n 4°

At the end of school year 2006 Diana Wicomb retired. Her life’swork was Vlakteplaas UCC Prîmer. Her father was also head ofVlakteplaas school and the Wicomb family used to live in alittle house near the school, which was on the road to Oulap.This house recently collapsed and together with Ms Diana leav-ing to go to her elderly father in Oudtshoorn this will be theend of an era at Vlakteplaas.

Ms Diana never married andthe school and the childrenmeant the world to her. Inher time at the school sheexperienced all the differentchanges the school wentthrough: the old classroomsin the church, the sand-wiches with peanut butterand jam, the old fashionedblackboards, the first andsecond new wings, the com-puters and the Kombuis withhealthy hot meals.

The children and their par-ents owe Ms Diana a great deal and we all sincerely hope thatshe can enjoy her retirement in a good health for many, manyyears to come! Thank you Ms Diana.

ForewordMs Diana Wicomb retired 1Eye operation for 5 girlsSoccershoes 2New housesSupporters from Sweden and Great Britain 3Kombuis newsKhanyakamerKudu contacts 4

Thank you Ms Diana

Content

newsletter from the Vlakteplaas skool De Rust - South Africa

It was our honour some months ago to receive the chair-person, Prof. Mayatula, and members of the Parliamen-tary Standing Committee on Education at our school.

Subsequent I received the following message:

Dear Jans

I must again repeat that I was blown away by the en-thusiasm and passion by which you are driving theVlakteplaas UCC Primary School project. I regard it as a"Free Private Farm School". It is free in the sense thatyou are providing everything for the learners. It is a"Private Farm School" because the facilities are asgood as any private school in the country. To crown itall, this service is provided to the poorest of the poor,the farm school community.

Keep up the good work. As I promised, I will share thisexperience with Mrs. Naledi Pandor MP, the Hon. Na-tional Minister for Education.

Regards,Prof. Shepherd M Mayatula MP

And now, on invitationby the Hon. MinisterNaledi Pandor, I will beher guest in Parliamenton 29th May for her an-nual Budget Speech,and for lunch after-wards.

Yes, in but three oddyears our once forgottenVlakteplaas UCC Primêrhas attained National

recognition. And for this I thank our wonderful teachersand support staff; our diligent children; and above alleach and every one of our donors and friends. We areachieving the impossible because of your loyalty, yourunstinting support and your belief in creating a betterfuture for our children.

I salute you all !Jans Rautenbach - OULAP

Jans & Prof. Shepherd Mayatula MP

Recognition...

Shoes make all the differenceDo you remember the school childrenand their Ajax Amsterdam sport wear, but no shoes?

Despite several applications world-wide it did not seem pos-sible to find funding for shoes. However, a Dutch couple livingin South Africa heard of this problem and on their second visitto Oulap they brought 30 pairs of shoes with them. There is anow girls’ school soccer team and a boys’ school soccer teamand training already started.

Thank you Frank and Anja!

ive girls have already been attendingVlakteplaas UCC Prîmer school for sometime. Due to an eye disease they are al-most blind but nevertheless they love togo to school and they are amazingly goodat finding their way through life.Jans Rautenbach searched for funding foran operation for them as an operationcould give the girls a better sight, not per-fect sight, but very much better. He suc-ceeded with the help of friends, Oulapguests and other benefactors and inMarch 2007 they all got a new lens in oneeye and the second operation for theother eye will take place next June.

F

Eye operation

10 little eyes salute the world!

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The block consists of two separatehouses. Early in January the Snel familyreceived the keys of the first part of theblock.Andries and his wife Ellna together withtheir three daughters will live there. An-dries is the caretaker of the school: heopens and closes the building, cleans theclassrooms and the playground and takescare of the school and the surroundingsas if it was his own house: no trespassersare allowed! His wife Ellna works in theschool kitchen every morning.

The Dutch writer Yvonne Keuls, includingfriends and faithful readers contributed50% of the necessary amount towards thetwo houses and the Dutch foundation Ka-rooCare doubled the amount with thehelp of IMPULSIS.

IMPULSIS is the Dutch joint programme ofEdukans, ICCO and Kerk in Actie for sup-porting private initiatives in developmentorganisation in their work for organiza-tions abroad. IMPULSIS not only doublesthe funds that the foundations themselvesraise, but they also support by advising,opening their network and organisingtrainings. The second house will be usedby the sexton of the church who will beappointed very soon.

Two new houses

Two sturdy houses have been built

News fromGreat BritainMartin and Marjorie Scott from London visited Vlakteplaas forseven days and during their visit Marjorie taught the childrento speak English.The children enjoyed itvery much and found itgreat fun too! Thank youMartin and Marjorie!

Brian Thompson thenew Mayor of Helmseyin Yorkshire visited Vlak-teplaas UCC Prîmer andhe was so impressedwith the new school, thekitchen, the childrenand their families thathe promised that the Helmsey community would look for fundsin 2007 for Vlakteplaas.

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Torsten & Lotta BlomquistJonas & Helene DomeijOur very first bursariedonators from Stockholm

Paul Whitney & Viv NormanDirectors of the Karoocare Charitable Trust from London

Alida and Ellna start working in the Kombuis every morning at06h00, cook and serve substantial meals by 09h30, wash dishes,and clean kitchen by 12h30, and then start preparing the nextmorning’s vegetables and meats. Their day ends at 15h00.

Tiger Food Brands, the largest food corporation in South Africa,now monthly donates groceries (non-perishable goods) and toi-letries for our school - and delivers it at our doorstep in this re-mote valley! We had to built a special storeroom for the Tigerconsignments.Only fresh vegetables, fruit and meat will need to be purchased.KarooCare the Netherlands promised to pay 50% of the fresh foodand meat. Who will take care of the other 50%?

Ellna Snel &Alida Kammies

Kombuis News

contacts

THE NETHERLANDS

Angelita Nienhuiskaroocare@nienhuisbeheer.nl

BRITAIN

Karoocare Charitable TrustVNORMAN@parallelprivateequity.comPh: 020 7600 9105Fax: 020 7491 337249 St James's Street, London, SW1A 1JT

SOUTH-AFRICA

Roger & Greta Vande Wielerogergreta@rogergreta.co.za

GERMANY

Horst & Uta Puetzinfo@karoo-projekt.de

THE KUDU NEWSLETTER

Editor: Angelita Nienhuis

Design: Roger & Greta Vande Wiele

nbr. 4 • May 2007

BELGIUM

Yves & Karen Montangieyves.montagnie@skynet.be4

It is called the Khanya Kamer. This ultra modern 35 computer lab-oratory is serviced and controlled by the Khanya Institute of theWestern Cape Education Authorities. They also familiarised ourteachers with the system so that they again, could utilise this fab-ulous new teaching tool for our children to the full.

Khanyaa new world forVlakteplaas children

We are one of the few rural schoolsthat daily provide healthy cookedmeals to each scholar - so essentialfor the well-being of children whooften lack balanced, nutritious food.