Between June last year and the end of June this year the good folks of Crieff Church (and a few others) have contributed just over GBP 25,000 (25,811.18 to be precise) either directly from the church funds or from separate donations.

The June contributions were GBP 828.00.

Well done!

Contributions to CAP in May 2007 came to GBP 319.69.

1.SUMMARY

The ROPE project will help to answer the needs of the elderly and sick in the village of Chesau, Romania, who are not able to take care of themselves. These people often have no family to care for them, have very little pension or no pension at all. Instead of living in farm barns or on the streets, they will be provided with a comfortable home with all their needs cared for. This home is run by the Horvath family.

2. FINANCIAL STATEMENT

CAP sent out a total of GBP6000 in 2006, in two instalments. This money has been used by the Horvaths to assist in the running of the home as follows:

1. Kati (pronounced ‘Cottie’) Tarr, a local nurse, has been employed full time in the home. We will be paying her salary for the duration of the CAP funding (currently 3 years starting in 2006).
2. In order to meet EU rules (Romania became part of the EU on 1 January 2007) the home had to equip their kitchen to meet EU standards. This was a legal requirement and had to be completed by the end of October 2006.
3. The Horvath family were running two old Ladas, each over twenty years old. They are now in possession of a much more modern second-hand Daewoo Leganza.

Kati at work in the home.

1.SUMMARY

The CAKE project helps to provide assistance to the existing Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) project at Maluti Adventist Hospital in Lesotho, a land-locked country surrounded by South Africa. This OVC project has recently been renamed ‘Bana Ba Rona’ (meaning ‘Our Children’).

2. FINANCIAL STATEMENT

CAP sent out GBP6000 in September 2006 which translated at the time into approximately R70,000 (South African Rand) after bank charges have been taken into account (approx R12 = GBP1). This money has been used as follows:

1. Mr Ntsapi has been employed full time as a field worker in the ‘Needs Assessment Program’. One of the many problems faced by Bana Ba Rona is assessing the needs of the almost 5,000 orphans in the area.
2. Travel costs for Mr Ntsapi.
3. Additional travel costs for other members of the ‘Needs Assessment Program’ team.
4. Full foster care for four orphans. The four foster mothers are receiving R350/month (R4200pa) plus R120/month (R1440pa) for formula etc.
5. We paid for some necessary repairs for an orphan-headed household.
6. These 34 orphans had no other means of getting access to educational supplies, approx R400 per orphan.
7. Contributions to a generic fund run by Bana Ba Rona.
8. The hospital has committed to providing free medical care for orphans. To help make this viable they put this amount in the Destitute Patients Fund. This fund relies entirely on donations from private donors. No large aid organisations give money to something as nebulous as this but it is a real and urgent need as two thirds of the hospital’s budget of R21 million must come from patient fees, the other third coming from the church (Which is in the process of phasing out their portion) and the government. If you take R25 as the average visit fee, this would cover 400 orphan visits. In reality there are over 3000 clinic visits by orphans charged to the DPF last year. This doesn’t take into account those who were admitted, which would up the costs significantly.

We had our first CAP day of the year and rather fun it was too.

Firstly we had two visitors, Jozsi and Ilonka Horvath, who run the Chesau nursing home that we sponsor via our ROPE project. Thanks to the generosity of a ‘well-wisher’ they were over in Scotland having a holiday. Jozsi, speaking in excellent English (well, much better English than our Romanian), told us the news from home. Flowers were presented to Ilonka and there was not a dry eye in the house…

Then Jonathan Edwards told us of his visit to Maluti Hospital (home of the CAKE project). We’ll try and post his account along with the pictures soon.

We went through the process of giving to the CAP projects using Gift Aid and presented the accounts for the last year (2006).

Lastly, Steve Logan – one of the CAP organisers – was forced to ‘eat his hat’ following an ill-considered bet that “there’s no way we’ll ever get twelve thousand quid”.

