Dear Friends of Golden Sunbeams
We have never experienced the pre-Christmas season as colourfully and in such a varied way as it was this year!
There were four major Christmas parties and outings on the programme this year and of course we experienced a lot…
We started on November 21st with a pre-Christmas trip to the Giraffe House with Loflands Day-Care Centre. At 9:30 a.m., two taxi buses picked up 24 children, 4 teachers and 2 volunteers in Strand and drove them to the Giraffe House. This is between Stellenbosch and Paarl and can be reached in about an hour.
The Giraffe House Wildlife Awareness Centre gives children easy access to some of Africa’s animal and bird species. The Giraffe House focuses on African wildlife and offers us humans a place to experience the animals and enjoy nature.
The focus in the Giraffe House is on education and communication. Here, the animal world is presented in an informative wildlife conservation programme that is tailored to the age group of kindergarten children and is suitable for them.
For example, we learn that giraffes can grow to almost 6 metres tall, making them the tallest land mammals on earth, that the eland is the largest antelope, the blue duiker is the smallest antelope and that the ostrich is the largest bird. The South African national animal, the springbok, and the national bird, the blue crane, are of course also represented there.
But the children are also taught about lizards, hedgehogs, toads, snakes and much more, and they are also allowed to touch many of the animals.
After the tour, the children were given lunch and drinks. Even though they were very hungry after all the impressions, they still prayed first.
Before the children started their journey home, each child received a giraffe as a cuddly toy, so that the trip to the Giraffe House will remain an unforgettable experience for the children for a long time to come.
On November 29th, we celebrated a very special Christmas Party with the children of our Helderberg Golden Sunbeam kindergarten in Macassar. Our gift makes little children’s hearts beat faster! The wooden jungle gym and the swings were getting old and could not be used for some time due to the risk of injury. Therefore, the jungle gym was torn down and replaced with a new one on November 27th, 2024. Two days later, as part of our Christmas party, we had the children officially inaugurate it.
Our partner organisation Cheafrica kindly contributed half of the costs. Vicky Roper (centre), the founder of Cheafrica, was also there on November 29th to officially open the jungle gym with us.
Dita and Jörn-Erik Fröhlich also took part at our Christmas party in Macassar to see their godchildren Liza, Liam and Nazeem. We also invited the children to the celebration, even though they haven’t been going to kindergarten for a long time, but have been attending the primary school, which is within walking distance, for several years now.
And to make the happiness perfect on this day, each child received a Christmas bag filled with toys, crafts and painting materials.
On December 3rd, we handed over our much sought-after Christmas gift bags with toys, crafts and painting materials to our principal Nomalizo for 24 girls and 16 boys in the Nomzamo township.
Since the graduation party was on December 7th, we agreed that the children could already have a look at their gift bags.
As a highlight of the graduation party, Nomalizo then handed out the childrens’ gift bags personally.
On 5 December the time had finally come: our Education Centres Covenant Kids and Lekkerbekkies stormed the Mondeor Restaurant in Somerset West with around 100 cheerful and joyous children.
Like every year, the children arrived in taxi buses from the township, with towels and swimming things in their backpacks. It took less than 10 minutes before the first children were splashing around in the small pool, jumping happily up and down in the jumping castle and zooming down the water slide.
Our adult guests arrived at the restaurant around 12:00 noon and were looking forward to an enjoyable afternoon. Some of our friends hadn’t seen each other for a long time – and therefore had a lot to talk about.
Our volunteer Lena, who is currently working at the Covenant Kids kindergarten, brought her fellow volunteers who are working on a variety of projects in the Cape region. Lena then jumped into the pool with the children, who were shouting with joy.
Also there was Patricia, who has been looking after the well-being of our volunteers for many years.
Same procedure as every year… the children ate pizza and drank lemonade and juice, Santa Claus handed out sweets, life jackets and wings, water squirters and water balls.
It was only when it was time for the ice cream that things calmed down a bit, because then everyone stood patiently and obediently in the long line until they finally had their ice cream cone in their hands. And since the ice cream melted in no time at all, they concentrated on eating, because they definitely couldn’t let any of the delicious ice cream drip on the grass
After the boys and girls had finished, they gathered together for the next highlight: each child received their own large Christmas bag, which was filled with toys, crafts and painting materials.
And then it was time to say goodbye and take a shared taxi back home to the township.
This year we also donated a small amount of money to the other kindergartens, so they could have individual Christmas parties with their children. The kindergarten teachers are always very grateful for this, because without this financial support they would not be able to do it.
Many thanks to all of you who have been by our side again this year and supported us in deed and word. Many thanks to the many sponsors and friends who have donated so generously. Without your help, we would not have been able to do as much as we could in the past year. If you have not donated yet but would like to donate – we would be very pleased to receive your financial support which is desperately needed – and we say “a BIG thank you”!
Donation account: Golden Sunbeams e.V.
Stadt- und Kreissparkasse Darmstadt
IBAN DE54 5085 0150 0023 0186 32
We wish you a merry and peaceful Christmas.
Have a happy New Year and a good start to 2025.
Best wishes
Britta & Claudia