“We make a living by what we get, We make a life by what we GIVE.”Winston S Churchill. |
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This festive season we are appealing to our community, far & wide, to PLEASE PLEDGE R500 over the festive season towards supporting HOLAH in our quest to give our babies & children a safe, loving, happy & healthy December and beyond .We cannot do this alone, as an NPO we need your help to ensure our kids have the best we can offer, because they deserve the very best. To pledge your support pls eft to;Likhon iThembaFNB62396663918220426Reference; Christmas Pledge{FNB swift code forinternational paymentsFIRNZAJJ} https://zapper.com/url/4O9r0xo-Ld PayPal email admin@likhonithemba.co.za Cashsend Leanne brown 083 266 1888 |
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We sure have had an epic 2021 at Likhon iThemba.Thank you to each one of you for the support and love throughout the year. There is no way we would be where we are without all your continued support! There have been many highlights this year, but just to touch on a few that really stood out to us. We welcomed 6 new little ones to the HOLAH home this year,Fafa who has just turned 7, Chris and Dylan together, Londi (who is unfortunately in hospital on a feeding tube as we speak after a severe health scare yesterday) and our youngest baby at HOLAH; Lenathi who was left in our Vikela baby saver. Lastly, came little Carter, the best kind of “thug” who makes us smile every time we look at him. Welcome little beauties, we love having you as part of the family! It is always bitter sweet when children leave us but we have to remind ourselves that this is why we do what we do and in that spirit we are thrilled to share that we had 2 babies leave the HOLAH nest this year. Esishle left us just after she turned 1 years old, adopted by a Mommy who simply adores her and our handsome Dylan who didn’t stay with us very long but will always be in our hearts. Our therapy hut got set up at HOLAH, a quiet space where our therapists and care givers can take the children for one on one time with them to help with sensory processing, stretching, movement and work on specific areas that each child needs to develop. Likhon iThemba had 2 Experts from SES (senior expert services) come all the way from Germany! Lucia spent 6 weeks at HOLAH working with our care givers and our special needs children. Volker spent 6 weeks working with Tman and the staff at our Charity Hop shop. We all learnt so much from them and we are moving into the new year with positive changes in place, thanks to them. Leanne and Kim the Founders of Likhon Ithemba got to meet Unice and the team who run Siyajabula a children’s home in Molweni. Unice does an outstanding job but desperately needs support. We were so thrilled we could relaunch our outreach program, BOP – Bowl Of Plenty and help out in many ways throughout the year. Delivering food and raising funds to ensure one of the young adults from Siyajabula can continue her schooling. We plan to continue helping in any way we can. Likhon iThemba managed to start up successful sub committees this year which focus on different areas of the NPO to make sure we are doing things as efficiently as possible. We are compliant in all areas, raising funds and most of all doing the best we can for the children in our care. This has been one of the best decisions for Likhon iThemba and we want to send a special thank you to our Chair – Colleen Wilson who made this all happen. This organisation has grown from strength to strength with you as our Chair, we are forever grateful to you Colleen for your commitment to Likhon iThemba and are continuously blown away at the time and energy you put into everything you do for this NPO. All our CP children were invited to attend a CP programme at one of the hospitals. They spent a week in hospital and got to see every specialist the hospital has to offer. OT, physio, dietician, doctor and orthopaedic. They are given therapy sessions and the care givers were trained to continue the therapy at home. We also get detailed reports from each therapist. Once the program is finished, the child goes back once a month for 2 days for follow up appointments. Little Langas time in this programme resulted in him being a candidate for major medical surgery carried out this month to “stretch” out his legs and make him more comfortable long term. Although he is in so much pain and discomfort right now, we know it will help him and make his life a little easier. |
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Unfortunately what goes up must come down and we had a few low lights this year too which are worth sharing for the full picture of life at HOLAH. Medically it has been one of our toughest years to date. With HOLAH having several children that have severe medical challenges that have kept us on our toes. We have called an ambulance out 4 times over the past several months. Siyanda had a seizure that lasted three hours and had to spend three nights in hospital and on 2 different occasions. Londi and Langa both stopped breathing! Luckily they were ok after a few days in hospital and lots of TLC. We are in the process of tightening up our security at HOLAH too as we have had some fence hoppers taking chances. The Gas bottle was stolen from our bottom cottage which is home to 6 kiddos with Cerebral palsy. Very scary for our ladies on duty! Luckily we have had some generous supporters come forward helping with gas cages, beams, fencing and fencing installation. We are so grateful. Covid!!! Well this speaks for itself. We have all faced fear, challenges, heartache and major financial difficulties due to Covid. It has been very hard to fundraise in the NPO space during Covid 19 and the different levels of lockdown. Events that we have done previously such as the HOLAH high tea, band nights, art exhibitions, quiz nights, just to name a few, have all been put on hold. Which has such an impact on us financially and as well as stagnates gaining new supporters. Businesses have struggled too, meaning we have lost allot of our ongoing donations and not as many once off donations are coming through. HOWEVER we push on and are grateful for the headway we have been able to make as per our HIGHLIGHTS above and hope for a smoother ride next year. |
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