At the end of the morning some GBP2105.09 had been added to the CAP coffers.

Contributions to CAP in April 2007 came to GBP 2,296.55.

Contributions to CAP in March 2007 came to GBP 580.00.

..will be April 21st.

Planned thus far –

• Jonathon Edwards talks about his recent trip to Maluti
• Some visitors, he says, mysteriously.

Contributions to CAP in February 2007 came to GBP 263.00.

Contributions to CAP in January 2007 came to GBP 8099.00.

This consists of the GBP 8000 annual grant from Church funds plus GBP 99 from other personal contributions.

I know we’ve missed the end of the year by a month but never mind…

Jonathan Edwards visited Maluti whilst on holiday in RSA over Christmas. We hope to post something here from him soon.

Ruth Farrer spent Christmas at Chesau working hard! More from her soon, too.

The figures are in for the final 2006 funds. The good folks of Crieff Church added some £5400 over and above the £8000 already committed from Church funds. We’ll be having our Church Business Meeting soon to set the budget for the new year in early February. A year ago we wondered if we could support one venture at around £3000. We’re now running two ventures for £13,400. ‘Nuff said…

I got these photos from Lyn Hurlow at Maluti last week. When we first started out the CAP projects Lyn sent us some photos of a number of the kids who congregated around the hospital. There was a shot of Neo, abandoned at 9 months and weighing only 3kg. Well, it seems that some of the CAKE money is now going to give Neo a new home. Here he is at some 15+ months. Left to right on the couch we have Mum, Neo, big sister (also an orphan), Dad and brother. At the back we have another big brother and the childminder.

Lyn writes that “the foster mothers of the 4 orphans who were living in the hospital’s paediatric ward are each receiving R350/month. And the baby’s “mom” gets an extra R120/month for infant formula and soap for nappies”. FYI R350 is about GBP25.  A snip and a bargain…

More pics…

Oh the wonders of international banking…

The £6000 going to Maluti has finally arrived ~ I understand it will be available to the OVC folks from tomorrow. Let’s hope and pray that it’s the first of many.

I spent this evening at a Willow Creek seminar in Stirling watching a moving interview with Bono from U2. I remember seeing U2 at the Hammersmith Odeon back before they were famous. He is looking well for all his years. Unfair. He speaks eloquently about being a rock’n’roll star who wants to be taken seriously. He discusses the bizarre ‘currency of celebrity’. I like him. I particularly like his opinion of ‘worship’ bands. If you are interested in knowing more about the brain numbing problems of Africa you can do a lot worse that taking a look at data.org, the current object of Bono’s activist attention.

The next CAP day at Crieff Adventist Church will be October 7th. In the meantime here’s an update of what we’ve been doing in the last month or so.

CAKE: We tried to send the £6000 to Maluti a fortnight ago but failed due to a Bank Of Scotland problem, I think. We’re trying again today. As an aside, for our Worship eXtra last Friday we showed ‘The Orphans of Nkandla’, a very moving portrait of the lives of three families in Kwa-zulu Natal – not that far away from Maluti. Garlanded with numerous awards this BBC documentary is required viewing for anyone wanting to understand the plight of a child in rural South Africa.

ROPE: The Chesau home now has a new nurse, paid for by the ROPE project! More details to follow, but we’ve undertaken to fund this salary for the next three years. Next up are extensive modifications to the kitchen to get then up to EU standard by the end of the year. Again, more details to follow.

Went well! All the technology hung together ~ we phoned Margit in Romania via Skype and routed the call through the church PA. Google Earth made clear the routes between ‘us’ and ‘them’.

The main point of the morning was to show that in this modern world we are very closely linked to just about anyone on planet Earth. Using the ‘Bacon’ number ideas we went through the various ‘degrees of separation’ between us in comfortable Crieff and a typical resident of the Chesau home or Neo, the rescued orphan in Lesotho. The point was well taken, I think.

Oh, and the retiring collection came to £2811…