May News

A team from the USA, lead by Krissy from Thembalitsha, visited the school for three days (23-25 April). Lindsay, Brian and Heather were a tremendous support to the Graceland staff. Their programme consisted of spending the morning with the children singing songs, doing fun crafts and playing games. Something very special was when Brian (USA) shared his message with the children in English and Renette (Every Nation's team leader at Graceland) translated his message into Afrikaans so that the children would understand. Afternoons were spent assisting Leon in varnishing the veranda’s wooden beams. Although their time with us was short, their impact was significant. Their love for Jesus and care for the children and staff of Graceland displayed how much Jesus cares for his children, all across the nations.

 The team of students from Every Nation Church in Stellenbosch, who visit Graceland on a weekly basis, have spent the past few Wednesdays reinforcing the theme of colours with the children. They taught the children that the rainbow is in the sky to show that God's promises are true... in other words, that Jesus loves us all. Using different colours of fruit they also taught the children about the 9 fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). The children listened well and could name the different colours, as they had been taught by their teachers.

One of our lovely teachers, Angeline, is leaving and her farewell at the Devon Valley Hotel was a time to celebrate the good times that had passed at Graceland and remind each other of God's good plans for us as individuals, but for the community of Devon Valley as a whole. We thank Angeline for her commitment to Graceland over the past four years and wish her all the best for the opportunities which await her.

 Elizabeth and Jeanine visited a pre-school in Franschoek to get some tips and extend Graceland's network with other pre-schools. Anne Pederson is a dynamic teacher and principle, thus we were both able to learn from Anne's experience and tips. Allowing room for change always leads to growth. Graceland has grown tremendously over the past decade under Elizabeth and Thembalitsha's leadership and will continue to grow from strength to strength so that the children of Devon Valley may reap the benefits.

Thank you to everyone who was a part of Graceland's successes during the month of May. We have updated our ‘Needs List’ if you are interested in making a valuable contribution to the running of the school and the education of the precious Graceland children. Contact info@thembalitsha.oeg.za to get hold of a copy.

April News

Beshrin in his Graceland days

The fruits of our labour are truly starting to show! Last year some of the first little ones we taught graduated matric! Amongst them was Beshrin Van Niekerk. Beshrin is the eldest of four children and grew up in Devon Valley. He has fond memories of us and can remember singing ‘Father Abraham had many sons’! He told us that as he was studying it was often a battle with so many siblings and he often had to wait to do homework until late at night when everyone was asleep. But his hard work and dedication has paid off and he is now studying at Cape Town University after receiving a bursary to study IT. We are confident that a bright future is ahead of him and are thankful that we are able to offer a fantastic head start in education to children like Bershrin, whom otherwise may not have been able to attend preschool. If all the children we care for grasp hold of the opportunities in front of them, like Beshrin has done, then there is so much potential for their generation to shake the bonds of poverty and we will be reassured that we are on the right path of ‘restoring hope by developing people to a point of self-reliance’ as our mission statement declares! Exciting times!

Beshrin, a successful student!

March News

The Graceland girls doing their thing

This month we were very excited to host our Fancy Hat Tea with the Queen (of Graceland). Over 100 ladies attended this wonderful event on the terrace of the Devon Valley Hotel, Stellenbosch. The sun smiled down on us and everyone who attended wore a beautiful, and sometimes unique, hat. Ambient music was provided by the girls from Wholehearted and we listened to addresses from Laura Collura, the Director of Education for Thembalitsha, Amanda Nortje, the funding manager and Elizabeth Solomons, the ‘Queen’ of Graceland. Mrs Berger, who owns Seaton Farm, the land that Graceland sits on, gave a moving speech about the history of Graceland and how she became involved with the project. We were fortunate enough to enjoy some tantalizing treats provided by the Devon Valley Hotel: yummy cakes and scones and delicate sandwiches. The hotel also presented us with a cheque for R11895 which are the profits from their Giving Room initiative! It is safe to say that the event was a huge success. Thank you so much to all those involved who made the day so special and particularly to the Devon Valley Hotel for providing the tasty tea party and the stunning venue for free. It’s people like you who make the difference.

To see more photos from the day visit our Facebook Page.

The preschoolers impressing

The winner of the most unusal hat.

