Agapé Project Update - December 09
When Sally rang me in February following Andrews call from Grabouw asking for a price to send a container little did we know how much work there was ahead of us. I’m sure that the initial idea was that we could just fill a container with items and ship it to the orphanage but as we are discovering that is just not the case!
We are thrilled with all of the items that have been donated , collected and funds raised - the Cream Tea organised by Janet King and the Rainbows, Brownies/Guides raised £600 followed by £1800 from our Auction of Promises ( thank you to all who came or contributed ) and the Junior Auction raised £160 which was doubled by Barclays – thanks Theresa & others - and we have just received £1500 from Warrington Rotary with a possibility of another £500 – thanks to all who have entered into the project but there is still a lot of work to do. Our own harvest appeal with the shanty ( well done Bryan ) achieved great PR at the time.
Some of us have been busy down at Big Storage taking prices/labels off the thousands of clothing items as we cannot send items with tags or labels on - thank you Rhona, David, Tim, Margaret, Alex & Laurie for giving up many hours on this – and to all who have helped collect clothing which has been donated by Ethel Austin ( thanks to Bill Hamilton who has unfortunately since been made redundant ) – and to David , Madeleine & Derek & family and others for helping out when they can.
The schools have been busy with collecting items for the orphanage and also for the two schools in Grabouw - Kathy Guest has been co-ordinating through Locking Stumps Primary and I have regular meetings with Stuart Jamieson at Birchwood – we have a pallet with approximately 1000 soft toys down at Big Storage ( special thanks to them, particularly Sean, Alison & Freya for their generosity ) – and there is another collection of nappies & sports equipment to go to the store from the high school.
I wasn’t aware until recently that there are two high schools and that there is a still a selection process to see who goes there - and if then children do not get sponsored or have a uniform they don’t go to school!!
All of the sponsors and Thomas Risley URC, the schools, Rotary etc will all be featured on a massive banner that will go onto the side of the container – we have managed to get Wates ( the contractor building the High School extension ) to sponsor this so thanks to them as well.
I will be seeing the provider of the container next week ( 9th December ) so that is in hand.
However, the main items to sort are :
1. Paperwork - we are looking at Groenberg School applying for an import licence – clothes imported into Africa carry a 45% import duty which we don’t want to pay , so it;s important that we get this sent as Charitable Goods - I am currently speaking to the South African Commission in London to get some clarity and once we have that sorted together with a Fumigation Certificate we can look at a firm date for shipment.
2. Sorting of Clothes etc - everything at Big Storage has to be sorted , de labelled and then boxed up and sealed. There have only been a handful doing this and it’s very time consuming – it would be good to get some additional ADULT volunteers. We can only have 4/5 there at a time as we don’t have the space to work in but please see either myself or Laurie if you can help.
The main priority is to ensure that the two issues highlighted are sorted and to ensure that we get all the goods to the people who desperately need them.
It was interesting to see the England Football 2018 bid on TV last night with David Beckam – they were at a football project that is only about an hour away from Grabouw – what we would give to have a high profile person like him to smooth the passage of our container through the bureaucracy that we currently face. However, as Laurie said to me , we do have a more high profile person looking over this project – it’s in Gods hands.
We will keep you updated - and you can always come down to Big Storage and see for yourselves.
Malcolm Ross