Holidays again as we ramp up for the last term of 2017

We are having the most amazing time at the Caledonia Rose Centre, even though it is holiday time.  We are feeding on average 290 children a day who still come to the centre to receive their daily meal.  There are a few who have gone away or who do not come each day but it is wonderful to see all these smiling faces even though it is not school time.  They have SUCH fun at the centre and love being there with each other and with their teachers, getting fed, being loved and having time to be children.

Tucking into our porridge at the CRC feeding container 

We are so thrilled to be able to offer our children clean drinking water now that we have had our borehole drilled thanks to Impact International.  We filled up our tank as soon as the borehole was pumping and held our breaths in anticipation.  We had to let our breath out as we watched the tank tumble and fall to the ground, splitting into pieces.  The stand was not strong enough and the water was too heavy for it.  We were devastated as our children and volunteers had waited so long to be able to flush the loos and drink from the tap.

 

Devastation as our tank fell to the ground in pieces 

However, thanks to Boost Africa, we were able to buy and install a new tank and it is with GREAT excitement that we can now flush the loos, drink clean water and offer water to those around us who don't have access to it.

 

Our smart new tank and stand being installed

And clean water pouring out of the borehole 

This water also allows our wonderful caretaker, Lameck, to work on our nutrition garden which is taking off.  We have been kindly donated some seeds and Lameck has been hard at work in the garden, digging and planting and watering, with all his hard work paying off as our bright green, delicious veggies start peaking their heads out of the earth and into the world.  Our children have had such fun watching this all happen as their teachers explain the process to them as the plants grow!!

 

Beautiful veggies to help supplement our feeding programme grown by Lameck and our very own ECD children that he teaches all about growing veggies 

Our skills development participants have a fantastic opportunity to show off their wares and we have a chance to tell others a bit more about The Foundations Project and all that we are doing.  We have been invited to take part in the Kites for Peace exhibition at Cleveland Dam on 17 September.  If you have a moment, it would be great for us to see you there.  Come and support TFP and Zimbabwe Cares, a wonderful organisation that brings us all together and supports us in the work that we do.  There are lots of fun activities to take part in and TFP looks forward to showcasing ourselves to all those out there!

 

Come and support the Kites for Peace event this Sunday at Haka Game Park 

2017 is racing by but we continue to operate and to be grateful!

We are nearly half way through 2017 and we just cannot believe where
the time has gone!  Last time we updated you, the school year had just
begun and we had 80 children coming to the centre to learn and play
and to generally just be children.  The sound that emanates from our
little patch of land in Caledonia always fills me with joy as I close
my eyes and think about all these little souls having the freedom to
grow and develop and to know that they are safe.

The last round of shoe distribution this year saw these little people all with a pair of new shoes!! 

We love to hear the laughter and joy that emanates from our site as children run and climb and play 

There are so many children in Caledonia and we have noticed that there
are more and more queuing up at the gate with the hope of being let
in.  Our capacity has sadly reached its limit at school but we have
been able to increase the number of children that we feed to 300
children per day.  This is 100 children more than we were feeding this
time last year and there are many, many more who we would love to be
able to welcome to our table.  One of our aspirations is to be able to
expand the feeding programme, possibly running it from various venues
throughout Caledonia, allowing children right through the area to
receive at least one meal per day.  We hope to be able to find
premises for this over the next few months and will keep you updated!

We love to come to the Caledonia Rose table to share a meal with our friends.  Sometimes we are very hungry when we get here and our food helps us to grow and concentrate at school 

Thank you so much to Nikki and Jason de Wet for the delicious biscuits and maheu you sent us - they were a big treat for us! 

In the meantime, we aim to offer the best service that we can to the
children that we look after.  One of our teachers has, out of her own
initiative and pocket, been taking part in training during the
holidays.   She has brought her newly acquired skills back to the
classroom and to the other teachers and we are loving watching as the
children respond to her and to all that she has to offer them.  It is
so encouraging to see that our teachers are also growing and
developing, as well as the little ones they serve.  Well done Felistas
– we are so proud of you and so pleased to have you on our team!

