My lovely sister Melanie is studying to be a social worker. As part of her studies, she is volunteering at Bright Lights Place of Safety. And Melanie being Melanie, she has jumped in boots and all into the project and is determined to change the lives of the boys in the home for the better. It's not enough just to do her social work, she wants to give them love and support as well. And so she is asking for any donations of gently used sports clothes, soccer boots, boys clothes and shoes and anything else that the boys could use. She would also love to buy winter bedding for the boys. More info below.
For those who want to make a cash donation to the project, the GoFundMe link is: gofundme.com/23htk4s If you have gently used clothes you would like to donate please contact Melanie on [email protected].
(Note: The Western Cape has the highest reported rate of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in the world :(
ACVV Bright Lights is place of safety for boys located in Somerset West.
It is a place of safety for 20 boys who live there as they have been removed by the courts from their homes for various reasons like neglect, abuse and carer alcohol & drug dependency. The youngest is 8 and the oldest 17. They leave when they are 18.
Many of the children have learning disabilities due to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, poor maternal care and malnutrition. A lack of early childhood education and stimulation further compounds the problem. Then due to the instability of home life, many had very erratic schooling so are unable to cope with mainstream school. They are now too old for the grade.
To give them a basic education with the aim of ensuring they are literate we have a home schooling program where the boys are divided into 2 groups and taught by volunteers. We have day kids who attend too and get breakfast and lunch along with the schooling
Our needs are clothing and shoes in smaller sizes. The boys are tiny due to FAS / malnutrition. Clothing in sizes 9-10, 11-12, 13-14 is needed, shoes sizes most popular are 1-4 but a few larger sizes too. Generic school clothes like grey pants, white shirts etc would also be great.
They are sports crazy so we would love any donations of soccer boots, karate clothes, skate boards and any other sporting attire / equipment.
For winter I want to redo each child’s bed: winter linen, extra blanket, matrasses cleaned. I would love for someone to paint inside. Just a big freshen up for the boys’ rooms.
A big redo of the bathrooms is also needed but that is a bigger project we will need to take on.
A really big project would be for the home to get a new van to transport the boys around.
I would love to have each boys birthday sponsored by someone so we can have a proper celebration.
