Help Mesia’s dochters hun opleiding af te maken!
[English⬇️,Nederlands ➡️] Help deze vrouw haar kinderen hun opleiding te voltooien, voor een goede toekomst!
Mesia Ndhlovu is een bijzondere vrouw: verstandig, oprecht en sociaal.
Geboren in 1975 in een natuurreservaat, had haar ongeschoolde moeder het belang van goed onderwijs al snel begrepen en werd Mesia wél naar school gestuurd. Op haar 16e ging Mesia bij een toeristenlodge werken om haar moeder te kunnen ontlasten. Ze werkte hard en was leergierig, waardoor ze steeds meer verantwoordelijkheden kreeg - en steeds meer uren moest maken. Met haar werklust maakte ze ook indruk op de Groningse Magda, een van de gasten van de lodge.
Mesia en Magda hadden contact gehouden en toen Mesia wilde stoppen met het werk op de lodge, sprong Magda bijzodat Mesia haar middelbare school en een beroepsopleiding tot sociaal werker kon afmaken. Het sociaal werk greep haar aan, er waren zo veel kinderen die van alles te kort kwamen! Eerst nam ze een paar weeskinderen in huis, maar dat werden er meer en meer. Op een gegeven moment hebben Mesia en Magda de Yellow Elephant School opgericht. Na enkele jaren werd dit met meer dan 100 kinderen te groot. Bovendien zagen sommige ouders de Yellow Elephant School als een mogelijkheid om hun kind te ‘dumpen’, bijvoorbeeld als ze zelf geen eten hadden. Het werd hierdoor langzamerhand onmogelijk om alle kinderen nog veilig onderdak en educatie aan te bieden. Er volgde toen een opnamestop en enkele jaren later waren alle kinderen veilig uitgevlogen.
Naast een groot hart voor kinderen heeft Mesia ook veel liefde voor dieren, ze is immers geboren in een natuurreservaat! Zij is inmiddels een succesvolle safari-gids geworden en inmiddels moeder van 4 dochters in de leeftijd van 16 tot 23 jaar. Ook de laatste jaren heeft zij zich altijd belangeloos ingespannen om lokale kansarme kinderen onderdak en educatie te bieden. Niet door andere mensen om geld te vragen, maar door de actie te ondernemen, de handen uit de mouwen te steken!
Voor ons is het daarom bijzonder wrang dat Mesia, door het wegvallen van het toerisme in Zuid-Afrika, haar eigen kinderen niet hun opleiding kan laten afmaken. Ze heeft tientallen, misschien wel honderden kinderen geholpen en nu, door de corona lockdown, zijn haar eigen kinderen de klos? Dat mag toch niet gebeuren!
Wij hebben ons Mesia’s lot aangetrokken en daarom samen met haar deze crowdfundingactie opgezet.
Doneert u ook, het kan al vanaf € 5,00! Alvast bedankt namens Aito Doornbos en Marcel Lensvelt.
Tot slot: het antwoord op twee veel voorkomende vragen:
Wat is het "Ndhlovu Education Team"?
Afgelopen zomer (2019) waren Aito Doornbos en schoonzoon Marcel Lensvelt met hun families op vakantie in Zuid-Afrika en de gasten van Mesia. Nu zijn wij drieën voor dit crowdfunding projectgaan samenwerken als het "Ndlovu Education Team". Afgezien van het ondersteunen van de opleiding van Mesia's dochters, is het ook bedoeld om haar te laten zien hoe crowdfunding werkt en wat je er mee kunt bereiken.
Blijft er geld aan de strijkstok hangen?
Nee, er is geen strijkstok, maar er zijn wel wat kosten. Op het moment dat u besluit te doneren vraagt het GoFundMe platform of u ook geld aan hen wilt schenken - zij noemen dit een fooi of tip. LET OP: dit is geheel vrijwillig! GoFundMe stelt 10% voor, maar dat kunt u zelf veranderen in elk willekeurig bedrag, ook €0,00. Omdat dit platform wel kosten maakt voor bijv. computers en klantenservicemedewerkers zou een kleine fooi voor GoFundMe wel gewaardeerd worden.
U kunt doneren via iDeal en creditcards. De banken brengen hier echter wel kosten voor in rekening, zij houden 2,9% plus € 0,25 in per donatie.
**********************************************************************************************************************
English ➡️ My name is Mesia Ndhlovu, I live in Louis Trichardt, South Africa. Due to the lockdown, I can’t work as a safari guide and I can no longer pay for my 4 young-adult daughters education. This will hold them back for the rest of their lives! Please read my story and donate a little to secure the future for these 4 girls.
