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New uniforms for our carers.
David and Chris Taylor of Duchess Clothing Factory, recently donated 16 sets of uniforms to our nursing sister, Alice, and our home based carers. They all look so smart now with their new uniforms, which are beautifully tailored to fit everyone perfectly, and proudly displaying our logo. We wish to sincerely express our most grateful thanks to Duchess for this incredible donaton. Our carers are thrilled to bits with their uniforms. We really appreciate the generosity of the Taylors and Duchess.
Spring Fashion Show!
On Friday 25 September, Beatrice Matthews, who is one our home based care team and facilitates the chronic disease support groups for people with conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, organised a wonderful Spring Fashion Show for the Westlake members. As it was school holidays, children from the village came down to the hall to join in the fun, and children from Little Squirrels, a creche in the village, entertained the packed hall with dances and songs. 3 talented hip hop dancers from Westlake performed the moon walk on the stage, and the women modelled their various outfits to raptuous applause! However, Michael Jackson stole the show and just about brought the house down! Mrs and Miss Spring Queens and their Princesses were all given prizes by the judges. Eleanor Lawrence, our Emmanuel Educare pre-school principal, donated masses of food, rolls, veggies, etc, which everyone enjoyed afterwards. Beatrice is to be commended on organising a really fantastic event for the people of Westlake. It was an unforgettable day!
Emmanuel Educare Art classes!
Natanya Mulholland regularly gives voluntary art classes to the Grade R children at Emmanuel Educare. These are very popular, as you can see from all the smiling faces!
Our AGM Celebration/Blessing of the new building!
On Saturday 1 August, we held a special AGM Celebration and Blessing of our new building. What a wonderful occasion!
The hall was packed – many of our funders, sponsors, churches, and of course the community all came to celebrate with us! Eleanor, our pre-school Principal, along with friends from her church, did some spectacular flower arrangements and our newly painted hall looked beautiful. She also managed to prepare 600 plates of finger food and cakes – with the help of the kitchen and other members of staff and volunteers, and we are so grateful to Pick ‘n Pay for donating the food.
The children performed 3 dances in between the speeches and the noise of the enthusiastic audience nearly brought the ceiling down. Their rendition of the national anthem was unforgettable! The ABET group sang an item, and then the grand finale was the handing over of a magnificent banner, beautifully made by Joyce Pike and Jenny Fisher of St Martin’s Church, with a procession followed by the home based carers singing!
“God with us” is embroidered on the banner, and He is with us! We give Him all the glory for a truly amazing celebration!
Here are the photos…..
VIP Visitors to Westlake!
We were privileged to have some VIP’s visiting us recently!
On 10 June, John Forbes and Jodi Felty of Willow Creek Community Church USA/Global Connections came and had a look around our centre, and Jodi was taken on a tour of the village.
Pastor Lucinda Doolley of Hillsong Church, Cape Town also visited us on 11 June, and we were delighted to take her and her team around to see some of our orphans and vulnerable children.
As you will notice from our home page, we have formed a partnership with Willow Creek in the USA, as well as Martin Oosthuizen of the Orphan Care Foundation, who is affiliated to Hillsong.
Life Skills Program
A group of volunteers from Tokai Community Church has been running a fantastic life skills program for young girls living in Westlake, once a week every Tuesday afternoon in the hall. The girls enjoy the activities and the number of those attending has grown from 15 to over 30! A big thank you to the volunteers who give up their time to come week after week and teach very valuable life skills to these young girls.
HIV Counselling Course
Phillippi Trust came to Westlake and ran a one-week HIV Counselling Course from 18-22 May 09.
13 members of our staff and 6 from other NGO’s attended this excellent course. Everyone found it extremely informative and it has enabled them to do pre and post-test counselling in the future. They will receive their certificates in November, as soon as their final assignments have been completed.
Blankets from Christ Church Constantia!
We were thrilled to receive 110 blankets from Christ Church Constantia. We
distributed them to children and sick people in the village, as well as the
elderly folk who are members of the chronic disease support groups. As you
can see, they were delighted with their new blankets, which will keep them
warm this winter!
ABET Book Launch!
We were very proud of our ABET (Adult Basic Education and Training) class when they launched a book of their stories on 29 April. Bishop Eric Pike from St Martin’s Church was the guest speaker and they were delighted when he spoke in fluent isiXhosa.
It was a wonderful celebration, especially as some of the folk are now able to read and write for the first time in their life! The ages in this group are between 23 and 72 years!
Jump Maths starts again!
A group of 40 volunteers, under the leadership of Dorothy Raine, a retired school teacher, come once a week to Westlake to teach extra maths to a group of 9-12yr olds. The program is called Jump Maths and the children are given one on one tuition. Girls from Springfield Convent, a private school in Cape Town, also give up their spare time to assist . Everyone enjoys the afternoon and, we believe, we have some budding mathematicians in our midst!
