I can’t believe that we have already completed 15 days of our POP winter school holiday programme for 2010! Time flies when you have fun and we had lots and lots of fun with our POP children and youth so far.

We were very happy when Sally Kruger and her two friends Rene and Annalie joined us from Simon’s Town and Somerset West for three days of our art and culture week which ran from Monday, 21 June 2010 – Friday, 25 July 2010. They spent time in our POP Youth Centre on Goedgedacht farm as well as in our Southern Cross POP Youth Centre in Riebeek Kasteel teaching our children how to make vuvuzelas and makarapas (soccer hats!) out of newspapers. Our local newspaper provided us with lots of old newspapers and Sally and her friends brought with them some paint, glue and other materials which they received as donations from their friends and for which we were very grateful for. Marieta Jooste showed some POP youth how to make an ittua box (see picture!) and Andries Dirks helped some boys to make small soccer toys out of wire.

On the Friday of this week, we were joined by a group of visiting guests from Germany who all learned the Waka Waka dance and taught our children some German words, songs and games. It was a week of great fun and I could not have better summed it up than Sally in her e-mail when she wrote: “I miss you all already. As challenging and chaotic as it was with so many children and not knowing the routine and what to expect, I just loved being involved. I can’t wait to come back. Inspite of the deprivation there is a beautiful simplicity and energy both in the children the staff, which we loved.”

The past week (Monday, 28 June 2010 – Friday, 2 July 2010) we concentrated on helping our POP youth from 14 years and older from Goedgedacht farms, Riebeek Kasteel, Riebeek West, Elandskloof farm and Algeria to understand our concept of servant leadership which is about developing leadership skills and capacity not to enrich oneself only but more so the community of which we are part of. A group of 84 young people gathered at Goedgedacht farm and learned more about the different types of leaders in our rural communities, characteristics of a servant leader and how to unlock their imagination (in other words dream) to come up with creative solutions for very complexed issues that face our rural communities. This, we believe, was the start of our dream which is to have a POP Youth Leadership Academy on Goedgedacht farm in the near future that will train many young people from all rural communities in servant leadership but more so help them to start dreaming again…

We received a pleasant visit from our POP supporters Jan and Franka Dekker from Holland who visited us in 2007 for the first time with their family, John and Charlotte van Zyl who live in South Africa and this past week they came back to see how things have developed since then. They were delighted to see the progress made by POP and enjoyed thoroughly.

Edlyne and her volunteers helped the Valley Empowerment Project (VEP) from Riebeek West to host a serious of arts workshops which was offered to about 90 children from Riebeek West, Hermon and Riebeek Kasteel.

I never thought when we planned this programme that it would not only keep children and youth busy during this extended school holidays due to the soccer world cup but become such an essential opportunity to provide in the very basic need of a child – feeding more than 350 very hungry and needy children and youth.

BUT it ain’t over yet…. We still have another 5 days to make sure our children are fed and this coming week we will be concentrating on health and recreational activities.

Thanks to all of you who have opened your hearts, hands and purses to make this holiday programme possible. Please keep reading this blog and send us your comments. We love to hear from you.

Lots of love
Ingrid