Talk on I Care?

If your church, school, company or group would like a talk telling you about the work that I care is doing to help the street children who come into our rehebilitation programme please contact Marj Scott at 031 2701819 or 083 2701819 to make the necessary arrangements. Marj gives a very interesting chat and her words will help you to understand why children find themselves begging on street corners and how we help them to "find" themselves and become useful citizens.

My Village Card

Show your support for I Care by swiping your "My Village" card every time you shop at Woolworths, Waltons, Everfresh, Hirsch, Mug and Bean, Engen shops and many other outlets. Remember, it costs nothing to swipe but the more you do the greater the percentage donated to I Care.
To apply for a "My Village" card call Shirley van Rensburg on 086 147 0047 or click on the "My Village" logo and type "I Care" as your beneficiary.
Thank you.

Board Meeting

I Care management held a strategy meeting on Monday, 21 September. Present were - at back of photoggraph -Ken, Nevil and Costa and in front - Anne, Thakalani and Jenni-Lyn. Denise took the picture.

Meet the Team

An "Awareness Day"
was held at Hyper-by-the-Sea in Durban North on Saturday, 19 September. It was a great success. We met some wonderful people and signed up several new donors and Debit Orders. One kind gentleman donated a brand new table tennis table. Lunch was provided for the boys and the I Care office volunteers by the "Crave" cafe management - Leemor Berkowitz and Themba Tshabalala. Much appreciated too.

Prevention & Awareness

Lucia has been very involved lately with other charities, such as the Save the Children Fund. Also, in conjunction with the Ethekwini Municipality and SAPS, interacting with staff and children from Primary, Secondary and High Schools in the area. She has been giving Prevention and Awareness talks at these schools with a view to helping them to understand that the old adage -"Prevention is better than cure" - is worth remembering , especially when it comes to glue-sniffing, drug-taking and associating with gangs. By promoting awareness we aim to keep children away from these bad habits, get them off the streets and give them a chance to manage their young lives properly. Lucia has also been chatting to young mothers at local clinics, helping them to better understand the importance of birth control.

Great Expectations

Our boys are very privileged to have sponsored surfing lessons courtesy of Roxy/Quicksilver . They attend lessons on a weekly basis. One Boy, Andile Zulu, has been identified as an up and coming surfing star. He has been ear marked by the KZN Development Surfing Programme. We will be sure to keep you up to date on his progress through out the year.


Two I Care school leavers, Skumbuzo Sithole and Mlungisi Nxumalo, have signed up for a panel beating course this year. They are both very excited about the course and look forward to the job opportunities this course can bring them.

East Coast Radio - The Good Stuff

On Friday 16 January East Coast Radio will be broadcasting "The Good Stuff" which will feature our Chairman, Denise Cochrane.

There will be a repeat of the broadcast on Sunday 18 January. We feel that the broadcasts will be most successful and will create a lot of interest from the listening public.

UKZN Presentation by Reach

NOTE update pictures etc. I Care representatives attended the UKZN presentations last week and were blown away! Watch this video and see why!

UKZN Presentation by CandlePrint

Last week the Durban Daily News published a follow up article to ‘giving money to beggars and/or vendors is breaking the law ‘by stating that upon investigation they had discovered that some mothers were drug mules.

Although there is a new trend where fictitious children are being carried around with adults while they beg or distribute drugs we at I Care are still focused on the well being of the children on the street. We have full confidence that the municipality will execute its prosecution drive, which will help alleviate the amount of mothers with children on busy intersections.

Denise Cochrane, co-founder and trustee for I Care, followed up by saying that “by giving money to beggars the public is not only supporting their addiction to glue and other substances, but they are also increasing their vulnerability to abuse by older children, adults and drug dealers, and they are making our Outreach Team’s task that much harder”.

To view the article click here

Motorists are being targeted

A headline on the front page of a local Durban newspaper stated that “Drivers who pay beggars will risk prosecution” What is your initial reaction? Do you know that if you give money to beggars at intersections you are breaking traffic bylaws?

The eThekwini Municipality now wants to take action against motorists and the Municipality has initiated a drive targeted at motorists. Although Michael Sutcliffe, Municipality Manager, was quoted as saying “it certainly takes two to tango” as many mothers are forcing their children to beg. One woman in particular was found guilty of violating the Child Care Act and she has been given a six month suspended sentence for forcing her child to beg.

