Ethos Marketing is, through our association with Cathedral Peak Hotel in the Drakensberg Mountains of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, proud\u00a0to be a part of a very special fundraising project!<\/p>\n
Cathedral Peak Hotel,\u00a0has in conjunction with the local Zulu village community in the valley below,\u00a0set up a Section 21 company (not-for-gain) called ZAMORI to try to alleviate poverty and\u00a0uplift the local Zulu village, with the focus on the most vulnerable \u2013 its littlest members.<\/p>\n
Besides trying to\u00a0employ as many local people at the hotel as possible, the hotel has been involved for some time with the local cr\u00e8che and 5 primary schools.<\/p>\n
THE LITTLE ONES NEED OUR HELP\u2026<\/p>\n
The cr\u00e8che receives no Government assistance whatsoever so it has\u00a0minimal resources to say the least.\u00a0 There are currently\u00a026 children at the cr\u00e8che, squeezed into one classroom \u2013 if you can call it that!\u00a0 Just a small\u00a0room with bare mud walls, only one table and 2 battered plastic garden chairs.\u00a0 That\u2019s it folks Monday to Friday, 26 little ones sitting on the floor. No toilet, no heaters, minimal toys, no fridge, no running water, nothing.<\/p>\n
Many of these little ones\u00a0walk miles to get to this school –\u00a0often without shoes on.\u00a0 The \u201clucky ones\u201d who do have shoes often carry them to school and put them on as they get there\u00a0to maintain them for longer.\u00a0 It breaks your heart to see how little they are \u2026 and how little they have.<\/p>\n
Cathedral Peak is currently doing what it can \u2013 where it can, to help.\u00a0 For instance\u00a0the hotel provides a healthy meal for every toddler<\/strong> at the school every school day.\u00a0 This may not sound that impressive, until you realise that, for most of the children, this is ALL they will eat all day \u2013 and often nothing on the weekends.\u00a0 So effectively, attending school means not going to bed with an empty tummy.<\/p>\n Most of the cr\u00e8ches are run from individuals homes –\u00a0traditional mud huts. Communication between the local white population and the Zulu population can be challenging as few white people speak good Zulu, the cr\u00e8che teachers speak hardly any English and none of the little children speak English.<\/p>\n A typical day in the life of a child under 10 yrs old is very different from ours in the UK.\u00a0 Most homes in this valley are still without electricity and none have running water.\u00a0 The villagers\u00a0are very proud of their homes and do what they can to\u00a0make them\u00a0attractive, but in most cases,\u00a0its all\u00a0about survival.\u00a0 Sadly, largely because of AIDS, there are many orphans and child-headed families \u2013 children bringing up smaller children.\u00a0 They\u00a0take on all\u00a0the household chores as well as fetching and carrying water, tending crops, herding cattle and goats and washing clothes in the river.\u00a0 But when they can, the children\u00a0try to attend school to get educated in the hope of a brighter future \u2013 which is why we need your help!<\/p>\n We believe that ALL children need support, to be fed and to get an\u00a0education \u2026 but also\u00a0to be able to just \u201cbe children\u201d sometimes!\u00a0 To have fun and play.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Zulu children are very imaginative and creative and mostly make their own toys.\u00a0 Boys make\u00a0cars and wagons from bits of wire and rubbish whilst the girls learn to weave sleeping mats and baskets.\u00a0\u00a0They also enjoy traditional Zulu games.\u00a0 But\u00a0they would so love to play with normal toys such as balls, dolls, cars and tea sets\u00a0 –\u00a0just like our own children.\u00a0 Which is where our project comes into play!<\/p>\n A WALK FOR WEE ONES\u2026<\/p>\n The owners, the van der Riet family, and the hotel will of course be continuing its cr\u00e8che feeding scheme, but we are now taking this support a step further and have created a supportive partnership between an English school, namely Keston Primary School in Surrey and one of the rural Zulu creches and primary schools, namely\u00a0 Impumelelo Creche and Ididima Primary School.<\/p>\n The children at Keston will be working together to raise money to enable us to buy desperately needed provisions for these children to make their lives a little easier and a little more fun.\u00a0 If possible, we would like to be able to give each and every child at the cr\u00e8che and primary school a pair of shoes and a toy of their very own\u00a0 \u2013 be it a skipping rope for the girls or a ball or small car for the boys. Other items such as educational materials like pencils and crayons will be bought if enough money is raised.<\/p>\n Amanda England from Ethos Marketing will be visiting the cr\u00e8che and primary school in May with Zamori Cathedral Peak Hotel to hand over the items bought with the money raised by the pupils at Keston Primary School.