Thank you Thank you!

What a wonder you all are to me!



Every morning I wake up at the crack of dawn to go and load our newest profile on the Season Giving blog, and every morning while I'm working I can see by the stats that some people are hovering, just waiting to see the new page!

Thank you Friends of TLC. Thank you for your love, for your kind messages of encouragement and for your enthusiasm to get involved!

As my mom mentioned on her blog, we were able to transfer a whopping R20 000 into the TLC bank account last month. In a few days we hope to be able to transfer a further R30 000! Isn't that amazing!

And that's all you!

Do you know the saying

 "It takes a village to raise a child" ?

Well, never has that been clearer to me.
We are willing hands to the child-rearing plough but we cannot generate an income this way and without income we cannot eat, it is as simple as that.
And then there you all are!
Helping one by one in "villages" all over the world to put food on our plates everyday!

There is no individual credit in the work at TLC only a great big Glorious Hug for whole the world.

WELL DONE WORLD!        WELL DONE!

The season giving blog is now getting just over 200 hits a day! 200! That's fantastic!

Can I challenge you to remind a friend or family member to keep reading? I just know that of the 40 stories you will eventually know, at least one will strike a chord in a persons heart.

The more readers we get - the higher the blog moves on the ratings and the more publicity it gets ... so please copy the link and add it to your signature on emails and send it to everyone you know!

http://www.seasongiving.blogspot.com

We love you all
Pippa

The countdown begins ...

SO ... ARE YOU READY???

READY STEADY GO!

HERE WE GO .....

It is 40 Days to Christmas and here is our Christmas challenge to you:

Commit yourself to look at the newest TLC blog :

http://www.seasongiving.blogspot.com/


EVERY DAY until Christmas!

Each day we will profile a child that has been loved at TLC -
The blog has an 'ideas page' of easy things people can do to raise a little money and hopefully we will be able to see in the New Year without a huge cloud over our heads!


Remember that

 1 drop dripping is only a drop,

 10 drops dripping is only a plop,

100 drops dripping is the making of a puddle

and

 1000 drops dripping will get us out of this muddle!

So It's the 15th but I couldn't wait!!

HELLO MY DEAR, DEAR FRIENDS!

TODAY I HAVE A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

TLC has a new blog ESPECIALLY for CHRISTMAS!

How many of you make a special effort to use an Advent Calendar with your families?
How many of you have done the "JESSE TREE" with your loved ones?

Well here is a special TLC version for you!

Check out our newest idea on

OUR SEASON GIVING BLOG

Please send the link to as many people as you can and ask them to do the same! THIS ONE IS FOR THE WORLD!

Please visit it regularly so you don't miss any of the kids stories and MAKE Absolutely sure you check out our page that gives you Cool ideas and other things that have worked - See how a little fun can make a big difference!

HELP US HELP MANY!

Love you all
Pippa

Something Special Up our Sleeves!

Hello My Dear friends.

I would sincerely like to thank everyone of you who read and commented so positively on the last blog.
It touches me how touched you were!

This weeks blog has taken me a little longer to put up because I had my final presentation "Exam" for the Certificate program I have been doing at the Gordon Institute of Business Studies this year. It was a fabulous course, I learned so much and I will write a detailed briefing of my experience later.

Today I want to do two things:


Firstly - I would encourage you all to go and read Mom's latest Blog - it is a beautiful trip down memory lane all the way back to the beginning of TLC.

Secondly I want to plead with you to diarise November 16th!

I will be announcing something BIG on that day on this blog!

I love you all
Pippa

Back to basics

Hello friends


Things have been so hectic lately I haven't had much time or opportunity to write about the things I thought I would when I started this blog.


One of the ideas behind this blog was to show how much more goes in to the work TLC does than simply the work with the babies. So I thought I would give you a little example.


Many years ago we used to run a feeding scheme for the local impoverished community. Over time the number of people being fed on a weekly basis were 400!
It came to a point where we were diverting all of our energies into trying to source enough food every week and the main purpose of TLC was becoming blurred.




We had to stop or risk losing the quality care we offered to the babies. However there were two ladies we simply could not leave to fend for themselves.

The problem was more than we could manage

Firstly there was Tryphina.

Tryphina has 5 children, her husband died shortly before Kwanele (the youngest boy) was born. She has a physical deformity where one leg is shorter than the other and has struggled to find and keep employment because of her slowness. For two years TLC was able to offer Mbali and Kwanele free preschool by allowing them to attend with our children here at TLC but there came a time when Tryphina was forced to relocate her family to a township about 20km from TLC and they could no longer get to school. They did and do still visit TLC every second week to collect food support.

Tryphina suffers from hypertension and in December last year she had a stroke that left her bed-ridden for several months. Despite all this she managed to keep her children attending the local school in the township where she lives.


Tryphina's family depends on TLC for food donations and assistance with basic school supplies.

Tryphina and her children

Then there was Lookie

My beloved Aus'Lookie. She breaks my heart.

Lookie had several children of her own, over the years they have all passed away due to HIV and AIDS and she was left to care for 8 of her grandchildren. She managed to qualify for a governement house which is 1 bedroom , a toilet and open plan lounge/kitchen. It has electricity but she cannot afford the prepaid meter cards and so she relies on paraffin lamps andan open pit fire to cook on.

In 2007 on the last school day of the year  and just before Christmas, her 4 oldet grandchildren were walking home from  school. They had to cross a busy intersection - this has to be done in 3 stages, you go from the school side to the middle island and from the island to the oppostie side and then from that side to the side diagonally opposite the school side.

On this day there was a lot of excitement and many children all trying to get across, the grandchildren got to the island and had  to wait there as the traffic lights changed before they could get across. Somehow due to the commotion a taxi mistook the traffic lights in his direction and attempted to cross the intersection when it was not his turn - this caused another taxi to swerve and it hit the island killing all 4 of the grandchildren.

Lookie is an old lady, bent and broken by the harshness of her life. She is now the sole surviving adult and has to look after 4 young children  as those who were able to help have all been wiped out. Lookie is a lovely lady, a lady of grace and dignity who should be allowed to rest in the sunshine and watch with joy as her grandchildren grow - instead she can often be seen carrying heavy logs of wood to cook the food on or full buckets of water for the household, she tries to grow a little pumpkin and spinach in her yard but is too old to find gainful employment and pleads everyday for assistance. We give what we can but this year that has been far too little.


This is a different but important part of our work, the opportunity to soften the day for someone is a blessing and a great lesson for the children to learn.


We love you all
Pippa