EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

NAME OF PROJECT: "AGAPE VILLAGE"

REGISTRATION NUMBER: 98 19002 08 - Association Incorporated under Section 21 - a charitable non-profit organisation.

PROGRAMME: Community development, rehabilitation and upliftment of underprivileged children and marginalised people in the Johannesburg suburb of Eldorado Park.

CHAIRMAN: Mr Potin Toi ("Timmy"), Tel. (011)-945-3890

DEPUTY-CHAIRMAN: Mr Peter Hofer ("Peter"), Tel. (011)-475-0075

PROJECT SUPERVISOR: Mrs Isabel Toi ("Bella"), Tel. (011)-945-3890

FAX: (011)-475-0286

INTERNATIONAL CODE: +27-11-

E-MAIL: amos@iafrica.com

POSTAL ADDRESS: P.O.Box 3819, Randburg, 2125, South Africa

PROJECT ADDRESS: 24 Terence Street, Eldorado Park Ext. 9, 1812, RSA

BENEFICIARY: Underprivileged children

PROJECT PERIOD: Ongoing

FUNDS NEEDED: For Building Project. Any donation is much appreciated

BANKERS: The Standard Bank of South Africa, Northcliff Branch

ACCOUNT NUMBER: 201 710 722 (AGAPE VILLAGE)

BRANCH CODE: 00-63-05-22

S.W.I.F.T. ADDRESS: SBZA ZAJJ

THE PROJECT

The "AGAPE VILLAGE" project is an ongoing programme of social welfare and community development of disadvantaged children and parents in ELDORADO PARK, a suburb of Johannesburg with more than 300 000 inhabitants. The focus is on community building through rehabilitation and improvement of quality of life of the thousands of disadvantaged people in the area, in a non-partisan and non-sectarian way and free from political persuasion. The underlying principle of the participants in the project is agape love and care (agape love = unconditional love).

BACKGROUND

It all started some 18 years ago when a mother's attention was drawn to the appalling ongoings outside a corner cafe in Eldorado Park Extension 9. Children digging in rubbish bins for food and young girls, some under the age of ten, hesitantly succumbed to scrupulously lust driven men to touch the private parts of their young bodies for a few cents which would enable them to buy a bite of food for their desperately hungry tummies.

Mrs Toi (the mother), known to the children as "Auntie Bella", and her husband Timmy without hesitation of consequences invited the children to their nearby home in order to feed them and provide basic loving care. A soup kitchen was born and soon there were many children fed seven times a week. When the number of children grew to over 100, help in many forms was offered from cafes, super markets, churches, individuals and volunteers. Provision came in many forms including food, clothes, medicine, finances and toys. As similar works started up in other townships, the Toi family generously offered assistance despite shortage of funds and resources on their own part.

Over the years the work grew, with feeding, clothing, attending to basic medical and health care of more and more children, assisting parents and single mothers with food, clothes and finances, making house and hospital visitations, taking care of doctors and hospital bills, and much more.

Mr Toi, better known in the community as "Uncle Timmy", in his spare time and on weekends, started to make house visits to parents of the soup kitchen children to assess the social and spiritual needs and to see in which way and to which extend assistance could be provided.

CURRENT

As the work grows so does the demand, which puts a great deal of pressure and burden on the Toi family and co-workers. They are fully committed to a people of desperate plight in a battle against all odds, with outside assistance becoming increasingly less and irregular in the midst of growing needs.

The home of "Timmy" and "Bella" Toi, which is seen by many in the community as a house of refuge for receiving charity, comfort and counselling, has now reached its limit as a storage place for food, clothes, toys and as a soup kitchen for over 400 children and help centre for some 200 adults. For the work to continue and allowing to expand alternative premises and funding are needed desperately.

PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED

The following major problems in the community have been identified as the cause for the present socio-economic "disaster" in the area: The root problem is unemployment. This is the cause for many social problems including alcohol, drugs, child abuse, violence including stabbing and murders, just to mention a few.

SOLUTION

To teach life skills as a basis for income generating occupations. These would include literacy projects, handcrafts, sewing, etc. It is also important for those involved in the daily running of the projects, to live in the community in order to learn about, understand and to identify with the people they serve and teach.

NETWORKING

"AGAPE VILLAGE" is not a stand-alone project but is to be part of a community-wide development process. It is underlined by community consensus aimed

to liaise and cooperate with educational bodies, social welfare, the churches, local youth programmes and other regional development initiatives.

VISION

The vision is "AGAPE VILLAGE", the visionaries are a hand full of people who care for others more than they do for themselves. They love and reach out to a segment of our society, which many South Africans despise, they visit habitations of "social outcasts" which only few would dare to enter.

The emphasis of the project will be on sustainable transformation of people's lives through education and training and socio-economic reconstruction; to change handout recipients to self-motivated project participants with view to self sufficiency and management involvement.

"AGAPE VILLAGE" will initially start with one community hall or centre from where the social work initiated by the Toi family will continue and develop under their supervision. The centre will be utilised as a soup kitchen for children; for training, teaching and social activities; for Bible studies and congregational meetings. This is only step one. The vision is to duplicate and even extend into other areas of need such as medical facilities and day care clinics.

INCOME GENERATING PROJECTS

Unemployed mothers of the soup kitchen children will be taught to sew and knit as well as other important life skills. Several industrial sewing machines, over-lockers and knitting machines have already been donated some time ago. The mothers who will be trained by the supervisor, including literacy if required, will be able to bring their babies and children under the school age with them to the centre where they can be under constant supervision and be cared for.

Those who have acquired the necessary skills can then work from home or a commercial centre with "loan machines" from AGAPE VILLAGE and participate in income generating projects. These would include work obtained on contract basis from out-sourcing companies, institutions, and even individuals in order to generate income for the mothers and their families

MISSION STATEMENT

Our mission statement is simple: To deposit with love into the lives of underprivileged children and disadvantaged people of a small but equally valued section of our society, that they can also have a better quality live and a hope for themselves and their children for a brighter future in the new South Africa.

CONCLUSION

In the new and democratic South Africa we place much emphasis and attention on RDP (Reconstruction and Development Programme). "AGAPE VILLAGE" is more than just another RDP programme, it is all about restoring dignity with love and purpose to precious people of our society, people who have lost identity and otherwise do not hold much hope of a future in this country.

It is against this background that we appeal to you, the reader of these pages, for your kind consideration of providing assistance for the "AGAPE VILLAGE" project. Your generous donation or help in kind, however big or small, will be an investment in people, marginalised people, in a country of great diversity. Your dividend will be more than money could ever earn.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to take this opportunity to thank every volunteer who has helped in the past and those who are still involved in the project for giving of themselves for a noble cause. A big thank you to those faithful and sometimes anonymous donors; you will get your reward. Also a special mention and thanks to "DORCAS AID INTERNATIONAL" (a Dutch based charitable organisation) for generously supporting the project in the past with food, clothes, toys, stationary, sewing and knitting machines and even a container for intermediary use as a work centre and storage place.

AGAPE VILLAGE

The proposed Building Project