February News

Well, we are surviving the summer heat thanks to our new covered outdoor area (and Rick and Eve Beeton). It really does make a difference to have somewhere to be outside in the shade. We have also got two volunteers who are doing community service from Gimnasium Gior. They are helping to paint the building so we are going to look very clean and fresh by the time they are done.

This month we have also been blessed by a lovely lady called Yvonne who has started volunteering with us every Monday to help us with focused sessions for the children’s gross motor skills. She is doing a fab job, thanks Yvonne!  We have also been invited on a course to learn more about teaching gross motor skills by the Clamber Club in Somerset West. It’s always great to have the opportunity to learn more. I look forward to telling you all about it in next month’s news.

Finally, please support our Fancy Hat Tea which is happening in a couple of weeks. See the invite below for further details.

January News

We are back open and running full steam after the summer holidays. We now have 51 children and we have our first ever set of twins so we are keeping very busy as you can imagine! Unfortunately we have a lot of ill children at the moment. There seems to be a few different viruses flying around and I don’t think the hot weather helps so please pray for their swift recovery.

The new shaded area in progress

We have to say a very big thank you to Rick and Eve Beeton who have donated the money for us to build a roof over the play area. It’s going provide some very welcome shade as the hot weather continues. Also thank you to those of you who donated toys and books over Christmas. It’s always great to have some fresh stimulation for the children and a change of things to play with. It helps keeps their minds and imaginations active.

October News

This month we just want thank the Lord for his grace and blessings over Graceland.  Here at Graceland we can see everyday how great the
Lord is for every one of us.

From this quarter we are going to get the children ready for their graduation which will be taking place on 30th November 2011. We are also starting with assessment to see if they are ready for Gr.R next year.

We had three excellent workshops to refresh our brains again. With the help of an occupational therapist Anoeska De Villiers and two students Simone and Sandi from Cape College.  We really want to say thank you to them for their help.

We also want to thank Helen and Jenifer from Texas for giving us fans for our classrooms for the summer and wall clocks and a DVD as well as some lovely dolls. Distell Winery from Stellenbosch also want to help us with Donations towards Graceland. I will tell you all that exciting news in the next newsletter!

Finally, thank you to Every Nation Church Students and Stellenbosch University, that made the day possible for the children to go to Tygerberg Zoo this month. The kids had a ball!

September News

Wow we had an amazing day this month. We had the official opening of our Library and Sick room!!

It was the culmination of a dream that began 5 months ago when I heard some startling statistics regarding literacy levels for primary school children in SA and the lack of access to books.

I have always believed that stories are such an important part of a child's life. They open up a whole new world, for language to develop, emotions to be experienced as well as the opportunity for nuturing to occur. Graceland is blessed to have a number of potential story tellers who visit every week in the form of Students from the University of Stellenbosch!!! These students have come on board and are beginning to read regularly to the children which is fantastic and very well received.

It is such a beautiful thing to see a child pickup a book and find pleasure in its pages. We have witnessed times when a group of children have been excitedly showing each other their books and other times when a child is just sitting quietly engrossed in the pictures of a story. Of course we still have some way to go regarding 'book etiquette' but we will get there!!

Elizabeth has some great ideas for incorporating the library into everyday use as well as looking at how it might benefit and bless Devon Valley in a wider sense in the future.

It is also wonderful to have somewhere for the children to go when they are feeling poorly at school. The new bunkbeds and bedding are superb as is the new vinyl on the floors in all the rooms. These come courtesy of a generous donation from Lewis stores. This library and Sick room has been a real team effort from not only within Graceland but the wider community also.

The opening gave us the opportunity to say a big thankyou to those who faithfully support Graceland, and we were honoured to have over 20 of them join us. Including Marilize from Devon Valley hotel, Ginny Swart, Katherine Berger, Louis Van Schalwyk, Caitlyn Keal and some of the Uni Students.

Following the cutting of the ribbon Katharine Berger read a wonderful story to the children who were enthralled. We then had coffee and cake on the stoep which was ably served by Grade 11 learners from the School of Hope who also baked and decorated some amazing cup cakes for the children.

Finally I came across a paragragh on a leaflet the other day which sums up what I feel about this project.

"If we can teach children to love stories, we can teach children to love reading. And the children who love reading will make this country's story one worth telling everywhere" (Nathalie Koenig 2011)

Zoe Lee, Volunteer