South African Club of the French Riviera & Monaco.

Over this Easter holiday, Giovanni and I will be going to South Africa to help a UK based charity, Kusasa, build a home for children orphaned by AIDS.  We will be building in the KwaZulu Natal province of South Africa, which has the country’s highest HIV infection rate. Most of these victims are between the ages of 18-45.  Put differently, those who once looked after and cared for the children of KwaZulu Natal are quickly being robbed of this ability.  We are very excited about this opportunity to directly help a family that is so desperately in need. 

About Kusasa

Kusasa (which means 'tomorrow' in Zulu) is an organization established by two South Africanliving in London whose wish is to directly reach out to the children of their home country. Kusasa’s mission is to help children affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa. The organization’s first project is to build a home for a child-headed household where the children have been abandoned or orphaned as a result of HIV/AIDS and are now being looked after by the eldest sibling. Children live in derelict homes that give little protection from the cold, wind and rain and leaves them vulnerable to sexual predators and violence. Traditionally, parents would repair these huts and protect the children but, as most HIV/AIDS sufferers are within the 18-45 year age group, the breadwinner and providers of these families have died, leaving the children with no hope and no one to repair and secure the homes. These are mud houses and deteriorate with every rainy season.

The Project

Kusasa aims to build the first house with a group of volunteers over Easter (24 March - 14 April) this year. This will be done in coordination with God's Golden Acre (GGA), a very small but established charity in South Africa, who do wonderful work in the Valley of 1,000 Hills in Zululand . GGA will be identifying the group of children Kusasa will build for and will supply a project manager for the building project. They will also house the building group on their main site, where they care for nearly 100 children who have been abandoned or orphaned as a result of HIV/AIDS. Our other main contact who is in South Africa already, is Nick Bailey, a British Chartered Surveyor who has set up similar projects at GGA for volunteer graduates.

About Gods Golden Acre

 (The following information is courtesy of GGA website: www.godsgoldenacre.org.uk)

God's Golden Acre Khayelihle is a non profit making charity involved in the care of children who have been orphaned or abandoned because of HIV/AIDS related illness and violence. The project is located in the South African province of Kwa Zulu-Natal, in the valley of a 1000 hills.  Rather than simply putting the children in orphanages, God's Golden Acre Khayelihle primarily strives to keep children in their community setting by assisting families using various initiatives to support themselves.

GGA’s aim is to achieve the following:

• To provide children with a good education.
• To assist them to become well-adjusted adults.
• To develop the natural talents and aptitudes of each and every child.
• To provide a caring, loving, nurturing and compassionate community environment.

How you can help

Kusasa has already raised the £2,500 need to pay the costs of the building materials.

Giovanni and I are hoping to raise enough money to cover the costs of our flights for the 2 weeks while in KwaZulu Natal, which should total around £2,000. Any funds we raise beyond our initial £1,500 will be donated directly to God’s Golden Acre, which will be used towards many of the assistance programmes they currently run, including food drops, provision of pre-schools, school fees, sports and theatre/arts projects.

You are welcome to donate solely to God’s Golden Acre if you feel more comfortable with this option.  Please consider checking the “Gift Aid” option on the sponsorship form which will entitle GGA to an additional 28% of the amount you donate. (There is an official declaration to be made for this; we will gladly fill in your relevant details and present the form for your signature) 

We have also been advised that GGA are desperately short of children's underwear, socks, flip-flops, toiletries, toothbrushes and toothpaste for boys and girls age 10-17 years.  Any donations would be so greatly appreciated.

More Information

Should you be interested in learning more about this project or have any questions regarding how your contribution will be used, please feel free to contact us.

Maria: maria_serino@yahoo.co.uk

            079.0443.008

Giovanni: giovannipizzini@hotmail.co.uk

            079.4000.7569

Alternatively, anyone or any organisation who wants to be involved or help in any way can contact either Barbara or Salomé on info@kusasa.org.uk. Or check out Kusasa’s website at www.kusasa.org.uk

Thank you all so very much for your time and hope you will find this project as important and worthy as we do.

Kindest Regards,

Maria and Giovanni

The cocktails and bowling event was quite successful!  Only 18 of our members (not counting children) attended, but it was very friendly and turned out to be a really enjoyable afternoon!  

The members of the new committee were elected; you can discover their names on the Committee page of this website.

We took some photos that you can also see on the website!

We must apologize to the people who did not receive the invitation to this event on time or didn’t receive it at all.  We are actually trying to find a solution regarding the emails… this time there was a problem with the spam filters….  Hopefully Edwin, our new membership’s secretary will be able to sort out something with the events coordinator!  

We strongly recommend those who do receive the emails to talk about the events to the members that they know, to make sure that everyone gets the information.  

Memberships Fees will be taken each September, at the beginning of the School year.  The membership Fee will remain 12 euros per person and 20 euros per couple. 

Well, that is all for today!  We hope to receive everyone’s comments!  

Members and Non-members,

As some of you already know, the last AGM took place on the 28^th of January 2006 in Chateauneuf. 

The Members of the Committee voted for the new President of the Club: Peter Piper.

Several different subjects were discussed, such as future events and most important:  Martie Ferry’s health. 

 Now, the latest news is that Martie, who has been the club’s treasurer for the last 7 years, is not doing any better and is actually struggling to pay for her hospital costs.  You will all agree that after all those years of devotion to the South African Club, it is only normal that we help her in her lasts needs.

We are starting a  'Martie's fund' . Anyone who would like to donate some money to Martie, to help her pay her hospital bill  & possibly aid at home afterwards is welcome to make out a cheque to E. FERRY

 Gabi has offered to collect the cheques at her work address and forward them to Martie's Son.

Gabi's address is :

Gabi Gruber/Fontaine,

28 chemin des Groules,

06600 Antibes.

A newsletter will be sent out soon, however, we thought this message had to come out before!

If you need any other information, please do not hesitate to contact Peter Piper on 06 61 85 15 27 or by email piper_pat@yahoo.fr