We would like to reinforce the message behind the newspaper article: Giving money to people on our streets only encourages them to stay there. You are doing two things by supporting them; breaking the law and encouraging a life on the streets that leads to crime and abuse.

To read the article click here

e-tv news

One of etv's main news articles last night was about how shop keepers are selling puncture repair kits to street children (at R3 a kit). Youths are using the kits for glue sniffing purposes; according to the article they can get up to 5hits (or highs) per repair kit.

Glue is a highly dangerous inhalant that can paralyze a person or even cause sudden sniffing death. Glue sniffing has more harmful effects than heroine or cocaine.

We are appealing to you as shop owners, stockists and concerned members of the public to make a stand against the selling of these repair kits to street children. These children are our future. Lets encourage them to better themselves and not endanger their lives through abuse and addiction.

I Care Collection Can Project

I Care is always looking for new ways to create awareness through community involvement. Over the next couple of weeks I Care together with La Lucia Mall will be distributing collection cans to tenants at The Mall. We are encouraging shop owners to display the cans at their pay points. We would also like to encourage you, the public, to please donate any change you may have, thus helping us to fund our different programmes. If you are interested in having collection tins at your business please call 031 5726870 or email sarah@icare.co.za for more information.

Rhythm of the night at the Barnyard

On the 19th June over 400 I Care supporters filled Gateways Barnyard theatre to enjoy the sultry sounds of Latin America with Rhythm of the Night.

The night was a great hit as supporters enjoyed watching ten energetic dancers groove the night away to the well known sounds/beat of Ricky Martin, Shakira, Jay lo and Gloria Estefan.
Tickets sold quickly for the evening and a substantial amount of money was raised for the I Care Campaign. At the beginning of the show I Care gave a short talk to the audience to increase public awareness about overcoming the problem of thousands of Street Children in South Africa.
Thanks Linda for organizing another fantastic I Care event. For those who missed out – watch this space, we are hoping to make it a regular event!

For more information on up-incoming functions, Linda Prudden on 031-3127540 or e-mail lindap@icare.co.za

Car Stickers

I Care Car Stickers are an important aid in our awareness programme. Street kids know exactly what these stickers represent and often acknowledge the driver with a big thumbs up and a smile.

Unfortunately many of these kids don’t want to leave the streets as they make money from passing motorists who are ignorant in their giving. Please help us to spread the word and let’s see if we can get every car in South Africa to display a car sticker for as little as R25 a month.
Grace Family Church have kindly stepped forward to re design and pay for our new look stickers which has been a great and generous help. We are enclosing a new sticker and ask that you display it on the driver’s side of your vehicle.

Posters

Look out for our awareness posters throughout Umhlanga, they are being displayed by the Umhlanga Municipality in partnership with the Community Policing Forum (CPF). These stunning posters were designed by Celia Tabb of The Fusion and printed by MG Print Services.

School Talks

Each month Lucia Shange, I Care’s outreach worker and Paul Harwood, I Care volunteer, visit organisations, church groups and schools to give awareness talks on the dangers of giving money to children living on the streets.

The following picture was taken after a talk by Lucia at Chelsea Drive School. Lucia speaks from personal experience and shares her life story of how she rose from being a street child to where she is today.
Paul gives a small presentation about I Care and explains how the public can make a lasting difference to the plight of thousands of Street Children living in South Africa. If your organisation would like to receive a talk from I Care please e-mail Paul Hardwood paul@rotan.co.za

Annual Golf Day

I Care held their 5th Annual Charity Golf day at the Royal Durban Golf Club on the 24th April, 2008. A full field of players filled the course for a successful day of golfing. On arrival each player received a gift bag which included some I Care tees and a golf shirt proudly sponsored by Unichem.

During prize giving, each player received a fantastic prize with the overall Ken Bain Memorial Trophy being presented to Garth Adendorff and Gerry Nijhuis of PKF on 46 points.

After the prize giving Brain Rodgers, from On-Course Promotions, conducted an auction with some fabulous framed sporting memorabilia.
Monies raised totaled over R60, 000 for I Care’s work in rehabilitating children off the streets of Durban.

I Care would like to thank Linda Pruden from Linton Enterprises for coordinating and arranging the whole event so professionally and with such enthusiasm. Thanks also to Gertie Henderson who sourced the prizes, to Di Saunders for doing such a fabulous job with the décor and to all the other volunteers who gave of their time and effort to make the day such a huge success.

Special thanks to all the Companies who kindly sponsored the holes and to all who generously and willingly donated such a vast array of high quality gifts and prizes.