My life story taught me the importance of a good education. Here you can read all about it. Further down you can see the plans and education costs for Phumi, Lucia, Ayanda and Amanda.
My story: my name is Mesia Ndhlovu, I was born in 1975 in the Balule nature reserve, South Africa. My lastname Ndhlovu means elephant in the local language.
At the age of 6, my mother brought me to a place called Acornhoek where she found a house to accommodate her five boys and two girls so that we could all go to school. My mother brought us up as a single woman, working in one of the farms in Balule nature reserve. She did not earn money, but only received food as her salary. It made it difficult for all her children to become educated.
I went to school, what is nowadays grade 1 till 9. I saw my mother struggling in looking after us, so I decided to stop school and earn money so I could help my mother. Quickly I found a job, working at the building construction of a lodge. When the lodge was finished, the owner asked me to stay and work as a house keeper. Soon I also became a waiter, then a cook and not long after that I became the manager of the lodge when the owner went on vacation.
Ten years I worked for this lodge, doing all this work on my own. In the mean time I was building a house for my mother. Then my mother passed away in 2006. That left me with worries that seems to never end. She left me the house, but my brothers did not accept that, claiming that everything I earned belonged to our mother and therefore to them. All these troubles, raising my own kids and working in the lodge without any breaks became too much and I decided to stop working at the lodge.
Being at home without work was difficult for me, but I had made my decision. I just wanted to be there for my children. One day I got a call from from The Netherlands from a lady called Magda. We met before, while I was still working at the lodge and she told me she was very impressed about all the work that I did at the lodge. She asked me what was my plans were. I told her I was thinking of going back to school and continue my education and work at the same time. But I hesitated because this was not possible from the village where I lived. That is when Magda offered to help me.
So in 2007 I went back to school, graduated my grade 12 and continued to become a Social Auxiliary Worker. During that year I saw so many children in need of support and guidance in life. I realized that education is the key. That's when I started and registered an orphanage project by the name of Mesia Family Support, providing assistance to vulnerable children and their families. I became an after-school caregiver in my community and turned my house to a safe home for children in need.
When my own daughters grew up, I started working as a safari guide, showing people the treasures of South Africa. But still today I am a mother to all the children in my community and dedicated to provide opportunities for all children so that they have better chances in life.
For the future I want to become less dependent of an employer and start my own business. At the same time I want to continue stimulating young children to go to school as long as possible. I believe the whole country will benefit from this.
These are my daughters, and their education plans, for which I seek an education fund through GoFundMe.com:
Phumzile, or Phumi, is the oldest and she has finished her grade 12. She noticed she needs to improve on her computer skills and the MSC Business College offers an affordable Electronic Learning module in computer essentials for approx. 7.800 Rand (EUR 400).
---
Lucia sees opportunities to work in tourism as a host or receptionist for international tourists at the MSC Business College with a FET certification. This 12 month, full time education costs approx. 26.600 Rand (EUR 1.400).
---
Ayanda sees herself working in an office and wants to become an expert computer user. The IT End User coarse at the MSC Business College is a 12 month full time course, costing 34.000 Rand (EUR 1.700).
---
Amanda, my youngest daughter, still has to finish grade 11 and 12 of high school at the LLT Murunwa School of Excellence in Louis Trichardt . If she passes the final test, she would love to go to university. But first: finish high school. To make sure there is enough money to finish both years I would like to crowdfund both years, so 2 x 12.000 = 24.000 Rand (EUR 1.200)
---
I sincerely hope you will be able to support the future of my girls, and in some sense, of South Africa. Even the smallest donations are very, very welcome.
Finally: two questions that you might have:
What is the "Ndhlovu Education Team"?
Until recently I never heard of crowdfunding. Last summer Marcel Lensvelt and his family were my guests. Marcel is an entrepreneur from the Netherlands (see Linkedin and Facebook) and he explained the principles of crowdfunding and helped me to select this GoFundme platform. Me and Marcel work together on this project as the "Ndhlovu Education Team" for two reasons:
1. to introduce me, Mesia, in the world of crowdfunding
2. because South Africans can not start campaigns on this platform themselves.
Are there any costs involved when donating?
If you donate per credit card, 2,9% plus US$ 0,30 is used for credit card handling fees. Other payment methods are also accepted, like iDeal in the Netherlands. When you donate, GoFundMe also asks you to support their platform with an additional donation. The preset is 10%, but you can choose any amount you want, including nothing.
However, a platform like this does have it costs for computers, servers and people, so a little extra for GoFundMe would be highly appreciated.
***********************************************
