The Shelter

The Shelter After the establishment of AHOS as a non –profit organisation and the financial commitment of the Athlone Institute Trust to support the Shelter with an interest free loan of ZAR 500.000 the building of the shelter could start in May 2005. The contract price of the building was ZAR 1.500.000 but with the […]

Holland Early Learning Centre

The idea of the Child Care Centre was to take care of the children of abused mothers while their mothers were working or and also provide pre-school care for about 20 children

Job Skill Centre

Part of the vision of AHOS is to work towards ending all forms of abuse against women and children. To restore a wholesome family life to all victims of abuse and assist them to become productive citizens.

Kaya Thembi Secondary Housing

Because the vision of AHOS is to restore a wholesome family life and to reintegrate victims of abuse wherever possible with their families, there was also a need for Secondary Housing.

Vital Health Counseling Centre

The mission of the Counselling Centre is to provide the counselling and support to victims and their families and to reunite families where possible.

Golf

Many golf clubs have traditionally been involved with charities.

Several golf events have raised over ZAR 200.000 (South African Rand) for AHOS in the last couple of years.

Golfbaan Welschap has organized a Charity Golf day for AHOS by selling 4 balls, finding many sponsors for great prizes and raised € 12.500!

Golf and Countryclub Midden-Brabant organized several activities during their traditional golf week and by doing so the members raised € 7,500!

The Cullen family in England have donated several years already a big part of their charity auction results at Vincent’s memorial golf day to AHOS and the children of Paarl!

“Kessels en Co” organizes an informal golf day with just family and friends every year and has collected money for AHOS at the end of the day during the dinner by having a simple lottery for a new putter.

A great game with friends can be even better if you add a contribution for a good cause to it by sharing your excitement and happiness this way with childrenofpaarl.

Jewellery

For several years volunteers have been making jewellery that is sold at jewellery parties in Holland, England and South Africa!

Only the material cost is paid by Childrenofpaarl. So 100% of the profit is for AHOS and the Holland Early Learning Centre!

Marjo and Susan are the initiators and creators of most of the jewellery and many other families have opened their home to invite their family and friends and host a jewellery party.

Enough money was raised out of this initiative to pay for the first family home “Kaya Thembi”: place of hope.

Canvas Sales

Just before printing on canvas became a commodity childrenofpaarl worked together with MYOWNLISA to offer prints at charity sales, auctions and through the Internet site.

Images were donated free of charge by amateur photographers and artist and the printing company MYOWNLISA printed the canvas paintings with a big discount for childrenofpaarl.

The most successful picture is the eye of an elephant that is hanging now in many houses and offices in a size of 100cm x 100 cm! Other best sellers at 50 x 50 are “the girl with a smile”, “Lavendel” and “Afrikaanse zwemles”.

The canvas sale has donated many thousands of South African Rand for AHOS.

Corporate responsibility

More and more companies are supporting the employees in making a difference at other projects outside their work.

Many companies in South Africa, Holland and Germany have made contributions in several ways.

Schretlen & Co, the private bank from the Rabobank in Holland committed 4 employees to help with activities during a golf sponsor day and on top of that donated € 5.000 euro for AHOS.

Kopf und Lübben from Bremen sponsored the shipping of the containers from Holland to Paarl with the help of their South African partner Katlego Global Logistics, donated an empty container for AHOS that is used as much needed storage space and organized a charity auction in Bremen where they raised money for AHOS.

Molco Developments in Paarl is sponsoring their time and knowledge by controlling all the money that gets into the childrenofpaarl account in Paarl and managing the cash flow to AHOS and other projects without charging any cost.

Wings of Support, employees of KLM, have donated the jungle gym for the Holland Early Learning Centre.

Werner Kruger from Kinetek in Paarl has spend a lot of time helping out to set up IT infrastructure and prepare the computers from the containers for use at @Comlab or at AHOS.

This Internet site is made possible with the volunteered design work of Martijn from DC in Rotterdam and hosted for free by Syzygy in Frankfurt, Germany.

Reinder van Raalte works as IT specialist new development at the RET in Rotterdam. When replacing computers for new windows PC’s he joined forces with his brother Willem who is the CEO of Da Vinci Europe and who agreed to clean and setup the computers for use at our projects in Paarl, South Africa.

Many other companies contributed in different ways.
Sometimes with donations of goods, sometimes with donations of time, sometimes with donations of money.

Run, Arjen, Run!

Arjen Onderwater visited AHOS in November 2009 with 3 friends. He was one of the last persons who got a tour from founder John Martin before John got too sick from cancer to show people around and talk about his dreams.

Arjen was impressed with the work of many volunteers and the stories from John about the mothers and children who had to deal with home abuse.

When Arjen started to train for the New York Marathon he knew he wanted to find sponsors for AHOS and the childrenofpaarl who would donate an amount for every kilometre he would finish.

Martijn made a logo, we built a special page on a website where people could mail Arjen with a donation per kilometre and Arjen and his friends started mailing their family and friends.

Within 2 weeks an amount of € 35 euro per kilometre was committed to and at the time of the race Arjen raised 42 x ZAR 630 = ZAR 26.500!

The counter on the website was followed closely with great excitement by the volunteers in Paarl who have all been cheering for Arjen!

We Are the World

Recording a music video

Instead of organizing a birthday party a couple of friends decided to record the song “We are the world” at the Stu Stu Studio, Holland in September 2008.