Felistas when she was a parent at our first graduation.  Now she is a wonderful member of our team who adds so much to our centre and who is always smiling and willing to go the extra mile 

Our biggest sadness this year has been following up on those children
that have left our care to go into Grade 1 at primary schools in the
area.  The reports that come back after home visits to our graduates
is that many of them are not going to school, are going to school
periodically or are attending shift schools where they go to school
for 2 hours a day and then are replaced with the next group of
students.  The climate in Zimbabwe sees many of the parents of our
graduates out of work and this perpetuates the cycle of a poor
education leading to a further life of poverty for the next
generation.  The Foundations Project is struggling to ensure that we
keep our current programmes going but we would love to, as mentioned
before, expand our work to ensure that we can offer more to the
children as they leave our care and go out into the big wide world.


We do, however, recognise the benefit that our children are receiving
and we would once again like to thank all of those who have been
involved and have assisted us in continuing our work.  The need may be
great and we may not be filling it completely but we are making a
difference to those that we can.  We are so thrilled that we can do
this and we are so very grateful to all of you for allowing this to be
possible!!! Here’s to a wonderful rest of 2017 and I look forward to
updating you soon as we watch our children build the foundations for
their futures.

Thank you for the chance that you have given us to bring our wonderful smiles into the world and to learn and grow with our friends! 

Happy 2017 to all of you from The Foundations Project!!!

As 40 children graduated from the Caledonia Rose Preschool at the end of 2016 and we welcome a further 40 into the programme in 2017, it has been an amazing time to look back at the years since we started The Foundations Project and see how far we have come.  It has been the most fantastic experience watching our site transform from an overgrown piece of land to an oasis of activity and laughter and we have many people to thank for that.  

From an empty site learning on a carpet in the beating sun.....

  

...to a fun, bright place to play and learn 

At the end of last year, all 80 ECD children had a graduation and Christmas party and we had a chance to say goodbye to those that were leaving.  Each child received a pair of shoes (school shoes for those going into Grade One and tackies for those joining us at the Caledonia Rose Centre this year) as have nearly all of the children on the feeding programme with less than 15 children to go!  Thank you so much to all of you who donated a pair of shoes or money towards shoes.   The excitement was palpable at the Christmas party and everyone went home so happy and smart!!!! 

Philani Nyatsanza helped us to hand out certificates to all our graduates

And they all got a pair of shoes to wear to Grade One in 2017 

The rest of us got a great pair of tackies! 

We are thrilled that this year, we will be able to bring some greenery to our little oasis in Caledonia thanks to Impact International and Alastair Geddes from the States and to the Nomads Golf Club in Zimbabwe who have donated all the funds towards the drilling of a borehole and the installation of a solar pump on site.  The drilling took place at the end of 2016 where we hit water at 23 metres and the installation of the pump has been finalised over the last few weeks.  This has allowed our children and our site to quench their thirsts and will allow us to grow a wonderful nutrition garden and to be able to use our flush toilets properly for the first time since they were constructed.  We look forward to seeing our fruit trees flourish and our grass grow so that children can run and play and enjoy the shade and safety of their centre. 

Drilling for water on the Caledonia Rose Site

That night we hit water at 23 metres!!!

Fresh clean water to drink and water our fruit and veggies 

.....and wash our hands!!!!!

And now we can flush our loos....

By the end of 2016, we had finished all our home visits to finalise the introduction of 50 new children onto the feeding programme at the Caledonia Rose Centre.  We are now feeding 250 children every day during the term and approximately 170 during the holidays.  We are thrilled that we are able to continue the feeding programme during the holidays where others close when children are no longer coming to school.  This allows our children the security in knowing that they will definitely get at least one meal per day.

We use to get a treat every now and again and we had to eat it off our laps. 

Now we get a tasty meal every day that we eat with our friends at our feeding centre 

As it has been holidays, the children have been enjoying some time with their friends at home and some of them have travelled.  This means that we have not been able to see a great deal of them every day.  Our wonderful nurse, Charity, has a big job on her hands this term to make sure that each child is healthy and well and to help us deal with any ailments that may be troubling any of them.  She is also doing the most fantastic job teaching our parents how to look after the children including teaching them about basic hygiene and nutrition, to name a few topics.  The health programme is our latest addition at the Caledonia Rose Centre and we are excited about the prospect of rolling this and our other programmes out a bit further afield as we move into the expansion phase of our little organization! (Please see https://www.givengain.com/c/foundationsproject/ for our GivenGain campaign to raise money for our health programme). 

Charity checking up on our children at her monthly visit 

Along with the idea of expanding our programmes in Caledonia, we are also looking forward to a year of consolidation.  Our newly formed board met for the first time in November 2016 to talk about the future of the organization and how we progress.  I am so pleased to welcome Philani Nyatsanza, Holly Hudson, Fanuel Nyamayaro, Christine Kahari, Maxwell Rafomoyo, Spiwe Chakawa and Darryn Brider onto the TFP board and am greatly excited by this fantastic team that we have brought together to help us reach the goals that we have set out for the work of TFP.  Thank you to all of you for your enthusiasm and your passion for the children and the foundations we hope to provide them with. 

