Visit to the Ubomi Obutsha Centre

Every now and then, the Ubomi Obutsha Centre is visited by old friends. Frank Oude Veldhuis is one of these friends. Before SUON was founded, he did volunteer work at the Ubomi Obutsha Centre. Last summer, he visited the centre again, this time together with his family. Below, he tells us more about it.

Back in the days

Frank shares: ‘In 2010, I worked as a volunteer at Ubomi for four weeks through Be More. Beforehand, they asked about any special talents, and since I am very involved in music and taught piano in the Netherlands, I raised money to buy a piano. Mark and I had it delivered to the centre during my first week.’

‘I was a bit nervous about the huge number of registrations for the lessons and the limited time I had, but fortunately I soon realised that keeping appointments is taken a little less seriously in Kwazakhele than in the Netherlands, for example. In the end, I was able to teach the entire staff and about five children who were very interested. I also helped out in the childcare centre and the soup kitchen. It was an incredibly special experience, partly because the World Cup was being held in South Africa that year.

Back again

‘At the time, I was dating my current wife, and I always said that I wanted to show her where I had been,’ Frank continues. ‘After our son was born, those plans were put on hold for a while, but now that he’s a teenager, we’ve picked up where we left off — and this summer holiday was the perfect time.’

‘We took a road trip from Cape Town, through the interior to Port Elizabeth, and back along the coast. I contacted Mark and he took us back to Ubomi. It was amazing to be back there — and now with my family. Nondo, Tango and Mabhele were all there and even recognised me as “the piano man”. Mark brought us up to date on the family programme and the many other improvements that have taken place over the past 15 years. In the evening, we had dinner with Mark and his wife, and the next day we went to the annual fundraising dinner “Christmas in July”. That was also a very impressive experience for us.’

Frank concludes: ‘Mark and Alma are truly remarkable people, with a big heart for the residents of Kwazakhele. Of course, we also thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful country and its friendly inhabitants. There is a chance that this was not our last visit to South Africa.’

Keeping Children Safe

‘People often think that everyone always has children and vulnerable adults’ best interests at heart, but unfortunately this is not always the case, even in the world of development cooperation. Too often cases come to light where children, or vulnerable groups, have been victims of abuse, exploitation or neglect.‘ This is what Wilde Ganzen wrote in its invitation to us for a relationship morning. On Saturday 5th of October, this meeting was entirely dedicated to protecting children. We at SUON were immediately excited to participate.

After all, as a foundation, we believe it’s incredibly important that the children we support are safe. But how does this work when we are based in the Netherlands and are therefore not in direct contact with the children ourselves? What is our role and our own responsibility? We ask ourselves these questions regularly, so we hoped this meeting would bring us answers.

Results of the day

And answers we got. About how we could safeguard children as a foundation ourselves, but also how we might better support the Ubomi Obutsha Centre in this. This is not simply settled in a day and will be a process of steps. It is a subject that we would very much like to put further on the agenda in the coming period, first for ourselves, but hopefully also with the centre together. Because besides being important and a first priority, it is also just hugely fascinating to discuss about this together! So from here a big thank you to Wilde Ganzen for this kick-off and inspiration on this topic. To be continued.

A busy week at the centre

The Ubomi Obutsha Centre does everything possible to ensure that children can develop themselves every day. Every day and week is different and sometimes a lot of things happen at once in just one week time. Last week was such a week and we would like to take you through all these wonderful happenings.

The results

Sometimes children need extra educational support. Thanks to the help of a psychological clinic, these children were able to take psychometric tests. Their parents were also asked for additional information about their development. This helps in deciding whether a child should be referred to a special education school or not. This way, they get the right support where needed.

The Educare children went on a day out to Holmeleigh Farmyard, the local petting zoo. They went along with staff of the local Alkegen factory who support the work of the Ubomi Obutsha Centre. They had a wonderful day there!

The mentoring programme for the fourth semester started a little earlier with a baseline assessment of the 48 students. They will be helped to catch up in school and the assessment will help to gain insight into their progress. Also wonderful news is that with that, three new volunteers started at the centre!

The families of our Phase 2 (2nd year) Family Focus Programme were the lucky recipients of this year’s 3rd clothing distribution. Great that so many good quality 2nd-hand clothes were donated recently to support these families!

Three Educare facilitators worked on the third-quarter reports for the little ones in their groups. They also had engaging meetings with all parents to discuss their child’s challenges and progress. Great progress was made this trimester!

This all took place alongside all the normal day-to-day activities. However tired they are, the dedication and work ethic of the staff remains top notch and we are very grateful for all they do and for the support many of you give them! They are looking forward to a quiet week during the school holidays next week before making the final push to finish the year strong.

Would you like to continue supporting this great work? Then check out how you can do so soon here on our website.