In this month of Thanksgiving we celebrate the many volunteers who have supported the various Rays of Hope programmes over the years, and say THANK YOU for your faithfulness.
For 27 years, Rose-Act Saturday School has called on members of RUC to tutor on Saturdays during school term.
Rose-Act wants to thank its amazing group of volunteer tutors and assistants, who selflessly give hours toward preparation of lessons and then another 2 hours of their time every Saturday to teach our students English and Maths. Their passion to help every child do the best they can and the love they show their classes enables Rose-Act to have the huge impact that it has.”
In about 2002, a group from RUC responded to a call to go and assist the terminally ill in their homes in Alexandra and so was born the Rays of Hope Home-Based Care programme. Today, we say thank you to Lynne Bowker, our original volunteer, and current volunteers Corrine Andrews and Zandra Murray, who continue this calling to provide support, encouragement and prayer for those who are sick.
Another programme that was initially run by volunteers is Ignition, a programme offering students financial and mentorship support for tertiary education. We thank God for Sarah and Craig van Zyl and Craig and Helen Pournara for their faithfulness and we thank each volunteer mentor of the programme for your journey with each of these young students.
Knox, a work readiness programme for the unemployed, was also initiated by volunteers and to Gary Seath, Mzi Kaka, Garth Barnes, Jimmy Copeland and Makhotso Fako who spend Saturday afternoons working with the unemployed and providing a range of work readiness skills, thank you.
The Ithemba Labantwana (hope for orphaned and vulnerable children) programme is another that has been blessed with so many volunteers. We are so blessed to have Richard O’Callaghan, Heather Blackstock, Graham Pfuhl, Claire Morrison, Jennie Morley and Jenny Laithwaite helping the children with literacy and numeracy at the Homework Club. A group of medical personnel have over the year helped our children with referrals and check-ups.
We also give thanks to the RUC Counselling Centre for their ongoing support in the lives of our children, as well as to many others from Alex who have been traumatised.
Our newest programme is our Early Childhood Development programme and once again, this continues through the dedication of volunteers Christy Bennet (programme co-ordinator), Gillian Leathers (curriculum developer and trainer) and a host of support volunteers in the fields of nutrition, occupational therapy, speech therapy, play therapy and baby stimulation. The care givers in the ECD centres are immensely grateful for your input.
Another area of support has come from our “Friday ladies” who faithfully sort out donations for our various programmes and when the need arises, will swap sorting for sandwich making to ensure that Rose-Act students each get a sandwich on Saturday.
We continue to give thanks for the amazing way the Lord has ensured that Rays of Hope has been financially sustained in 2017, with many people giving to Rays of Hope over and above their tithe to RUC. We have seen wonderful partnerships develop between RUC owned/managed businesses and ROH! Thank you so much for your financial support, without which our work in Alex would not be possible.
“I thank God whenever I remember you ….because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now” (Philippians 1:3)