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People usually like pictures better than long stories, so here you go people.
(Or maybe I am just too lazy to type ;-) )

A big thank you to my colleagues from removal company ITO for donating USD 500 !!
This will help out project to buy food for the orphans.

http://www.ito-movers.de/

A special thank you to Thomas Lampe in El Paso, USA for making this happen!

Although he is not part of the Thamsanqa project, I decided helping Nelson would be my personal project.
Being homeless is already bad itself, but being homeless AND cripple is even worse.
I wish I could help all the homeless boys here, but I do not have enough time for it, so the least I can do is help the guy who is in the worst position of them all.
On 12th March 2010 I picked Nelson up from under the Bridge (where he sleeps). He washed himself in the dressing room of the carwash nearby and he put on a t-shirt I gave him and a pair of jeans which used to belong to my brother.
He was so proud that he was having a new outfit, he had a huge smile on his face :-)

We went to the Home Affairs office to apply for his ID. With this ID he will get a (disabled person's) grant from the government.

Next stop: the social worker for disabled people.

Because my colleagues at KHZ have been very active and have collected a lot of money for this project, I already want to say to all of them: Thank you very much for your efforts and your donations!

There will be another dedicated post to thank ALL sponsors, but I wanted to share this already.

On the picture you see only a couple of boys who are participating at the footbal trainings.
In the middle you will see Xolela who is part of our project.
My colleagues will recognize the logo on his t-shirt ;-)

So once more to all my colleagues: THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!
The money will be well spent (further info to follow...)

On the picture you will see 3 homeless boys who have been living in the streets for many years.
They are living and sleeping under the bridge of the shopping mall.
On the right of the picture you see Nelson.
Nelson is 21 years old and has been living on the streets for 7 years.
He does not have any parents and does not have a home.
Two years ago he was hit by a car and since then he is cripple, which means his situation is even worse compared to other homeless people.
When he was hit by a car, some of his fingers were broken and they have not healed properly.
Now his ring finger is bent and it will probably not heal properly any more.
He had two crutches but one of them has been stolen.
His shoes are too small for his feet (but not for long because tomorrow he will get a pair of my shoes).
He does not have an ID card so he can not get a grant from the government.

I will sit down this weekend to write some more, but just wanted to put some pictures here.

I am continuing to ask everybody to sponsor because there is not enough money for food.
The project director is now even taking money from her own account.
She is over 70 years old, so we need to help here.
So please everybody...?

Just look at these kids. How can you NOT want to help?

I would also like to ask everybody who is in a sport club if they can ask for jerseys or t-shirts for the local football team here.
Preferbly Dutch football clubs but I am sure other sports can aid here as well.

Some boys are really talented and the football helps them to learn discipline and team work as well.

Many thanks to all my colleagues at KHZ and KDG for starting to collect money !!!

To fulfill many requests I finally present to you... Elwin Junior (thanks to Debora)

People, we still need funds for FOOD, underwear, shoes.
And did I mention FOOD...?

Please help us make difference for the orphan children!

First of all, thank you for all the nice reactions so far.
This gives me some positive energy, which I can put into this project.

We desperately need funds here...
Because of the economic situation everybody is squeezing their budget, which means less money is going to charity.

I can thankfully say my employer KHZ has granted a nice amount of money. Half of this money I can spend here, half of it will be safed for the long term of this project.

Because this project receives less money from all sponsors, all this money from my employer will be spend to buy.... FOOD!
Yes, it may be hard to believe, but this project is struggling to feed about 35 hungry mouths.

What else do we need?
- We need to put this little boy in school (costs Euro 100 for a year)
- We need money to buy washing machines for 3 of the 4 houses

Today was my first day back in PE and Motherwell.
I am blessed to say I have been received with open arms by everybody, which is really heart warming.
Many changes have happened since I was here last year. Some of the house mothers left. There are some new children. Two houses have been re-schuled.

In one of the houses there are now only boys living with a house father.
Since most of the boys are teenagers, it will be hard to persuade them to keep the house tidy.
This will be a big challenge for me and my co-volunteers...

In the room where the two youngest boys are sleeping, it was a mess.
They piled all dirty clothes in the wardrobe so I initiated them starting to clean up.
We will continue with that tomorrow and I have a feeling the older boys will not like me being so strict :-)

For my loyal readers, I am sorry it has taken me such a while to post a new story.
In my 3rd weekend I got pretty ill and during this weekend I have seen the toilet from up close as much as I normally see it in two weeks…
The last week, after this weekend, was kinda hectic and I did not find any time to put my thoughts and experiences on paper since I always want to take my time to write a proper story.
 
Anyway, I guess everybody will understand that I am back home now, but I want to continue to put this project, put these kids, into the spotlight.
There is still so much which needs to be done, so I will continue to plead for these kids, to plead for “my” kids.
I want to continue to find sponsors so if you want to contribute, PLEASE… do let me know.
 
I also still owe it to my current sponsors to inform them what happened with the money they have given me to support the project, so here we go!
 

from a quick internet connection :-)

Still have so many stories to share with you, but I will do this later this week.

Story to follow...

As from yesterday, housemother Maureen temporarily has tw brothers in her house because there are some issues within the family of these two boys.
You can see them on the attached picture and they are both really lovely and friendly boys.
Such a shame that they have to go through this, all because of their family.
Whatever happens within a family, the children always suffer…
 
Although the social worker asked Maureen if the boys could stay, she is not getting money from the government to buy food for these two fellas.
Then there is also Sinethemba and Mhlali for which Maureen also gets no money for food, if I understood it correctly.
 
With the two brothers staying temporarily, this means there are now 13 people living in this small house…!
Apart from this it means many mouths to feed with limited (financial) resources.
 

Although my skin colour is getting darker :-), I still have eyes on me.
This is probably because I am walking around with White Chicks or because I am so extremely cool ;-)
 
The little boys want to shake hands and all kids (boys and girls) smile happily when I greet them. I already know how to the local handshake :-)
 
The kids I see regularly (“my” kids and the neighbour kids of Florence) all want to touch my hair, facial hair and arm hair where ever I am.
I asked one of the older kids why they want to touch my hair and she told me that the little kids think it is so very nice and soft.
I think it is kinda funny that sometimes I have to allow 4 or 5 kids putting hands on my head (touching my hair) at the same time while I am just sitting on the floor.
Apart from that they also want to use me as a climbing three, because these kids are hanging on my arms, legs and neck.

Eric Olverson is riding Tour D'Afrique on his bike from Egypt to South Africa (11000 km) for the Thamsanqa project.

I kindly request everybody to vote for Eric on the following website: http://tourdafrique.com/scripts/contest/articles/23/1/Into-the-Wilderness/Page1.html
(You can also read about his adventures here)

You can also find more on the general website www.tourdafrique.com

If Eric gets the most votes of all contestants, there will be more money available for the Thamsanqa project.

Thanks!