All the friends brought money hidden in paper flowers for AHOS and the Holland Early Learning Centre.

They had the whole experience video taped and put it on YouTube. You can watch it at the GALLARY section under video’s.

By doing so they had a wonderful experience with lots of fun. Realised that they could actually do things that they didn’t think was possible and at the same time raised € 1.500 for AHOS.

The Container

In 2006 we started with collecting goods to fill a container for schools and AHOS in Paarl.

The idea was adopted by Marjanne Weggemans who has been a great motivator for this project. She kept everybody informed with pictures and stories at her website:  HYPERLINK “http://www.container.waarbenjij.nu” www.container.waarbenjij.nu .

The first container was filled with everything we could get. Many clothes (for adults and children), toys, books, audio and video equipment, furniture to use for the Shelter and child care centre, bicycles, computers etc. etc. etc…

Three companies in Vlaardingen played an important role: Van Zanten Construction offered us storage space during the whole year, TECA took care of shipping goods from the UK to Holland and Dijkshoorn International movers took care of packing all the goods in a professional way in the container when we were ready to ship.

Computers who were donated by companies like RET in Rotterdam and Fujitsu-Siemens were initially shipped to Davinci Europe in Rotterdam where the IT department took care of upgrading and cleaning the systems before they were transported to the storage at Van Zanten.

Marjanne took care of checking all the materials, collecting goods and making packing list and papers for customs in South Africa. Fortunately she had great help from her family, Petra, Gert and Tiny.

The first (40 foot!) container was shipped in 2006.

The shipping was done also free of charge by Kopf und Lübben from Bremen, Germany in cooperation with Katlego Global Logistics in South Africa.

The second container was shipped end 2007 and had again lots of clothes, furniture and also musical instruments for the start of Morné Meyer’s new music school and the 3^rd and last container was shipped in the end of 2008 and arrived the beginning of 2009. Because of all the problems with the South African customs we did not include any clothes anymore.

With all the containers we were able to decorate all three buildings of AHOS and helped many other institutions like the Paarl Children Hospital with clothes and toys, Schools with computers and Audio and video materials and sport equipment (all the stuff from a sporting hall by a school in Eindhoven was shipped!). Too much to list at this site.

Overall we have helped more than 30 institutions in and around Paarl with stuff from the containers.

Why was there no container in 2010?

To collect everything was a lot of work and after three years and three containers Marjanne had to focus on her health.

All the participating companies were still willing to continue with the container help. But in South Africa the paper work with customs became more and more difficult. John Martin had to drive up to the office in Cape Town many times and was able to get the import permit after 3 months of hard work with the help of Katlego and many discussions with government officials.

Unfortunately clothes are not anymore permitted to be included in shipment to South Africa. Unfortunately John Martin is not among us anymore. He died after a long battle with cancer. And Unfortunately Marjanne had to stop because of personal health situation.

The containers have helped many people and institutions.

If you feel you should pick-up the container story contact Marjanne@childrenofpaarl.com

Supporting Schools

We believe that a good education for everybody is the way to get a better way of living for all South Africans in the long term.

We are also supporting schools in the coloured neighbourhood of Paarl.

The people have very little income to pay for the schools and the schools are struggling to facilitate the very basic needs for the children.

We are always looking for people who would like to help with contacts, money or useful goods.

With the help of many companies and people we have been able to ship a container with goods to Paarl in November 2006.
The first container was full with furniture and clothes for the different AHOS buildings.
But the same companies have agreed to sponsor the shipment of a second container in January 2008! In this container we have been able to include a lot of stuff for the schools in Paarl.

We have been able to support schools with “old” but usable computers (!) for the Students.

We have been able to supply the Noorder Paarl High School with gymnastic stuff and basketball stands.

Printers and Audio and Visual equipment was very welcome at the schools as well.

With money we have been able to decorate a teachers room at the high school and in March 2006 we have organized a day trip of 1024 children of the Dalweide Elementary School to the sea. Even though they live only 60 kilometers from the coast most of these children has never seen the sea. The school based a whole educational programm around this trip.

Music

We believe that a good education for everybody is the way to get a better way of living for all South Africans in the long term.

This does not only apply to traditional schooling but there are so many children with talents that will never be developed because they don’t get the chance to discover it.

This can be for a future as an artist, a painter, a sculpture, a musician etc…

In 2007 the people behind childrenofpaarl collected musical instruments to help Morné Meijer accomplish a dream.

Morné’s dream was to find the talented children in the townships and coloured neighbourhoods and be able to offer them music lessons even if they cannot afford to buy or rent instruments.

We wrote letters to music stores and ask around in the circle of friends and supporters of childrenofpaarl for good instruments that were not used anymore but in good condition.

With the second container we were able to ship a Piano, Guitars, Keyboards, Saxophone, Trumpets, Percussion instruments and many other nice instruments. Some new, some used but all in good condition.

It was overwhelming and with another financial support from childrenofpaarl Morné could buy a drum set and have everything ready to start his Music School.

The first year the school worked out of the Holland Child Care Centre. The next year the Child Care Centre had become so big that childrenofpaarl decided to sponsor a separate space in Wellington.

Morné and his students of the Make More Music School had their first concert during a charity golf day for AHOS in Paarl in December 2008.