Dear Friends,

On behalf of the committee, I wish to sincerley thank, those of you who have generously made donations to friends of Umgeni, these past few months. We are very grateful for your contributions, without which, we could not accomplish the various projects that we undertake each year.

Just a quick update on progress made these past 6 months:

1) We are now finally up to date with the bronze Memorial Plaques in the Garden of Remembrance, which was quite a task as they dated back to 2005.

2) Our recently purchased piano has proved invaluable, and in November, we hosted our second concert,which was performed by the Stellenbosch childrens choir. It was a most enjoyable event and the patients loved the interaction with the children. We are very grateful to our chairman, Mr John Tungay for organizing it.

3) The festive Season was incredible, when we saw all the Howick community come to life and contribute to making the patients Christmas party the best ever! We had 4 fathers Christmas’s in 2 red 4X4’s arrive at the beautifully decorated Umgeni Hall, with gifts galore. Each patient dressed in their Sunday best,was called up to the stage to receive his or her own gift from Father Christmas , and the excitement was papable. There was live music, performed by one of the patients of D Ward, and the day was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

4) Unfortunately due to wear and tear, the shadeclothes outside each ward have needed replacing once again, which should be completed by the end of April. These are used daily by the patients, giving them protection from the elements.

5) A group of ladies who call themselves the Howick Quilters, pooled their talents and made the most stunning quilt using the theme “angels”, which they instructed us to raffle. The beautiful work that went into this masterpiece was amazing, and we were most grateful for their efforts. We managed to raise R3500 which was kindly donated to FOU.

6) An exciting new “splint” project is underway, which was initiated by the Occupational Therapist who we are blessed to have on our committee. Friends of Umgeni will be sponsoring all the equipement used to make special splints for all the wheel chair patients, to enable the staff to straighten their limbs for bathing. As healthy people, we have no idea how challenging such a small task can be.

7) A local school has collaborated with our Howick community and have decided to hold an individual ward party each month, which is going to prove very beneficial in the long run. They will be given a list of “needs” for each patient in a specific ward, and should any of those needs not be supplied, FOU has undertaken to purchase the necessary shortfalls. As there are 12 wards, each ward will be allocated a month, and besides the patients receiving some much needed items, it will also enable the committee to assess the wards regularly to see what their requirements are, ie. curtains, linen etc.

Please visit our website on www.fou.za.net, which we will be upgrading shortly.

Thank you once again for your continuous support, and we look forward to hearing from you.

God Bless,
Kind regards
Bev Habermann
(committee member and parent)