Our spring ball and auction on October 9th at the Lord Charles Hotel was a huge success. We would like to thank everyone involved, our guests, our fab décor girls and our donors. We are extremely happy with the results and excited and encouraged by the fantastic support by all who attended. We managed to raise R90888 in total!
At this event, manager Mel Novitzkas announced her retirement from BB and introduced her replacement, Frances Fuchs.
‘I did a BA degree at UCT and after my studies worked for Nicro women’s support centre in Cape Town. There I was a full-time volunteer and counselor. I did counseling for abused women and this opened my heart for the plight of women.
My son was born in 2002 in Canada where my husband, Ben, and I lived after we got married. Ian is 8 years old and in grade 2 at De Hoop primary school in Somerset West. My daughter Emma was born in 2008. She is tiny and cute and very clever!
After Emma’s birth I started volunteering for Bosom Buddies. Meeting all these beautiful mothers and their babies reawakened my love of women, specifically mothers. I did my training as a doula this year and love every minute of it.
With every visit to the hospital my faith grows. I see God in every face of the maternity ward, whether mother or baby, doctor or nurse. Of course we witness a lot of sadness as well with a lot of premature births and stillbirths. This is hard, but somehow being able to comfort a mother is incredibly, intensely healing and even comforting in return.
I love Bosom Buddies passionately and look forward to working with all the wonderful Thembalitsha folks. We all share a passion and a goal and I just love being part of this team’
On 25 November 2010, Bosom Buddies and Themba training celebrated the graduation of 10 wonderful and inspirational women who completed the Themba training business course. It was a happy and affirming occasion, one that gives tremendous hope in both these projects.
Bosom Buddies offers teaching of sewing skills to women in need of expertise to enter the marketplace. We have a great facility with 5 sewing machines and 2 over lockers. Currently we rely solely on donations for fabric and cotton.
We have joined hands with our Thembalitsha partners, Themba training, in offering these women an 8 week course in basic business training. We believe that the combination of these skills will lead to much-needed empowerment of our mothers. The vision is that the BB sewing project will develop into a business, with a partnership between the sewing ladies and BB. To date, we have made gorgeous baby quilts, that we will be selling at the Gordon’s Bay market every Sunday of December.
Congratulations to every single one of our beautiful sewing ladies! We are proud of every one of you for completing the business course and wish you all the best for the future: Remember, you are our ambassadors, do us proud and make a success of your business!
