Dearest Friends and ‘e’Pap Family’!
Another year behind us – another busy and hectic Christmas season with our towns filled to capacity with family, children, noise, sun and surf almost at its end! We hope you had a blessed time with those you love most and are looking forward to all that 2017 holds in store! We take this opportunity to wish you a meaningful year ahead filled with peace, hope, love, health and joy!
And so it’s back to school for many this week – some moving on to ‘big school’, some into High School and our ‘littlest people’ starting right at the bottom of the ladder in many different crèches, pre-schools and other little places of learning for the very first time right at the beginning of their long educational journey! I wish I could remember more clearly my very first day of school – I do know I had a big smile and hope all our little ones are ready and eager for their first day!
As we enter into our 15th year of feeding, this is always an exciting time as we visit schools and witness the children experiencing their first tastes of e’Pap! We are so grateful that we can start them off right from the beginning with a healthy nutritious meal every single day! Thanks to you all and our many wonderful donors across the world, e’Pap really can make a difference and contribute hugely to getting them off to a healthy start.
We are looking forward to the year ahead and so very grateful that our intrepid and humble leader, Shelley Godsell, is picking up the reins of e’Pap again and moving us forward into another year of feeding for our precious ‘little people’ all along the Garden Route.
Blessings again to you all and many thanks for your ongoing support. As always – a couple of photos attached which I hope will bring you joy!
With love and care
Annie Ogilvie and all on the e’Pap Team
Once again a huge thanks to you all for your very generous and regular monthly commitments towards the feeding of our precious children. It really makes a big difference and its is especially at this time of year when we really see a difference and the advantages of a daily nutritious meal.
I visited all my schools in Sedgefield yesterday and the kids were looking just great – very few coughs and colds and they were all well covered and I observed some excellent teaching. Many of our teachers are sponsored by e’Pap to upgrade their teaching skills and it was exciting to see what many of them are achieving and the precious way the children were responding.
Two weeks ago I had the privilege of being a volunteer as we started feeding 150 children – all the Grade R’s and Grade 1’s – in the Sedgefield township of Smutsville. It’s a school of 640 primary school children, with most of them coming from very impoverished backgrounds. On day one we started off with Shelley and Lally, the founders of e’Pap, 2 volunteers plus the 3 cooks – and the swarms arrived! Being used to having Mielie Meal first thing in the morning, we had to encourage the little ones to try e’Pap – some came back for second and even third helpings, a couple struggled to get used to the taste and texture, but yesterday on day 8 of feeding, we feel we have really come a long way! We are slowly ironing out the few little hiccups and with the great support of the school, we are hoping to see increasingly positive results by the end of this term and then on into the future.
Attached are a few photos taken on the first day – it’s a VERY hectic hour from 7 – 8 every morning, but well worth getting up for, seeing the pink sunrise over the township and the happy little faces as they skip off to school with full tummies!
Once again our heartfelt thanks for your ongoing generosity!
With love and care
Annie and all on the e’Pap Team!