Birthday Fundraiser for Botshabelo - CSW
Donation protected
Last year I had the privilege of spending my 25th birthday with the Botshabelo Community Development Trust (an orphanage and village), in South Africa. I have never had happy birthday sung so beautifully and have never experienced a birthday in this way before.
While there I learned that many of the children don't actually know when they were born, so instead they celebrate the day they were brought to the Botshabelo Community or the day the leaders of the community became the child's legal guardian. It just so happened that many of these children celebrated within a week of my birthday and I realized how blessed I was to know which day I was brought into this world, and to every year have so many loving friends and family around to celebrate it.
On the day of my birthday I shared a moment with a 10 year old girl named Karabo (see photo below):
It was the afternoon of Kids Day (which happened to be on my birthday), which is a day that these incredible children actually get to be kids, with bouncy castles, pinatas, ice cream, hot dogs, water slides and lots of laughter!
Karabo had just collected all her winnings from the pinatas, which included candy and some jewelry and toys. She came up to me and said Amanda turn around, hold out your hands and close your eyes. In this moment I had no idea what was happening so I just went along with it as the kids always have fun games. As I held my hand out she slid her only ring that she won on my finger. She said " Happy Birthday, I want you to feel special and have something to remember me by".
In that moment I froze, unsure of what to say or what to think. All I could think was, here is this little girl with virtually nothing, who wants to give me a present and make me feel special today. This small act of selflessness taught me so much and has truly shaped the way I live my life today.
With this in mind, I am choosing to forego birthday celebrations and instead I am asking friends and family to help me raise some money for these kiddos so Community for a Sustainable World can continue giving back to this inspiring community and these deserving children.
Thank you to everyone for all of your love and support!
All money raised will go directly to Community for a Sustainable World to complete our projects on this year's trip!
With gratitude,
Amanda
While there I learned that many of the children don't actually know when they were born, so instead they celebrate the day they were brought to the Botshabelo Community or the day the leaders of the community became the child's legal guardian. It just so happened that many of these children celebrated within a week of my birthday and I realized how blessed I was to know which day I was brought into this world, and to every year have so many loving friends and family around to celebrate it.
On the day of my birthday I shared a moment with a 10 year old girl named Karabo (see photo below):
It was the afternoon of Kids Day (which happened to be on my birthday), which is a day that these incredible children actually get to be kids, with bouncy castles, pinatas, ice cream, hot dogs, water slides and lots of laughter!
Karabo had just collected all her winnings from the pinatas, which included candy and some jewelry and toys. She came up to me and said Amanda turn around, hold out your hands and close your eyes. In this moment I had no idea what was happening so I just went along with it as the kids always have fun games. As I held my hand out she slid her only ring that she won on my finger. She said " Happy Birthday, I want you to feel special and have something to remember me by".
In that moment I froze, unsure of what to say or what to think. All I could think was, here is this little girl with virtually nothing, who wants to give me a present and make me feel special today. This small act of selflessness taught me so much and has truly shaped the way I live my life today.
With this in mind, I am choosing to forego birthday celebrations and instead I am asking friends and family to help me raise some money for these kiddos so Community for a Sustainable World can continue giving back to this inspiring community and these deserving children.
Thank you to everyone for all of your love and support!
All money raised will go directly to Community for a Sustainable World to complete our projects on this year's trip!
With gratitude,
Amanda
Organizer
Amanda Morin
Organizer
West Toronto , ON
