Trustee Tania Collins fundraises on behalf of our sister charity Community Heart whose aim is to fill up all the empty school library shelves in South Africa with appropriate donated books in good condition. She spends her evenings making various crafts to sell such as jewellery, candles, purses, Xmas and birthday cards, jams and pick-a-stick prizes for children. With the money she makes she buys newchildren’s books, especially featuring black children and African history.Then, together with books donated from local schools, we pack them up and send them to Community Heart for onward transport to South Africa. Over the years she has raised thousands of pounds for the Community Heart charity.
Tania had a stall at all the fairs and events listed above plus specialist craft fairs. She is absolutely tireless and unstoppable in her endeavour to help South African children. The pictures below show Tania with other Thuso trustees on her stall.
Garden Party 2009
This year we were well prepared for the heavy rains forecast – but the sunny weather held out and a wonderful garden party was enjoyed by all.
Tony Dykes, director of ACTSA, speaking about the 50 year celebrations of the Anti Apartheid Movement.
Mmapula Tladi-Small (Waltham Forest THUSO in South Africa Chair) gives an update on progress. THUSO now sponsors over 50 students through the Thuto Lesedi School and the feeding programme that Thuso contributes to “as hungry children can’t learn”.
Makola and Elijah demonstrating the gumboot dancing they learned on an exchange visit to Vosloorus in 2000 – and people joining in!
As a precaution we put up two gazebos on Sunday June 7th but the forecast rain stayed away when we held our Annual Fundraising Garden Party at Gerard and Naima Omasta-Milsom’s garden in Walthamstow. The food that we offered went down a treat – especially Naima’s signature dish – authentic cous-cous – which was a triumph.Tony Dykes, the director of Action for Southern Africa, gave a speech celebrating 50 years of the Anti Apartheid Movement. He recalled how it was set up in 1959 to demand an end to apartheid in South Africa by means of sanctions and political isolation and changed the world for the better. In 1994 after the first democratic elections in South Africa the movement regrouped as Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA), which by working with the people of Southern Africa to overcome the legacy of apartheid aimed to build a future of rights, justice and democracy for the region.Our Chair Mmapula Tladi-Small then spoke about her recent trip to South Africa during which she visited Thuto Lesedi School where our sponsors now support 50 mostly AIDS orphans through the school by paying their school fees. She was able to report that most of the Matriculation class students had successfully gained their diplomas. She also reported on the feeding programme to which Thuso contributes. In comparison to previous visits when she had found the students lethargic due to hunger they were now much more lively and engaged in classes and positive about their futures. The teachers assured her that without Thuso’s support the feeding programme could not continue. Mmapula ended by thanking all our supporters for their help.
Trustee Tania Collins then introduced Makola and Elijah who demonstrated Gumboot dancing that they had learned on a visit to Vosloorus in South Africa in 2000. He explained that the dance was originated by South African miners. Makola got us all chanting the rhythm and several people joined in the dancing – without the gumboots!
Niles entertained us with a drumming session which was a enjoyed by all and Kwame did his stuff with the raffle which was a great success.
There was a variety of plants on sale as well as beaded jewellery hand-made by a Women with AIDs Co-operative.
The event raised over £1,000 which will help us to continue support for the feeding programme at the school.
Waltham Forest Thuso in South Africa thanks everyone who attended the Garden Party and particularly the children who donated books for the Community Heart Charity to send to South African school libraries.
Annual Garden Party – Sunday 7th June 1-5pm
This year’s fundraising garden party will again be at
37 Grosvenor Park Road, Walthamstow, London E17 9PD
(between Hoe Street and Pembroke Road – see map below)
on Sunday, 7th June 2009, from 1 to 5pm.
The fundraising garden party is to support young people, many of them AIDS orphans, at Thuto Lesedi Secondary School in South Africa with a much needed feeding programme.
WE DESPERATELY NEED YOUR HELP TO DO THIS.
LUNCH: a wide selection of delicious home-cooked dishes including vegetarian
DONATIONS
Adults: £7 includes 1 free glass of wine/beer (add’l glasses £1.00)
Children: £2.50
Under 5’s: Free
All soft drinks free!!!!
UPDATE: Presentation on project progress to date at 2 o’clock
GUMBOOT DANCE WORKSHOP: 3pm – join in and have a go!
