2006 quarterly newsletter Jan-Mar

THE YEAR SO FAR – Jan to Mar 2006

Dear Friends of Manzini Youth Care,

It has been a very busy start to 2006 with many new projects underway thanks to the financial support of friends and donors a like. As a new year resolution, we plan to be in more regular contact with you all, to update you on our progress and successes.

Likusasa Life Skills Centre

New premises for Likusasa Life Skills Center were officially opened in December last year. The minister for Education and the Regional Administrator for Manzini attended and addressed the crowd.

New equipment for the workshops is still being sought, with the number of students having more than doubled to over 200 students this year. A new tourism course has been particularly popular and we are meeting with industry to set up student work experience placements with businesses to give these young people the greatest chance of obtaining employment at the completion of their courses. It appears that more than ever, non-formal technical training programmes, that are affordable for young people, are in demand.

Hluma

Hluma, meaning growth, is a new initiative for MYC. With a new project coordinator starting with us this year, this project aims to provide a specific group of young men with the business and work experience skills to ultimately make a living for themselves. For some time we have realized that there is little social support available to those young men that struggle to fit into regular society. This programme aims to equip such men with practical life skills such as money management, as well as get them working on income generating projects contracted to the Hluma work team. The idea is to get them used to working conditions on the outside whilst still providing a safety net for those that continue to struggle to meet the external work expectations.

Social Outreach

It has continued to be a busy year within the social outreach area. Several more wells have been constructed and the soup kitchen, constructed last year, is now serving daily meals to around 200 young children within the Ticancweni community. The rural health motivators begin food preparations each day at around nine in the morning, cooking mainly beans or vegetable soup combined with pap. Early afternoon, after school, the children begin arriving and recording their names on the daily attendance roster. At meal time, the children sing several songs, say a prayer and then line up to receive their meal. It is a lovely, festive atmosphere at the kitchen each day, full of smiling, food smeared faces.

Bursary

This year, MYC is delighted to welcome aboard the Solon Foundation of Switzerland as its major bursary donor. The Solon Foundation has provided funds to cover all the current children on the MYC bursary. Although it is only a one-year grant, provided we meet all reporting requirements, the Foundation is keen to follow all these children throughout their primary school education. It is a tremendous contribution and a welcome relief to the organisation when trying to meet the large cost of the bursary and relying only on the assistance of friends like you.

MYC Homes

We have been fortunate to have received two major grants focused on the MYC homes. The first was a grant of E189,000 from the Australian government’s overseas aid programme AusAID. This was for purchase and installation of solar hot water systems in all five homes plus MacCorkindale village. As well as being a very environmentally friendly source of energy, these systems should save at least 70% of our electricity bills, therefore saving the organisation over E25,000 a year.

The Japanese government has also generously provided us with a grant worth over E170,000 for renovations of three of our homes. The grant will cover replacements of roofs and ceilings, painting, purchase of couches, mattresses, blankets, curtains, refurbishment of bathrooms and other necessary and overdue work. Part of this renovation will be an education programme directed at the boys asking them to respect and take care of their homes. We want these homes to be true places of refuge for our boys.

Funding

A recent volunteer, Joyce Gallie, organised the production of a DVD, depicting a hopeful story of the lives of the boys living under our care. We were fortunate to have her son, Luke, a professional filmmaker, come with his family to visit Swaziland and film and produce the DVD. The first screening took place at the South African Embassy in London, attended by 90 invited guests. On the evening over 9000 Pounds was pledged to assist MYC with the continued care of these special children. Further fundraising efforts will be conducted in various places with the aid of these images.

In addition to those mentioned above we have also been very fortunate to have recently received the following grants: Coca-Cola Africa Foundation – construction of a new transitional school, Salesian Rector Major – feeding scheme, audio-visual equipment, catechism classroom

Thank you for your continual support, interest and prayer. God Bless.

Fr Larry