St Francis Outreach Trust

Gardening chores

2012-01-20T07:52:00.000-08:00

Children are very excited using for the first time their new watering cans donated by friends from Germany. Being a hot day the watering went much further than the plants.

Molly making sure the vegetable plants get enough water, so they can be harvested soon.

Summer News

2012-01-20T07:25:00.001-08:00

Assistant Foster Mother

Elizabeth is the assistant foster mom, supporting Joyce in her role as house mother. She's a warmhearted person much loved by the children. She has settled in well, and is a great help to Joyce. The home is radiates happiness and there's a settled routine. The children are responding well to the special care and attention. Joyce is remarkable with her practical attitude towards raising her new family. The children are bonding well together and the house is now a home with children who behave together as siblings would.

Love Quilts

2011-08-06T23:20:00.000-07:00

Joyce and Gretchen - the picture says it all! No words can convey the heartfelt thanks for the gift of the love quilts. Members of the St Peters Episcopal Church through the past two years have given richly of themselves towards the "Home to Grow" project. For the congregation it went beyond just giving funding support. Their visit this week has cemented the bonds between the two communities. Symbolic of this bond is the gift of seven love quilts. The infinite care in the making and the detail of design and is truly inspirational. 120 children from St Peter's Sunday School designed representations of their love on small squares. Gretchen Ginnerty undertook the overall design, and a team of quilters and needlepointers from the church sewed the images into the quilts. The house mother's quilt is based on a traditional log cabin design symbolising the bonds of the home. Rainbow colours were chosen to represent the links of the rainbow nation. Each quilt is a treasure and a unique work of art.

2011-08-04T12:54:00.000-07:00

The intangibles in life mean so much - the links and connections, the bonds between people. The St Francis Outreach Trust is blessed to have the support of the congregation of the St Peters Episcopal Church in Arlington, Virginia. The group of 27 have come on a visit to see the outcome of 2 years of fundraising and support for the community.

2011-08-04T12:38:00.000-07:00

Building on Blessings

2011-08-04T12:18:00.000-07:00

Building this house became a project built on hope, faith and prayer. Now a reality, those connected with the project are truly blessed. St Francis Outreach Trust had the tremendous good fortune in having St Peters Episcopal Church in Arlington, Virginia partnering the venture. They have been truly inspirational in their commitment of support.

We are laying the foundation of our first Homes To Grow

2010-05-28T03:28:00.000-07:00

On the 15th June 2010 at 3pm the retired Archbishop of Cape Town,His Grace Njongonkulu Ndungane,who is our revered Patron,will be blessing the foundation of the first 'Homes To Grow' foster Home in Masiphumelele,a township in the southern Cape Peninsula.Thereafter we will meet for refreshments at the local library and give thanks to the Lord and the many donors in South Africa,USA ,Switzerland and Germany,volunteers and wellwishers that have made our rapid progress possible.We have enough funds to put the roof on the structure and hope ,with Gods help,to raise additional capital for the fixtures,fittings,funiture,solar panels and gardening that is needed.

An Easter fundraising event at Longbeach Mall

2010-04-05T04:16:00.000-07:00

Andrina and Monika selling a variety of handcrafted wares.

Dianna Higgs marketing the goods!

The response to the Easter table at the mall was very encouraging. This was our second fundraising event held at this venue and again we are humbled by the support of the community. We appreciate not only their generous giving of funds, but also the steady encouragement for the project. There is much concern for the vulnerable - for children who do not have a secured future. Where will the future lead if we do not take steps to look after the needs of today?
Again we extend our thanks to Alana Lochner of Growthpoint Management for her support.

Raffle Winner!

2009-12-28T12:49:00.000-08:00

Diana Higgs (right) on behalf of SFOT, presents the TV to the delighted winner, Ann McAdam. (18-12-09).

Raffle Draw - 16th December.

2009-12-28T12:35:00.000-08:00

Monika du Sautoy and Diana Higgs drawing the winning raffle ticket for the 32" flatscreen TV. The holder of the winning ticket is Miss Ann McAdam of Fish Hoek. Uwe Hass, chairperson of the trust took the opportunity to thank all the trustees for their support and hard work during the year.

Table At Longbeach Mall 9 - 14 November.

2009-12-28T12:06:00.000-08:00

The week of fundraising at Longbeach mall was most successful. Our thanks go to the community for their valued suppport.

Diana Higgs and Monika du Sautoy, trustees of SFOT.

Alana Lochner, (Marketing Manager) Growthpoint with Sir Rupert Bromley, SFOT trustee.

