thereof as well as the building of a bathroom area. Pete from Lombard’s Electric volunteered to do all the electric work while John from Carpet World donated reams of top quality carpets for the new structure. In the near future, Lee Last, Erica Inches and Marguerite McRobert has offered to assist the parents from Kingdom Kids to start a community garden and become more self-sufficient in providing nutritious food for their families. Craig Tarling was roped in to capture the conditions at the crèche in a short video (as seen above) while Alan Whitehead donated counters and a large stove to cook the babies’ meals, which Clint Tarling from CT Cupboards is going to install!
The hearts and arms of the Somerset 1 Facebook Group were flung wide open! Many dropped off donations at our regular collection point, the Farmhouse Restaurant – from
nappies and formula, to warm clothes and blankets, cots and prams, to groceries and soup! Iddy and her group of volunteers have on numerous occasions expressed their intense gratitude and feelings of being utterly overwhelmed by the love shown to them through Somerset1. In true ‘Teaching to Fish’ style, Iddy is in the process of registering the school with the Western Cape Education Department, to access vaccines and health benefits, and organisational support.
Ideally the future involvement of Somerset1 and the rest of the Helderberg community will assist the Kingdom Kids Crèche in putting up a second Wendy, as a sleeping room for the babies, and to build a bathroom (currently the volunteers and potty trained toddlers have to run to the main house through the soaking rain). Ideally a plumbing company will come on board to assist in this. A jungle jim and outdoor play equipment is planned for the next phase, as well as a secure fence to keep the babies safe from wandering neighbourhood dogs and from escaping on the busy Sir Lowry’s Pass Road.
This community project has been a reminder to us all of the unstoppable power
of shared hearts and minds focused on a single goal. The social networking done through Facebook has served to share this single goal and mission, to communicate in an open forum and together create the meaning, drive and passion to improve the lives of those less fortunate. A reminder that the power of a community when positively shaped and directed, can and does make the world better.
JULY 2014 - 13