As we start 2017 off with a bang, it is with thanks, as always, to a number of people that we are able to continue with the work that we do in Caledonia.  It has been so wonderful to start the year knowing that we can feed our children, provide them with teachers to care for them, fresh water to drink and grow food with, a classroom to learn in and a place to play and be safe.  Thank you so much to those who have allowed us this privilege this year.  Without you, we would not be able to do what we do so thank you especially to Alastair Geddes and Impact International, Nomads Golf Club, Elvis and Marta Gonzalez, The Hand in Hand Foundation Worldwide, and David Ryan.  There are of course many others who make our work happen and we thank you all and are so incredibly grateful to be able to share our vision with you.   

Don’t forget to check out our new website at www.foundationsproject.org to see lots more photos and info on what has been happening over the last few years!  

Expansion of the Caledonia Rose Centre - and getting TFP on track! 

We have focused much of our attention on getting the administration of TFP organized this year while we make sure that the services we provide are as close as possible to the standard that we desire.  One of the biggest steps we have made is the decision to build an office and a storeroom at The Caledonia Rose Centre.  Previously, we used the 40ft container classroom as our storeroom, meaning that our children lost almost half their classroom to donations that have not yet been distributed.  Martha has had to do all her work on the tables and benches that children sit on to eat.  But with thanks to The Hand in Hand Foundation Worldwide, we have built our office/storeroom right next to our skills development centre so now the children have their classroom back and Martha can carry out all her administrative work from site.

 

Martha stands outside her smart new office where she is setting up the reporting systems and operations of the Caledonia Rose Centre 

In our attempt to formalise TFP and to make us a more reputable and recognisable project, the founding trustees of TFP have voted in a governing board to help us guide and govern the progress of the organization.  We would like to welcome our new members onto our board and to thank them for their involvement so far and their agreement to join us in seeing the work we do expand and evolve for the better of our children.  We are also in the process of finalising an advisory board and look forward to welcoming its members soon too.  All board members will have a chance to visit the site and provide their comments and suggestions as they guide us forward and hopefully help us expand over the next few years.  

We are very excited to announce the launch of our website (www.foundationsproject.org) and with this development, we hope to reach out to many more people to tell them about what we are doing and how, if they wish, they can get involved.  It is always so wonderful to receive the encouragement we get from outsiders as sometimes we get so caught up in the work that we lose sight of all the fun that is happening on the ground!  With our website, we hope to be able to showcase everything that our teachers and caregivers are doing to give our children a hope for a better future.

It is, in fact, our teachers and Martha who make the Caledonia Rose Centre what it is.  It is always so exciting to receive a photo of a child celebrating his or her birthday with their friends and teachers, or children having fun on the jungle gym, or videos of our kiddies doing their sport and learning so much with Auntie Sarah.  The love and joy that the staff on the ground bring to our little school is overwhelming and they deserve so much praise for all that they do.  Thank you Martha and our teachers – we couldn’t do this without you.

Teachers dress up to give the children a fun day

Our original class when all we had were our teachers and Memory's backyard

Dorcas loves and cares for each child, even well into her 70s

Our skills development programme participants have been working so hard to develop a portfolio of products that they will be taking to the Miracle Missions fair in October.  The ladies have not just been making goods to sell but they have also been helping us to resource our classrooms including our new book pouches that help us to keep our classrooms tiday and organized.  We had a wonderful visit from Alastair Geddes from Impact International and his enthusiastic, encouraging team who bought many of our ladies’ products to take with them back to America.  The International Child Resource Institute from San Francisco (ICRI) enabled TFP to buy our first sewing machine and with the help of Impact International and Anthony Haggie, we have been able to buy 7 further sewing machines so that we now have 8 machines and an overlocker that allows for many more participants in our skills development programme. 

New machines arrived and ready to be used! 

Ladies trying out the new machines when they arrived 

The TFP skills development programme ladies and the CRIZ SWAG girls have been selling their wares at the local fairs including cushions, aprons. hats, artwork and jewellery

We are also hoping to set up sessions in horticulture and crocheting and are getting ideas from our ladies as to what other skills they would like to learn and what other projects they believe that they could benefit from.  From there, we will work with them to support them in their projects and offer assistance in setting up any viable projects they might have.  We look forward to updating you on this and hope to be able to report on the inclusion of the men of the community in this programme!

