Welcome to another Living Foundation newsletter! Louise—There is so much to tell you about that we hope you may be able to come to one of our fundraising events and hear first hand about all that is happening. We want to try to keep our newsleers a bit shorter! Five volunteers spent the first 3 weeks of September in Zimbabwe—our first volunteer team! We had so many quesons we wanted answers to and so many things we wanted to see to help with planning for our projects. We managed to do everything we’d hoped to do and yet we sll came home thinking of yet more that we wish we’d invesgated. One of the things we have realized is that there are now many things available at cheap prices eg lovely African fabric for sewing. It is oſten more cost effecve and supports the local business people if we are able to buy supplies there rather than taking things. One thing that has become very clear is the need for a water supply at Fort Rixon. In the last couple of weeks the people have prepared a large area and planted maize. This is a fantasc start to the community garden but at the moment we are relying on the seasonal rain. We have a number of opons that we are giving serious consideraon to for where and how to provide water. Newsleer Edion 004 November 2013 Suzanne—Our trip to Zimbabwe in September cemented in our hearts the real passion we have for helping the people we are involved with, to become beer equipped to improve their lives. We managed to reach out to an enre primary school at Fort Rixon, providing them with a day’s fun and entertainment, reading stories, playing games and singing Aussie songs. All day long these children aged 3 to 12 had a lot of fun, a lollipop each (not excluding the teachers!) and each managed to clutch a precious giſt (ruler or crayons) to take home or use at school. Here you can see Grade 3 kids being read Max Lucado’s “You are Special” and proudly wearing their new paper hats, which were not taken off all day! I’m sure our visit would have leſt treasured memories and the teachers begged us to come back next year! The Grade 5’s loved the egg and spoon races, and you can see the joy on volunteer Lorraine’s face as she organises and has fun with the kids’ games! Volunteer Trish is the champion kookaburra sound imitator, and really loved her interacon with the Grade 2 class. The feeling was mutual as you can see by their faces as these at first shy lile kids became involved in the story and in the singing later! These children will have no secondary educaon as it stands right now, and are potenal students for the Enkanyisweni Learning Centre established by Living Foundaon. We managed to assist many people, and also spent me with our secondary students, providing sporng equipment and joining in the fun and games with them. The stories we have to tell can soon be found on our brand new website! Have a sneak preview and then, as we fill in the spaces, have another look and see what we have been up to! I wish you all a joyous and holy Christmas! Helping individuals and working with other organisaons As well as the projects we are involved in we have found there is oſten a need to help individuals. Somemes this is an urgent need that we need to respond to quickly eg someone needing to be able to get to hospital. The community really appreciates it when we are able to help in this way. We were able to buy two second hand wheelchairs, provide “comfort bags” for mothers in hospital with sick or premature babies, supply food or seed for planng and help a young physically disabled woman about to have a baby. We distributed various things that we had been given to take with us—beanies, bras and knickers and we were able to supply first aid kits and sewing kits. We worked in with a number of different organisaons, each doing different things but complemenng each other. We visited quite a few places doing terrific work and it is inspiring to see what people are doing and how we are able to support each other. We have a Living Foundaon Website! Please check us out! Although we have to be careful what informaon we put on the website, we know you’ll love the photos. There will be updates on projects and news of fundraising acvies. www.livingfoundaonaustralia.org