By Wilma Jakobsen | Project Leader
GlobalGiving Volmoed Retreat Centre Report May 2022
THANK YOU TO ALL OUR GENEROUS DONORS!
At the beginning of April, our SA President announced the end of lockdown level 1, and restrictions were relaxed, except for masks for indoor gatherings, social distance of 1m and sanitizer. South Africans were relieved and grateful. However we now hear of a fifth Covid-19 wave coming, though it may be mild, so are unsure what the future holds. Thankfully, none of our staff or residents have tested positive since mid 2020.
Our sterling work on the large, beautiful, Volmoed property has continued over the past three months. We have taken out rotten eucalyptus and diseased pine trees near the offices that were endangering people and buildings. One changed direction while being felled and almost took out our staff room, but thankfully only damaged the outside concrete, which is now being repaired.
We are grateful for two stalwart volunteers, Marietjie and Dirk, who faithfully hack away at alien vegetation near the river on our property every Wednesday at 07h30! Managing alien vegetation is an ongoing challenge that has proved to be expensive and will have to be paused, as the initial lump sum given to deal with this has now been used up.
We continue prioritizing our staff and keeping them at full time. Our attendance numbers have increased, thankfully, and yet they are not yet stable. We started to pay all our staff for five days a week full time, and this has led us in and out of overdraft. We are closer to raising pledged donations to bring the director, Tony Schnell, to full time, but we are not quite there. We are hopeful that in the coming months, a few more groups will book our entire number of rooms for trainings, workshops and weekends.
This weekend we host a workshop with ‘Heartlines’ — a social change organization that encourages people to live out positive values through values-based training workshops, conversations across race, language, culture, and age differences. This fits the mission of Volmoed well, and we look forward to more workshops like these.
We are excited about our labyrinth project. This is a work in process, being built in the shape of the tree of life. Staff were so excited to build it, and we will organize a community event to finish the surroundings.
As always, thank you so much for your ongoing support!
A HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL OUR GENEROUS DONORS!
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