Our feeding programme has been going very well and with thanks to Tammy from CRIZ and an anonymous donor, we have been able to provide the children with a piece of fruit each day.  They love the fruit and it adds a bit of variation to their ePap meal each day.  

Children love having a piece of fruit to go with their meal each day 

Delicious fresh fruit cut up and ready to eat 

With thanks to Captain Rainer Heufner and ICRI, we are currently carrying out home visits to identify the further 50 children that we are now able to include in our feeding programme.  We have welcomed 15 more children as of 1 September to enjoy a meal with us and we thank Vimbai, our new intern, for all the hard work that she is doing to ensure that we offer this service to the most needy in our community.  Vimbai has been instrumental in ensuring that all our records are up to date and that we can roll out this expansion and we welcome her onto the CRC and TFP team and are very grateful for her involvement.

Our feeding programme benches have been newly painted to cater for the increase of children taking part this term 

As we march on through the third term and to the end of the year, we are getting ready for our graduation ceremony and Christmas party in December.  This year, we have 250 children to throw a party for and to hopefully be able to buy a pair of shoes each.  If you would like to get involved in this, a pair of shoes costs approximately $10 and we have truly seen that this gift gives our children so much joy each year as they take off their old, tight shoes and put on new, shiny clean shoes!  If you would like more information or would like to contribute to this project. please do not hesitate to contact me on charlotte@foundationsproject.org or Martha on marthadamu@gmail.com or call her on 0772408795. 

A smart pair of new shoes for Christmas - to go with a pretty dress!!

All sorts of fun at the Caledonia Rose Centre!

With all our new structures in place, we have been able to really concentrate on our services at the Caledonia Rose Centre this year.  

The first big excitement when coming back to school in May was that Auntie Sarah came back to teach us sport. The children have learnt jumping, ball sports, colours and so many other things from Auntie Sarah who has joined us in our new sports area.  She is very patient and is teaching all the children English as well as bringing into her sports lessons everything they are learning in the classroom.  She is also teaching our volunteer teachers how to do the sports activities so that they can do them when she is not there.  Thank you, Auntie Sarah, for all you do for us! 

Auntie Sarah lines up children to start a hurdle relay 

Dorcas has seen the first programme at our skills development centre roll out in full swing!  With thanks to The Child Resource Institute of Zimbabwe and with donations from Holly Hudson, Jess Stevens and Lee Sanderson, we were able to start our sewing project.  The ladies from the community have made cushions for the skills development centre so that they have somewhere to sit when they come and learn and spend time at the centre.  They have now started making cushions to sell and we hope to see some of these on sale at the Miracle Missions fair on Saturday.  This will bring in some income to buy further materials so that we can teach more ladies how to sew.  

Cushions for our skills development centre (and curtains make with extra fabric in the background!) 

Beautiful cushions to be sold for income generation for caregivers in the community 

Dorcas and Bianca have been looking after the children on the feeding programme so well.  There are many more children in the community that need feeding and we are hoping to be able to expand the feeding programme from 200 to 400 by the end of the year.  Dorcas also makes use of the packaging that the porridge comes in to make hats, aprons and clothes peg holders!  

Dorcas is so proud of her creations - all out of ePap bags!

The clean water that we have been given access to by Amanzi using the funds raised by its 'Dollar-a-Dinner' campaign for our water project have meant that we can cook the food for our children and give them a drink of water without worrying about contamination and illness.  Thank you, Amanzi, for giving us the opportunity to have a cool drink of clean water every day! The Amanzi water project has also allowed us to provide our children with flush toilets, a novelty in this community.  The teachers have taken time to teach the children how to use these loos and they are now used to going to the loo on their own and even washing their hands after they have finished in the ablutions.

Smart new ablutions with our very own water tank to flush the loos 

We now have four programmes running at The Caledonia Rose Centre, namely ECD (early childhood development or preschool), a feeding programme, a skills development programme, parenting and we are hoping to start up our new health programme in the next month.  We are looking for a nurse to come in and screen our children for any illnesses that we can help them with or to refer them to a clinic for those that we cannot.  It has been so wonderful to see the health of our children improving with the nutrition that they are receiving but now we have to focus on those illnesses that we have not yet tackled!  We will keep you update in the progress of this programme and look forward to sending more photos of happy children at school!