RAFFLE: Will be drawn at 4 o’clock
FOR SALE: plants and cards
Fig Trees for Sale!
Zannetos Christoforou has managed to keep Waltham Forest THUSO in South Africa supplied with plants of all description over the past three years for fundraising purposes. Retiring some years ago from his job as a Chief Biochemist in an NHS hospital, Chris, as he is affectionately known to friends and former colleagues, enjoyed spending his spare time in his garden raising plants and sharing his figs with friends and relatives.
His ambition over the years was to get the fig plant grown in this country to perform in the same way as that of his native Cyprus. As a Greek Cypriot living in London for many years, Chris has over the years, by trial and error, spent a great deal of time and a small fortune in his efforts to replicate the fig tree as grown in his native Cyprus. As a result of his hard labours over the years he eventually came up with plants capable of tolerating, surviving and producing fruits despite the occasional severe British weather conditions.
On a recent visit to Cyprus, Chris was convinced that figs grown in his London garden are far ‘superior in taste’ to those he was accustomed to as a young man living in Cyprus.

WFTISA is kept regularly supplied by Chris with brown, purple and green fig trees for sale. Fig trees grown in the open ground can usually be left to their own devices when it comes to feeding and watering.Figs should be pruned annually in order to keep them to a reasonable size, (pruning in December or January). The fruits should be left to ripen on the plant; one can detect when they are ready for picking when the fruits change colour by turning brown or purple. Fig pants can also be grown in large containers.
Don’t worry if your fig trees shed their foliage in the Autumn as the leaves will return in the Spring when plants begin to show signs of renewed life.
With the help of his wife Irene and the company of his pet rabbit, Chris continues to work with great enthusiasm in his efforts to maintain a regular supply of plants for our organisation. We welcome and appreciate this work as we are able to sell plants regularly at THUSO stalls at various fetes and local events. Chris provides us with much-needed fund-raising material so that we can continue to help support the destitute children at the Thuto Lesedi School.
So next time you see our stall at a local event – make sure you get yourself one of Chris’s special figs and enjoy the scrumptious fruits.
CONGRATULATIONS TO NTEBALENG MARUPING!
Ntebaleng Maruping is one of the students at Thuto Lesedi School whose education has been funded for the last few years by Thuso’s Sponsorship Scheme. We have received the brilliant news that she has gained a place at Vaal University of Technology to study Tourism Management. We are delighted with her success! She is the first of our sponsored students to go on to University and we hope that with your help in funding children through school there will be many more of the Thuto Lesedi students moving on to tertiary education.
Vaal University is situated not far from Vereeniging in Gauteng Province and is 50 kilometres from Johannesburg. It attracts students from all over South Africa, and currently has 17,000 students. The campus is huge and modern and has excellent teaching and sporting facilities. There is an emphasis on career- focused diplomas and degrees and many programmes include practical experience.
We are very pleased to be able to help Ntebaleng with the cost of fees, accommodation and books etc from our general fundraising account and wish her every success in the future.
VISIT TO THUTO LESEDI SCHOOL
Our Chair Mmapula Tladi Small flew to South Africa in early February and will be visiting Thuto Lesedi School in Vosloorus, nr Johannesburg where our sponsors very kindly pay annual school fees for Aids orphans. She will meet the sponsored students and find out about their general well being and how they are doing at the school. The headteacher will also introduce her to the new tranche of students we hope to find sponsors for next year. Mmapula will also be able to see how the feeding programme is progressing and how things are in general at the school so that we can review our donation strategy for next year.
We are hoping that Mmapula will be able to bring back letters from the sponsored children, their school reports for last year and a recent photograph – and we will send these to sponsors as soon as we have them.
As a trustee of our sister Charity ” Community H.E.A.R.T.” she will also be undetaking an on the ground review of their “Book and 10pence” campaign. Community H.E.A.R.T. collect books from a variety of souces and ship them to South Africa with the aim of setting up a library in every school. Waltham Forest Thuso in South Africa has been helping to collect books for this campaign since its inception. To date 2.4 million books have been shipped (thanks to the Co-operative Society Ltd.). There are over 250,000 schools in South Africa and there is still a long way to go. Mmapula is tasked to assess the impact of this book scheme on the schools that she will visit during her trip.