Paul Williamson | The Simunye Project

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Posted on February 20, 2012 - by Paul Williamson

Make A Splash for Cash

An Australian world swimming champion and a Beijing Olympian will be making waves in Mt Waverley to help orphans and under privileged children in South Africa. Matt Targett was part of the gold medal winning relay team at the World Championships last year and is gunning for gold in London. Backstroker, Sophie Edington, is a veteran of international swimming, performing strongly in the Beijing Games. The pair will join forces in a 24-hour swim marathon at the Huntingtower pool, Mt Waverley, from midday on Saturday February 25 to Sunday February 26th.

The Olympians will help locals swim the distance from Johannesburg to the Kruger National Park. Money raised will go toward the Simunye Project – which strives to improve and expand educational facilities for disadvantaged communities in South Africa. Recent projects have included the provision of hundreds of pairs of children’s shoes, installing a septic tank system and building a children’s playground.

Since its founding in 2006 in Melbourne, the Simunye Project has raised in excess of $100,000 dollars. Over the past five years, Year 11 Huntingtower students have been offered the opportunity to raise money for Simunye and then deliver the aid first hand, thus providing a unique experience for young people to become a catalyst for change. The children and often their families and teachers have helped build facilities in preschool and primary schools at the gate to the Kruger National Park.

A DJ will keep the Splash for Cash swimmers going through the night with the 2012 Simunye students taking the graveyard shift. Telstra has generously donated mobile phones for prizes and $2500 for uniforms for the Simunye students to wear during their volunteer work.

Telstra¹s Area General Manager Vicky Allen said, “We are proud to be involved in this activity. Supporting this event is about giving back to the local community, it is a great opportunity for us to reach out, which will enable the kids to help out with The Simunye Project”.

Matt Targett will swim at 6pm and Sophie Edington on Sunday morning.

For photo and/or interview opportunities, please call Mel Beal on 9831-9437.

Posted on February 20, 2012 - by Paul Williamson

Flash Mob @ Federation Square, Melbourne

Posted on April 25, 2011 - by Paul Williamson

April 2011 Summary

The 2011 Simunye Group, led by Jody Goddard and Phil Amos, saw 28 staff, parents and students embark on a journey of community awareness, which challenged each and every one of them on a journey of emotional and personal growth.

Over a period of 28 days many project were undertaken to add to the precious groups’ hard work. These included:

Princess Alice Adoption Home

Cash donation

Tshepang:

Building a new low ropes course
Building an additional chicken coop and providing 9 new chickens
Painting the outside of the crèche
Fixing the plumbing system for the crèche and the kitchen
Buying and fitting a new toilet
Providing 160 families with care packs and new shirts

New Life Day Care:

Putting in new shelves in the classroom and in the kitchen
Fitting a cover and protective box for the bore-water pump that serves the new water tank supplied this year.
Epap food replacement to nourish the kids.

Hikatekile Creche (new project)

Cash donations
Food donations

Manyeleti Primary School

Painting of classrooms
Sorting out and tidying of classrooms
Built a new low ropes course and maintenance performed on the old climbing frame
Marked out a new netball court

But the real work happened in the classroom and in the playground where we formed friendships and relationships with the staff and children in each of the organisations. This was emotionally challenging as well as rewarding.

Posted on March 5, 2011 - by Paul Williamson

Vegetable Garden Fence for New Life Daycare

When we had previously visited Silence at New Life Daycare, she had told us that she had trouble with goats eating her vegetables. Her fence was not high enough and the freely roaming goats would happily jump over and devour the food that was meant for the children. We set out to weed, remove all grass and build a goat-proof-fence for a 200 square metre area in a little over 1 day.

We began by digging holes, cementing posts into the holes, and weeding the area.

The kitchen built in April 2010 still standing strong and proud. Cemented posts with intermediate star pickets in progress…

What an amazing difference in just one day!

No more free lunch for these goats!

Posted on February 15, 2011 - by Paul Williamson

Tshepang Christmas Activities

The kids at Tshepang got creative and made their very own christmas decorations which we hung up inside and on the christmas-tree we provided. There was so much going on at once! Everyone had a fantastic day! Every family also received a food hamper containing rice, sugar, cooking oil, canned beef, matches, tinned fruit, canned fish and various other necessities to help make Christmas a little easier.

Posted on February 15, 2011 - by Paul Williamson

Chickens for Tshepang

We set up an area for chickens at Tshepang and provided 20 chickens. We built a hen house and a covered area with roosting bars. A great team effort and beautiful red hen-house! We have since heard the hens have been laying eggs – a great addition to the nutrition of the kids at Tshepang! Many thanks go to the students at Syndal South Primary School for raising money so we could provide Tshepang with an extra chicken!

Posted on October 20, 2010 - by Paul Williamson

Thank-you Amazing Racers!

We realise we’re a tad late with this thank-you message, but better late than never, no? Plus we’ve been really busy planning for our upcoming trip – more to come!

The Amazing Simunye Race was one of our most ambitious fundraisers yet, and we’re bursting with pride to report that it was a huge success. Nearly 200 people met us at Federation Square to launch the race, and thankfully the same number met us again at the final checkpoint around two-hours later (phew!). We had teams of all ages, including young families, university students, baby boomers and generally anybody who excelled in amazing-racing. Those who raced encountered challenges both physical and mental, which left most racers significantly confused or exhausted long into the evening.

Thank-you to all who came, raced, and told their friends about the amazing time they had. We’re so glad you enjoyed yourselves, as we’ve worked incredibly hard to make donating to a charity fun and rewarding. Your participation will make a real difference, and we’re so grateful.

Fancy running your own race? We’ll almost certainly be Amazing-Racing again, but if you’d like to run your own race (perhaps as a corporate team-building exercise or as your Christmas party) then get in touch, we’d love to help.

Click through to see the timing and final placings!

(more…)

Posted on April 28, 2010 - by Paul Williamson

Low Ropes Course at Tshepang

We have cleared a new area at Tshepang to develop a low-ropes course for the children. We had to start by clearing the area of weeds, rocks and garbage. We soon discovered there was a broken kitchen drain nearby causing an awful stench, so we fixed that making this previously unusable area a great place for the children to play (see post: Trench Digging and Plumbing).

So far we have constructed a Wobbly Log and Spider Web, with plans to add additional modules on future visits. Minutes after the children laid eyes on the newly built structures, they excitedly ran up and began playing on them with a little instruction on working as a team.

Wobbly Log

Spider Web

Posted on April 28, 2010 - by Paul Williamson

Trench digging and plumbing at Tshepang

When we found the area to start our low-ropes course, we couldn’t help but notice there was a foul stench in the air. This was traced back to blocked-up grease-trap where the kitchen waste-water ended up (with repulsive doll floating in the top). Joel said “We just need is PVC pipe, we can do this”. So the following morning we got some PVC piping, joins and sealant and Mr Newman became the head apprentice plumber, leading a team of trenchers and plumbers.

Facing such obstacles as digging through rocks, tree roots and joining pipes at strange angles, the team came together and achieved an amazing result. The smell was completely gone by completion, opening up a wonderful new area to the children to play in.