PERSONAL EXPERIENCES

Many thanks for your kind regards, and for the two very extensive reports on the work of the charity. I am very pleased that our funding has had such a beneficial effect on the families in Ingwavuma, and is helping them to survive the drastic droughts being suffered across Southern Africa. I wish you and Rosie every success with your visit. Please let know how your trip goes and how the families are faring.

As for the gardens, they were a real eye-opener, the women have transformed a piece of land, with uninspiring dry grass and soil, into a productive orchard and vegetable gardens. The mielies were being harvested, the citrus trees were laden with fruit and there is hope for a good crop of bananas. All excess produce is sold locally, which helps the women to earn much-needed extra income. The rains this summer have been better than the last few years but still the underground rivers and dams are not nearly as full as they should be. The water tanks you donated are really important – the ladies lock all the tanks to make sure their water is safe. The tanks will hopefully see the women through the dry winter months, but are also very important for watering the vegetables when there are dry periods in the summer, and water for general household use.

At present the major area of concern is hunger rather than the virus, which as far as I am aware has not reached Ingwavuma yet.
Apparently police and army were turning kids back who were walking to feeding schemes, so we now need to attempt to provide food parcels to not only the 500+ kids on the feeding scheme and their families but many more families whose kids normally have school meals, relieving parents of the strain which they are now subjected to. We normally only do 50 parcels a month! Now without school meals hundreds if not thousands are hungry. Action for Ingwavuma’s R20,000 could not have come at a more opportune time! Thank you again for that! It is so difficult to try and raise money when many of our supporters are struggling financially themselves. ........... Ingwavuma, as you know, is so far from anywhere help rarely gets there.

Our deepest thank you to our dear friends and partners in the UK for your ongoing support. Action for Ingwavuma, you are the best!

It was a great privilege to be able to help, albeit in small ways, Marcelle, Rosie and the trustees in raising funds to improve the quality of life of people in Ingwavuma, an impoverished and AIDS-riven part of South Africa. What I find unique and refreshing about this small charity is the combination of the passion they show for the cause matched by a robust approach to ensure that every penny donated is spent wisely. Despite being 8,000 miles from Ingwavuma they are extraordinarily effective in targeting the aid to where it is really needed, facilitated by their regular self-funded visits to the area.

Before going to work for Action for Ingwavuma, as a young British woman and medical student, I am ashamed to say I had never really considered my privilege. The privilege of choice. Of freedom. Of hope. Without AFI these ladies had no future to speak of. Nothing to aspire to, nothing to work for. They could only survive. This charity is so special. Never encountered anything quite like it. They work so closely with their ladies and have transformed a forgotten community. Providing opportunity, a sense of self-worth and confidence. It is amazing to see. The people are happy and healthier. Their tireless work has taken away the empty eyes and blank stares and replaced them with a sparkle of self-belief, ambition and pride.