St Nicholas Orphanage Village News

Recent News

Extensions to the orphanage buildings, funded through support from Holland and Canada, have been completed in 2008.

The original, separate buildings were designed as accommodation for families and this meant that our children had less of a communal aspect to their sleeping quarters than we wanted. We now have extended and joined some of the original separate houses into dormitory areas, an example of which you can see here.

We also had a very generous donation of blankets from a local donor, one of which you can see in this photo. All children received a blanket.

Finishing touches such as the curtains were still being put into place when your webmaster visited in January.

We are also happy to report that one of our children, Tendai, having completed her secondary education, has found a position with the National Service and is enjoying her new uniform!

Facilities

The play park (see video here), recently upgraded by Jan and Truus Veldkamp, continues to be in heavy use and is a much enjoyed facility for all children who spend time at the centre. It is not uncommon to see the children on the two largest swings going high enough to touch the leaves of the mango trees growing nearby!

The television and music facilities remain popular for showing movies such as the Lion King and The Sound of Music. A popular CD is a collection of 80s hits, with Karma Chameleon by Culture Club a favourite tune! On the walks around the grounds the children could be heard singing the chorus. Another favourite is Zambian ragga/hip hop artist, TY2.

There is a very nice new covered area built (thanks to your donations!) between the kitchen and main hall, so that there is now a much larger and bright space for food preparation and play in rainy weather. You can see the area in the group photo here, taken at a recent St Nicholas Day party.

The children continue to receive High Energy Protein Supply food supplements donated by Project Concern International, so that the children have soya porridge every morning instead of mealie meal porridge. Happily, there will be a constant supply of soya cooking oil and maize grain or whole wheat from now on. The expenditure for food has gone down considerably and the children's health has improved a lot.

Closely connected with the orphanage is the Home Based Project, supporting orphans outside of the centre. We support 12 children with school fees, 4 at Secondary School and 8 at Primary School. We also supply a bag of mealie meal every month to 8 families. The requests for support are very high.

Cindy and Geeske

Dutch Volunteers Cindy Schotte (click for her report) from Rotterdam and Geeske visited in 2007.

Regular walks around the grounds of the centre have continued and repairs have been made to basketball hoops, which suffered some over-exuberant slam dunking!

Cindy and Geeske also managed to do some more computer lessons with the children. Stories such as the Lion King and spelling and maths games are popular and the girls and boys are learning more keyboard and mouse skills.

The children continue to enjoy crafts such as making fruit into decorative bowls and using "scoubidou" to make bracelets.

Aunty Christine is also helping the children with their homework, when we do not have volunteers, and also doing handicrafts with them. They have done some very nice beadwork making covers for milk jugs. We intend in the new year to also try their hand at making some AIDS Angels. We already have the instructions.

St Nicholas Day 2006

Your webmaster arrived in the main hall to find the children practising an English translation of a Dutch song: (Hoor klopt dar kinderen) "Who is knocking children? It’s a stranger maybe, who has lost his way, let us open and ask him for his name."

When Ted Krickan suddenly appeared in full costume there were screams of delight, followed by a louder rendition of the same song as Ted disappeared again to knock loudly and be let in.

Then Ted gave out presents from his large red sack; a small item for each child, such as crayons, a book, or a harmonica. Ted had also made a card for each person, including the house mothers, father and Ambuya, each personalised with their name and a different drawing.

We must congratulate Ted on not melting in the heat in his lovely warm winter suit...

Next we had dancing and cake, followed by fireworks. Later that night we returned to set off some small rockets, and some sparklers, on the football field, which everyone enjoyed very much.