South Africa is a country where 50% of the population live below the income poverty line and 5.3 million people are infected with HIV/AIDS. On 1st February we will be flying out to spend 6 months in South Africa working with Lungisani Indlela Trust a project based in the Amoti township outside Durban.

 

'The vision of Lungisani Indlela is to transform and empower the lives of the people and children of Amaoti, bringing them hope for the future. Our vision and mission is to see every child in a crèche or school, to see the Amaoti crèches and schools transformed and reach a standard of excellence; every  orphan cared for; entrepreneurial businesses established within Amaoti; children participating in sports, dance, drama, art and crafts, so that no-one will be idle as they develop a transformed work and play ethic. We believe that community development is the most appropriate action to combat poverty. Such development needs to incorporate the social, spiritual and physical well being of each individual (holistic approach), focusing on the old adage of ‘teach the people to fish’.

We will be helping out in several of the projects LI run, including homework clubs,

home visits and girls support groups, at the end of our trip we will be helping to

run a holiday club for hundreds of children which we are all particularly excited

for!
 

As a team we first met in October where we were all equally shocked to find we

are an all girls team! We spent a few days together getting to know each other and the

other Tearfund teams, learning a lot about our trip and winning the talent show

with our quickly thrown together adaptation of ‘Father Abraham’. From there we

set of in all different directions home more excited and nervous than ever and

were back to work in an effort to raise the money we needed. We have had many

other ways of fundraising too, Pippa’s dad did a 45 mile run, Catherine

sometimes seemed to be babysitting every day and some of the team took on

the rice and beans challenge for a week.
 

We cant thank everyone who has donated money enough, we are so grateful!!
 

Its only 10 days till we leave the cold UK for the heat of South Africa and

there is so much to sort, we still need to make sure we all have visas, pack, say

goodbye to all our friends and families. We would really appreciate it if you

could pray for us as we do the last preparations and pray that our journey will go

smoothly, we will try and keep this blog updated as often as possible so you can

find out all about our trip!

Bye for now!! Next time we blog we will be in South Africa!!! (ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh)

xxxxx