Wanna Help?

Since so many of you have asked how you can help people in Itipini, here’s a list of things we can always use more of. If you send them to me (address in right-hand column), I’ll make sure they get put to good use and send you pictures of them in grateful hands.

Blankets – It gets cold at night in Mthatha and when you live in a shack that doesn’t keep the rain out, it can get quite cold.

Clothes – For many of the pre-school children, I know all the clothes they have because in a span of two or three days they’ve exhausted their wardrobe. It’s the same for everyone in Itipini so donations of clothing for all ages, from infant to elderly, are always welcome.

Books – I’ve begun a library for the children in Itipini and am always looking for more books. As the children don’t read English, books with good pictures are great. Books, though, are very heavy to mail so I understand if you can’t donate these.

Life-Enriching Items – The children in Itipini don’t have a lot to do for most of the day. They run around, play jacks with stones, scrawl hopscotch lines in the dirt, and get in fights. So games and toys you enjoyed playing with as children – coloring books, crayons, hula hoops, balls, bubbles, yo-yos, etc., etc., etc. – are more than welcome.

For all these items, please only send new or gently-used material. The people of Itipini may live in a dump but they take very good care of what they have and make it last a very long time.

If you don’t want to send items but still want to support the work in Itipini, check out the web site of the African Medical Mission, the organization started by Episcopal Church missionaries Chris and Jenny McConnachie that funds the Itipini Communtiy Project, for ways to contribute financially.

And if you can’t contribute anything at all and just want to read the blog, that’s great too!