We are very excited that Alfons and Yvonne, the managers of the Rehoboth village, will in August be visiting Sydney with their 2 children. We will be holding a function on Tuesday 19 August 2008 at the Cammeray Golf Club in their honour so please leave this date open.
What is the Boomerang Project?
The Boomerang Project was established in 2001 by a group concerned about the impact of Aids on orphans in South Africa. We came together because we decided we couldn’t sit on our hands and do nothing…we chose South Africa because it has the highest rate of HIV-AIDS infection in the world, and because some of us were born there and could play more of a hands-on role.
In order to move forward we needed credibility, the ability to administer our funds and tax deductibility.
To this end we formed a liaison with APHEDA, the overseas aid arm of the Australian Trade Union Movement. Apheda has a long history of involvement in humanitarian projects in Southern Africa and provides an important monitoring role in our project.
Rehoboth Trust
We wanted to donate our funds to an organization that helps children whose lives had in some way had been affected by Aids… the innocent victims of this terrible disease. The Rehoboth Trust in Port Shepstone, Natal, more than fulfilled these requirements. It is a foster care village for HIV-infected abandoned or orphaned babies, toddlers and young children. Helpless kids who have been dealt not one, but two, cruel blows – having no loving parent and being HIV-positive.
Every baby and every child deserves to grow up in a safe warm and caring environment. Rehoboth provides a happy environment for kids whose lives have been hell on earth…they come from overcrowded hospitals, or families where the mother has died and there is no carer, or situations where it is too dangerous for children, especially little girls, to stay at home. Each child at Rehoboth has a heartbreaking story of suffering and deprivation.
The Rehoboth Trust, a grass-roots project, initially had the aim to provide a good quality of life to 44 such children. This has now largely been achieved with the completion of 11 houses and associated infrastructure .Each house accommodates 4 kids and a foster-parent, replicating, as far as possible, a family environment.
With the successful completion of the village near Port Shepstone, the Trust is now determined to use the blueprint to roll out further villages. At present negotiations are well advanced to purchase land. A secondary goal is to construct a “halfway house” for kids to move to once they reach the age of 16. To date funds sent under the umbrella of the Boomerang Project are in excess of R2.2 million ($300000).This has effectively underwritten the village’s development and helped attract other sponsors. Now there will be a further major fundraising requirement to fund additional villages and Boomerang intends to assist in this regard.
Our donor funds are carefully monitored. Unlike many larger aid organizations administration costs are small, and almost every cent donated makes its way to the intended recipient. We receive regular reports as to how the funds are spent. Eight visits have been made to Rehoboth since our association - our goal is to be there at least twice a year.
The Boomerang Project has hosted 5 successful functions and intends to continue doing so at regular intervals. In the meantime anyone wishing to donate can download a donation form , and send it to Apheda who will then send a tax-deductible receipt to the donor. Alternatively, prospective donors can contact Geoff Mymin on 02-93888151.