\u00a0 Amanda has a child in year one at Keston, hence the link up between the schools.<\/p>\n The school is kindly arranging a fun and educational sponsored \u201cWalk for wee ones\u201d on 30 March 2011 with markers showing how far the little ones in the Zulu villages walk to get to school each day.\u00a0 If you are a parent at Keston reading this page, please support and sponsor your children however you can \u2013 knowing what an enormous difference it will make for this little cr\u00e8che and primary school in Africa.<\/p>\n We hope this will also be something both schools can use to learn about each others culture and lifestyle \u2013 and to share messages, ideas and support.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Because of the language barrier, the children from both schools will be creating colourful murals depicting life in their part of the world which will be used to be both decorative and educational \u2013 as well as sharing photos.<\/p>\n LIFE IN THE LOCAL VILLAGE<\/p>\n Although our project focus is currently on the one cr\u00e8che and primary school, Zamori helps many different families in the local community where life is very difficult\u2026<\/p>\n We recently met Ntombizodwa Mdluli who on her child grant of just less than R300 (\u00a330) per month supports herself, her brother, and a whole heap of other family members.\u00a0 We were kindly invited indoors out of the wind and were shocked to see what comprised their home.\u00a0\u00a0Two flattened foam mattresses on the floor, a pile of blankets neatly folded out of the way and a single candle.\u00a0 We were not\u00a0sure what the candle was for\u00a0because the holes in the tin roof provided plenty of light.\u00a0 No furniture, no cupboard, nothing.\u00a0 This is poverty.<\/p>\n And if we thought that was bad we walked 15 minutes away from the nearest dirt track to a home where child grants are not an option \u2013 Granny Shabalala has never succeeded in getting an ID book \u2013 so neither her, nor her son or her 3 young daughters have got one either, and between them they are supporting 12 children on the fresh air of the Drakensberg and help from strangers.\u00a0 You can\u2019t see their house from the road to Cathedral Peak Hotel \u2013 you can\u2019t even imagine how quiet and isolated it is there.\u00a0 And they live there because that\u2019s where they were born, and there\u2019s nowhere else to go, not even after school, because they are nobody.\u00a0 And they will line up on Thursday morning when the Department of Home Affairs arrives at the Community Centre, and patiently stand in a queue again, and hope that something might change.\u00a0 It is bleak to say the least\u2026<\/p>\n HOW ZAMORI HELPS<\/p>\n With a vast population of rural, unskilled and unemployed villagers on the hotel\u2019s door step, needs in the local communities range from grants for Identity photographs which cost R20 each (less than \u00a32)\u00a0 through to assistance with claiming relatives from the mortuary and basic food parcels. For example, recently\u2026<\/p>\n *Ntombi zodwa Mdluli supports her 4-year-old daughter and extended family on a child grant of just less than R250 (\u00a320) per month. Zamori was able to assist the family to collect her brother\u2019s body for burial.<\/p>\n *The Shabalala family, who are without any breadwinners, were assisted with cash for ID photographs, so that family members could apply for ID books and access social grants.<\/p>\n *The Zamori committee also arrange sports and cultural events in the villages, showcasing craft work by pensioners and keeping teenagers and young adults profitably occupied.<\/p>\n WHERE THE MONEY GOES\u2026<\/p>\n Zamori will endeavour to assist the community wherever possible, and all requests for assistance are considered on a case-by-case basis.\u00a0 Appropriation of donations is jointly agreed by a committee comprising of 3 hotel representatives and 3 members from the local communities, namely Mhlwazine and Magangozi.<\/p>\n These people don\u2019t want charity\u00a0– \u00a0they want work, self-respect, opportunity and a bit of hope. Just like the\u00a0 candle in Ntombizodwa\u2019s hut \u2013 despite all odds, there remains just a flicker of hope.<\/p>\n Donations to Zamori will be acknowledged, and all donors will be updated on community projects and how their money has been spent. ZAMORI: current account # 622 7100 8809 FNB Bergville branch # 220625<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ethos Marketing is, through our association with Cathedral Peak Hotel in the Drakensberg Mountains of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, proud to be a part of a very special fundraising project!<\/p>\n
\nIf anyone would like to make a direct donation to the charity you can do so as follows:<\/p>\n