately R45,00 a gift the total financial target is R4500.

GAPA Bank details:
No. 4055545538
ABSA Bank
Swift Code ABSA ZA JJ
Town Centre Branch,
Branch code: 632005
Mitchells Plain 7785
Cape Town
South Africa
Cheque Account
Reference: Aftercare Christmas Party
Please email me with the amount so that I know how much to withdraw: altheab@gmail.com

Please feel free to visit our blog site for more information on our day-to-day activities – www.gapa.org.za/blog/index.htm We’ll post all sponsors on our blog.

Thank you!

Kind regards


Althea Barry
Occupational Therapist
GAPA, Khayelitsha

" All we want for Christmas..."

Dress

Ball

Doll

Car "motor"

Friends

Animals wild and wonderful!

With the September holidays behind us this post is long overdue.

We had the wonderful priviledge of going on an outing with the 16 Grandmothers and 56 Children to the Tygerberg Zoo. We received a budget from the Stephen Lewis Foundation to have an annual outing for the aftercare, this is the highlight of the year and provides a much needed time for the children to discover more about the country they live in. The pictures speak for themselves but it is necessary to say that for many of the Grandmothers and children it was the first time to see animals such as lions, chimpanzees, wild dogs, cheetahs...even a cuddly looking brown bear.

The day ran wonderfully smoothly. We caught two hired Golden Arrow busses early in the morning and set off for our adventure about 4o km away. Grandmothers paired up and each took care of 10 children to make sure the children could ask all the questions they wanted. The zoo was a spralling maze of different enclosures for all sorts of wild africa (and other ) animals. After a morning of excitement we sat down to a nutrious meal packed by the grandmothers and used some of our energy on the jungle gyms. To end off a perfect day we set off to find the bears...peeking over a high wall 56 faces eargerly looked for the famous bear, who in his own time he slowly emerged from his sleep and filled us all with joy.

We appreciate the committment of all the grandmothers to making this day possible, to the GAPA staff for all the organising and to the funders for making this opportunity possible.

Mrs Nkone (new aftercare coordinator)

Mrs Skefile's grandson ready to go the zoo

In a line...'can we get there already?"

Inside!! First thing we see are springbok. The children and grandmothers were initially scared of the animals despite the enclosures

King of the jungle - lionesses lazily lying in the grass

This picture doesn't do justice to how big these tortoises were

Having fun trying to figure out what the chimpanzee was doing

White lion cubs - their paws were massive

Strange monkeys

Thank you and a beautiful smile from Bulela