We Are Steaming Ahead

2009-11-22T12:36:00.000-08:00

The Table at the Long Beach Mall prooved to be a great success ,not only financially but also as a means of promoting awareness of our aims to our immediate community.
It also afforded to members and supporters of the Trust to experience fellowship on the road to our first goal-the building and supporting a foster home for orphaned and vulnerable children in Masiphumelele.
We are greatful to Growthpoint,the mangers of The Long Beach Mall for allowing us to
have this week in order to raise funds for our cause at no charge to us .Thanks to Allana Lochner,the Marketing Manager!We are also greatful to our Vice-Chairperson Monika ,who has excelled herself in her organising ability.!Thanks to Liz Hardman who started it all.
We raised roughly R15000 selling calenders,cards,homemade blankets,cookies,toys,bric a brac,flowers and raffle tickets for a 32" LCD TV the draw being the 16 December 2009.Well done guys!!!We hope that the remaining 500 beautiful calenders of our part of the peninsula will sell before they reach the end of their 'Sell By Date' early next year. Anybody who has a good idea phone me. 021 7865487.
All our Trustees and members have been dedicating their time,expenses and donations to our aims- Thank You. We are hopng to have enough funds to start building by the end of 2010 ,God willing. Remember the Kids we are doing it for.
We thank Anna Fernau of St Peter's,Arlington,USA for the donation of $2500 they have earmarked for us and the support from Europe .
We are exited that the following organisations have pledged to support us in selling our calenders:
St Margaret Church Fish Hoek,MOODS Fish Hoek,SJ Kelly Accountants Fish Hoek,Moon Light Meander Muizenberg,SJ Kruger Attorneys Rondebosch,and African Hope Craft Sunny Acres.
Partners in Caring are Holiday Inn Hotels Nationwide ,Lumber City Retreat and First National Bank Long Beach Mall.

Thank you for YOUR support!

In fellowship,

Uwe Hass
Chairperson

A Table At The Long Beach Mall

2009-10-29T11:57:00.000-07:00

From the 9th to the 15th of November you can buy the most exquisite,beautiful,useful and tasty things this side of the "Lentil Curtain" at our table at the Sun Valley Long Beach Mall.
The Trustees, Members and Supporters of the St Francis Outreach Trust
have excelled themselves in producing exciting products for our fund raising drive
to build and support our first foster home in Masiphumelele.The vulnerable,abandoned and orphaned children of our area deserve no less. They are the real victims of our society!
We will be selling our ST FRANCIS calender, with two months to view pages ,to sit next to your phone or hanging on the wall,featuring the glorious views of our beautiful' Deep South 'in panorama at R 45.00 each. Ideal for your family and friends overseas.There will also be Diaries,greeting cards,needle work,German christmas cookies,cut flowers and tickets for a pre christmas raffle of a flatscreen 32" LCD TV with a 2 year guarantee at R10.
See You There!

A Letter from Washington DC

2009-09-22T08:45:00.000-07:00

Dear Diana, Monika and Uwe,

I hope you all are well and moving forward with your wonderful project in Masi. I wanted to write and let you know that our church, St. Peter’s, has officially agreed to work with your church on the Masi project and develop a mission program. I met with our Rector a week ago and then our missions Chair this week and they were both very enthusiastic. Today, we had our Service Opportunities Fair at church and I now have a committee of over 15 people to help out with our South Africa missions project. And on November 15th, I will do a presentation to the entire church on the Masi project and how we might be able to help. Also, the new Bishop of Viriginia is meeting with the Diocesan missions coordinator this week to discuss the Diocese involvement with Africa. I’ve been asked to draft a quick memo to brief him on the South African project and our church’s involvement.

I would love to get status updates on how the project is moving forward and what you need help with, now and on a recurring basis as time allows you to provide them. It would also be great to get websites for your church, the Trust, and any Tax ID information you have the shows the non-profit status of the Trust.

In the meantime, I hope to work on various fundraisers through the committee. We will try and see what amount we can send you in the short run from our missions budget (it will be small) and then work out a plan for fundraising over the next year. In addition, several people have mentioned accessing grants (Uwe!!) through the Episcopal church and so we hope to work on preparing applications for those grants here on the US side. Because we are in Washington, we have several people familiar with the grant-making process who can help us navigate that on your behalf.

We have targeted summer (August) 2011 as possible date for a team of St. Peter’s parishioners to visit South Africa. There seems to be a lot of interest and enthusiasm for working with all of you. And of course, the Higgs family is dearly remembered at St. Peters and their participation was quite instrumental in getting this off the ground! Bettie Joy even suggested doing a Maundy Thursday African pancake breakfast as a fundraiser, so I will need to get your recipe Diana for African pancakes. Apparently they were delicious!

Friends, it will be such a blessing to work with you all. Looking forward to it and please let us know in big ways and small how we can help and encourage you in this wonderful project you are undertaking on behalf of these children.

All the best, Anna

Anna Fernau
www.blackandwhitecandids.com

2009-09-19T05:12:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share some of the photos taken on a trip with Pippa Shafer (from the organisation from Home from Home) when we visited Khayelitsha and Pelican Park. 'Home from Home' run 17 foster homes and we from SFOT will run our first foster home along the same lines. What struck me the most was the dedication of the house mothers. I came away feeling humbled and with great admiration for those women putting heart and soul into looking after their adopted families.

Welcome to the St Francis Outreach Trust blog!!

2009-09-16T17:09:00.000-07:00

Hello all

This is the first entry for our blog, so I'd just like to say WELCOME and hope your association with us is a memorable and fruitful one. In this blog we will keep you up to date with what's going on in our organisation, and what progress we are making to achieving our goals. It's going to be an exciting journey, and we're glad to have you along with us.

Please feel free to post comments and to interact with the Trust committee and other Friends of the Trust. You keep the Trust going so that we can do the work that is so desperately needed in our country, and we want you to be alongside us all the way...

Our website is almost up and running! We'll keep you posted when it does...

God Bless, and visit again soon.