Children from the SOS village in Nelspruit watching the sunset , South Africa.…
A warm hearted lady shares her warmth by knitting jerseys for every child at SOS Children's Village Nelspruit in South Africa.
- Lisa
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Children from the SOS Village in Nelspruit watching the sunset , South Africa.
A warm hearted lady shares her warmth by knitting jerseys for every child at SOS Children's Village Nelspruit in South Africa.
Mpumalanga is known as the place of the sun, but in winter the sun hides and the cold chill is harsh for little arms and legs.
Near Nelspruit, in the town of Lydenburg, an 85-year-old lady called Mrs Meyer knows all about the devastating effects that winter chills can have on young children. This is why she hand knitted 100 jerseys for the children at SOS Children's Village Nelspruit.
"This winter our children are once again snuggling up in her beautiful colourful creations," says Soka Matlala, who works at the SOS Children's Village. Mrs Meyer donates hand knitted jerseys every winter.
The past three years, Mrs Meyer drove from Lydenburg to Nelspruit every winter to deliver her donations in person, but this year she was not able to make her annual trip to Nelspruit due to old age. The village director took some of the children from the village to collect her donations. The children spent the afternoon with her at her cottage and were treated to tea and muffins. The children gave Mrs Meyer fresh flowers as a token of appreciation.
- Mary
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Displaced families in Liberia are attracted by the capital city and settle in unfinished and unsafe buildings.
Establishing family support in Monrovia is not an easy task. But it's not unfeasible. After having suffered 14 years of civil war and witnessed many atrocities, the people of Liberia are slowly starting to rebuild the country. Since mid 2005, the SOS Social Centre in Monrovia contributes to this nation re-building through its family support. However, the chaos left by the war, especially in the capital city of Monrovia, is such that implementing any support programme means facing a great number of challenges.
The war has left thousands of people displaced, with no home to go back to. In search of jobs and support, families arrived massively in the destroyed capital and settled in torn apart or unfinished buildings with no window, door or roof and deplorable hygiene conditions. Families would squeeze themselves in tiny single rooms, hoping to get something to live from and fill their stomachs. In such circumstances, education is a luxury. 'Survival' is the proper word to qualify most of the families' situation in Monrovia.
In the African context, the extended family and the local community play a very important role. Your relatives would always be here to support you with a little something. They would care for your children when you are sick and share their food with you when food is missing in your home. In case of the extended family falling short of providing sufficient support, the community would take over helping the needy.
However, this African 'social treasure' seems to have disappeared in Liberia. At least, it does not exist in Monrovia, where the population is a patchwork of people from all over the country. There is no link to and no interest for one another, and everyone is struggling to make their own families survive.
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