It’s Time to Visit Our Limpopo Friends!

One of us is heading back to South Africa in a matter of days! Jo and friend will be leaving from New York on Friday bound for the Limpopo Province of South Africa.

Hard to believe that in less than a week she will be hugging our South African friends and checking on all of the HFL projects you have been supporting over the years.  She will meet with African HFL supporters and visit the schools and projects in which we are vested and be on the lookout for the best shots for our photograph notecards easily found on our website.

We will be sure to share her experiences and discoveries upon her return.

Kha Vha Sale, Jo and Ira!
 

 

Happy Holidays!

Wishing you all a world of Peace and Beauty.

Thank you for your gifts of inspiration and cheer, thoughtfulness and concern and of course, for your generous financial contributions sent on behalf of Hope for Limpopo throughout 2013.

We wish all of our HFL Friends a safe and joyful holiday season!

Inspired Gift Giving!

Choose 'Inspiration' for a gift this holiday season or for any gift-giving occasion.  Please consider giving a donation to support Hope for Limpopo, a nonprofit organization committed to creating opportunities for the impoverished women, children and families in the Limpopo Province of South Africa.  We will be happy to send a card to your recipient with the acknowledgement that they have been 'gifted' by you with a charitable donaton. 

Check out our website and 'like' us on Facebook.  Give a gift and make a difference!

Thank you!

Help Mandela’s Legacy to Live On

Mandela is best known as a ‘freedom fighter’, a champion and an icon of justice, peace, and reconciliation. We, at Hope for Limpopo, also remember him as a champion of human rights, a strong supporter of the fight against AIDS as well as a defender of children and promoter of quality education for the children of South Africa. These are our goal as well.

Hope for Limpopo shares his fervent desire to allow the families in South Africa an opportunity to raise themselves up from oppression, poverty and illness through education, knowledge and self-sustaining opportunities.

Please become an active part of Hope for Limpopo by simply ‘LIKING’ us on face book. We cannot spread the word without your support.

"But I should like to be remembered as an ordinary South African who together with others has made his humble contribution."- Nelson Mandela

‘Madiba’, You Will Be Missed!

In memorializing Nelson Mandela, South African President Jacob Zuma urges all South Africans to 'realize the anti-apartheid leader's 'vision of a society in which none is exploited, oppressed or dispossessed by another.'

Nelson Mandela's passing gives HFL the impetus to redouble our efforts to encourage unity, freedom, improved human rights and enhanced education for all of South Africa.

Join us in our commitment to making a difference in South Africa.

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world - Nelson Mandela

Hope for Limpopo Shop For Charity, Donations, Fundraising, Online - iGive

Each person who joins and makes at least one purchase between October 18, 2013 and November 12, 2013 earns Hope for Limpopo an extra $5. That's in addition to the normal donation amount. It's a great time to help, simply by shopping. Just click the link below to get started.

Hope for Limpopo Shop For Charity, Donations, Fundraising, Online - iGive

VMS Director Sue-Anne named one of 'South Africa's Extraordinary Women of 2013!'

Great News for our own Sue-Anne Cook, Director of Vhutshilo Mountain School who has been named one of 'South Africa's Extraordinary Women of 2013!' The Mail and Guardian, the largest on-line and print newspaper in South Africa recently published the 2013 Book of South African Women, celebrating women across diverse fields doing remarkable things.

The attached video highlights a few of these extraordinary women. Short on time? Go directly to minute 2:42 to view what they are saying about VMS Director Sue-Anne.

We are so happy and excited for our dear friend!

Goat Project Continued...

Through ‘trial and error’ we soon learned more about goat farming than we wished to know:

·        Get that fence up around your vegetable garden or the goats will make short work of those valuable vegetables.

·        Keep the goats penned and away from the bushes surrounding your school!

·        Goat’s milk does NOT have to be pasteurized but cleanliness when milking is paramount!

·        Milk must be sieved in order to catch stray dirt, hair  etc which could be catastrophic to HIV+ women .

·        Stud goats cannot service their own Kids so must be sold and new ones purchased.

·        Rams can be nasty! Our ‘Bella’ wouldn’t ‘kid’ and had to be sold.

·        Drought forced VMS to purchase grass/lucerne and pellets for winter feed.

·        Effort to rent the land in front of the school for 2 paddocks needed for grass growing has once again been stymied. The chief (who owns the land) has died and the new chief has once again lost the VMS ‘request’ paperwork. ARGH!

·        Keep the goats off of the newly cemented school addition floors.

·        Our beloved, curious young kid ate a plastic bag…the results were not good.

·        Once the children have named a new Kid, properly prepare them for the day when the goat must leave or tears will abound!

BUT…the good news far outweighs the bad and we happily report:

·        Goat’s milk is far more nutritious than cow’s milk.

·        Daily, VMS children enjoy fresh goat’s milk with their “morning porridge”.

·        Owning a goat means that an HIV+ mother no longer has to purchase expensive tinned milk for her baby.

·        The children LOVE the goats and rush to greet them upon the children’s arrival at school. They are allowed to play with the goats for a short time each day when the goats are let out of their pens.

·        Currently VMS has 9 female ewes: 7 Kids and 2 grown.

·        When a female becomes pregnant she is gifted to a needy family (usually a HIV+ Caregiver) to help feed and sustain the family. In return, the first female baby goat must be given to another needy family. The male is returned to VMS for stud purposes.

·        Susie has plans to visit a project in Sibasa to learn the art of cheese making.

·        During the second week of September VMS will be hosting a goat-farming workshop for new goat owners.

All of this is possible because of caring, concerned individuals like Fernando and yourselves. Please contact us if you’d like to play a critical role in helping to sustain this project. We are in desperate need of a RAM and for R1532 ($150 USD) we’ll gladly name him after YOU!
 

 

Goat Project Continues to Grow

It all started back in 2011 when the seed for a ‘Goat Project’ was planted. HFL loved the idea but the work was to fall on Sue-Anne and the rest of the VMS staff who were already overburdened with projects. Everyone was hesitant. But what was so difficult? You buy 2 goats and give away the newborn Kid, right? WRONG! As we discovered in the past, with every well thought out project there is much work to be done!

Our HFL goal was and continues to be "to furnish needy families with goats which will provide them with much needed daily nutrition." A goat is an important source of protein and nutrition with the likelihood of providing several quarts of milk a day that would nourish hungry children.  Additionally, we hope that eventually industrious families will use the extra milk to make cheese and other milk products, to fertilize their gardens with goat manure and/or sell excess milk as a means to earning money. 

The program began abruptly when VMS friend Celia unexpectedly decided to move to Senegal and offered VMS her 5 milk goats for a significantly reduced price. In a panic but with the encouragement and assistance of HFL, VMS built a  "hookie" and purchased basic meds and equipment, fencing and enclosures, prepared for dipping and de-warming etc. HFL gladly stepped in to assist VMS with this immediate request for funds. 

Three of the goats went to Caregivers who eventually used the goat’s milk to nourish their HIV/AIDS affected children. Susie and Taki did site visits to check on the 3 goats at Caregiver’s homes. Grazing was poor during the winter months and Susie found herself dropping off bundles of avocado leaves twice a week. The VMS goats decimated the shrubs and plantings surrounding the school but they continued to bring joy to our preschoolers. Each morning the children would stand at the fence of their enclosure and question the goats, “How did you sleep?” “Are you well?” “What have you eaten?”

So the project was off to a perfect start, right? WRONG.  More on the pitfalls of angry rams and plastic bag-eating goats in our next blog!