Grade 10 and more

A happy festive season to all. Another year has passed and it's been a year of firsts. We started supporting our first student, Thandi Saliem. We had our first Mother's Day Brunch which was a success. We had our first fundraising dinner which unfortunately was not a success but a great learning opportunity. We have two new students whose academic records were good enough to get them accepted at two top schools. We started a small library at 13 Magnolia Road, Uitsig. And all with your support - Thank you. I cannot wait to see what next year has in store for CDC and the community we serve.

Thandi has passed to Grade 10! This has been quite a challenging year for her. She had to learn to travel to school alone, she had to adjust to a new environment which had higher expectations of her than her previous school, and she had to fit in and make new friends. None of which was easy. For those unfamiliar with the South African school system - Primary school goes from Grade R to Grade 7 (aged 6/7-12/13) and High School goes from Grade 8 to Grade 12.

Caylin has passed to Grade 12. Her last year at school which will be dominated not only by exams but by the long awaited Matric Ball. The Matric Ball is a going away formal dance for the Grade 12 students. This is usually the first time that the students get to dress up and could be seen as equivalent to the Prom in USA.

Keasha and Alison are excited to start at Jan van Riebeek next year. They will attend a welcoming camp in January. Although their home situations are not ideal (far from it), both girls were loathe to live at a hostel. Taking this into consideration, CDC decided that the girls would travel to school from their homes, but we will be monitoring their home environment and academic progress on an ongoing basis. In the meantime, we are still looking for a host family in Cape Town to offer them a stable home environment and to give them support with homework and school projects.

We are still looking for premises for our after care facility. The parish priest at Holy Trinity Catholic Church could not help us since his premises are regularly used by the parish members.

The small 'library' at 13 Magnolia Road, Uitsig, is being used regularly. I will be flying to Cape Town for my annual visit and will take some more books and educational toys. If you have any you would like to donate, please don't hesitate to contact me. I'll gladly fetch any books or toys you may have to offer.

Thank you for your continued support.

Our bank details:

Bank: Credit Suisse
A/c Holder: Care and development of Children
Address: Grand-Rue 17, 1700 Fribourg
Konto: 1896248-01
IBAN CH04 0483 5189 6248 0100 0

In Cape Town:

Bank - Nedbank

A/c Holder: Care and development of Children

a/c no.:  1012972488

Branch code: 108309