News:

Nogobhoza

Nogobhoza is one of the deep rural communities of the Eshowe Cathedral parish which mainly is composed of many enthusiastic and vibrant young people who love God and church. Most of the families no longer have father/mother; the elderly siblings are the ones who are playing the parent roles. They do have a church building needing a lot of renovation. This church can also be used for church's social outreach programs, but poverty and unemployment are discouraging factors. If this church can be renovated, at least it will serve for multipurpose needs for church members as well as the surrounding communities. Self help projects/ soup kitchen can be put in place to alleviate the plight of poverty whilst at the same time they worship in a pleasant and decent church.

Wiggy and Agatha care for orphans at Nogobhoza and Engeni

Visit of bishop Kumalo from South Africa

From 06th -9th of June Bishop Xolelo Thaddeus Kumalo from Eshowe has visited Dringenberg, Bad Driburg and Paderborn. It has been an impressive event for the Yebo Zululand Initiatives and people from Dringenberg. While talking to the board bishop Kumalo mentioned that there is a rich and a poor part of South Africa, particularly the rural regions of the country are disadvantaged in their development.

He was grateful for the support and various activities in favor of different projects in the rural area.

Bishop Kumalo with the board of the YEBO Zululand Initiatives	Brotherhood St. Sebastian meets and greets the bishop by "salute guns”
	Mayor of Bad Driburg and the chairman of the Parish council welcome the Bishop
	A fascinated audience in the Bischof-Bernhard-Haus
	Primary Schools Dringenberg and Bad Driburg welcome Bishop Kumalo

Donation of the Rotary Clubs from Paderborn and Bad Driburg

Mr. Reher, president of the Rotary Club Bad Driburg, handed over a check of 6000,00 €. The money has been raised during a charity golf tournament of the clubs from Paderborn in B. Driburg. The great donation is a special present for the Mahlabatini High school which urgently needs to be renovated and is located in the outback. SIYABONGA – big thank you to the committed Rotarians!

Advent 2010

A big thank you to

Caritas Dringenberg
Grade 3 Primary School Dringenberg
Grade 1-4 Primary School Bad Driburg

for their great commitment for South African children during Advent time!

A total of more than 4000 Euro was raised for the children and staff at Dumayo Creche and for orphans at Eshowe. Lots of thanks again for the annual bazaar in Dringenberg which became a tradition meanwhile and for the collection at B. Driburg's Primary School!

A visit at “Aid to the Church in Need”

“Aid to the Church in Need” is an international pastoral aid organization which offers support to projects worldwide. About 43 million copies of a Bible for children have already been printed and distributed by that organization all over the world.
Thanks to the great work of Fr. Dennis Xulu the children’s Bible will be soon available in isiZulu. With this translation the book will be published then in 166 lanugages.
It will be a great blessing for all Sunday Schools in the Zulu speaking dioceses of South Africa.
Congratulation to his wonderful work!

12th November 2010 Fr. Dennis Xulu and Edeltraud Parensen visited “Aid to the Church in Need” at Königstein/Taunus.

The Children’s Bibles are translated in 165 languages	Fr. Dennis and Edeltraud with staff members of “Aid to the Church in Need”	Fr. Dennis with Bibles in three South African languages. IsiZulu will be the 4th language.

Opening and Blessing of the DUMAYO Crèche

On 19th September 2010 we celebrated the opening of the Dumayo Crèche – and what a
great festivity it was!

More than 300 people came to join us in our celebration. Together with the Mbongolwane parish priests, Reverend Bishop Kumalo from Eshowe held the church service, whilst the choir of Dumayo-Mombeni sang so beautifully that the crowd couldn’t help but to sing along.

Even well-known politicians came to the Dumayo Crèche, most prominently the National
Minister of Public Works Mr. Doidge and Mr. Thulasizwe Buthelezi MPL (KZN), Nkosi
Biyela and Councillors. In his speech Fr. Zulu from Mbongolwane stressed the disadvantages
this region suffers from. Thus the crèche, the existance of which was only made possible
through the financial aid from the YEBO Zululand-Initiatives, is seen as a great gain for
Dumayo. We are grateful to National Minister Mr. Doidge who promised to provide the
crèche with furniture and a fence. He advocated the registration of the creche and would also
like to take action regarding a garden project.

In her speech Edeltraud Parensen praised the varied donations made to the Dumayo Crèche
project. ‘Our members are not millionairs, who can just fill out a check here and there, without taking notice. They are children, fathers, mothers and grandparents who with great dedication facilitated the building of the Dumayo creche. They organised many fund raising actions, such as bazaars, sponsored runs and even the forgoing of birthday presents. These are people from a rural area in Germany who have the heart to support Southafrican citizens.’

Edeltraud especially thanked and applauded two young women, Bongiwe and Philile, who
voluntarily got this project running a mere two years ago. It was their humble and persistend
work that gave this project a thorough foundation.

We as YEBO Zululand-Initiatives wish, that this crèche may be a place where children feel
loved and protected, so that they can thrive in trust and self-confidence.
May God bless this new project!

Back: Fr. H. Nene (assistant priest), INkosi R.S. Biyela of Mombeni, Front: Mrs. Jafta (General Manager of Mbonolwane Hospital), Honorable Minister Geoff Doidge, Bishop Teddy Kumalo, Councillor Nxumalo of the Ward, Edeltraud Parensen, Thulasizwe Buthelezi MPL, Rev. Fr. Sibusiso Zulu (Parish priest) and the Vice Chair of the INkosi's Council

Opening of Dumayo Crèche

Great news! On Sunday 12th of September 2010 the opening of the new Crèche in Dumayo will take place. Bishop Kumalo from Eshowe will bless the new building.
Edeltraud is looking forward to seeing the new project and to attending the special event.

Crèche in Dumayo nearing completion

In March, the construction of the crèche had begun - and now after nearly three months, the roof has been put on. Unbelievable, the pace our project partners in South Africa have worked with! It should be remembered that it is all built and carried out manually- without construction machines. As expected there were water problems, because Dumayo is not connected to a water supply. We therefore also financed two large rainwater tanks which have been filled by trucks of Aquatrans of Eshowe during the construction phase.

The crèche is intended for two groups of 25 children. It thus contains two group rooms, a kitchen, an office, a sickroom and a storeroom. A large veranda provides shade to the children, therefore many things can take place outside if the weather permits.

We are pleased that the draft provided by Dorota Thiele has been accepted!
The collaboration with Mrs. Zulu from Mbongolwane went to our greatest satisfaction. He informed us regularly and cooperated extremely reliable.

What are the next steps?

The rooms have yet to receive ceilings, furniture is still missing: shelves, tables, chairs, stove. Outdoor playground equipment is to be built.
For the two young women who volunteered two years ago for the project, we want to pay the wages for the next years.

The new crèche nearing completion	Fr.Zulu Parish Mbongoglwane

Our new project - A kindergarten for Dumayo

Yebo-“Yes to the self-help initiatives is called "the objective of our organization.
After the responsibility for our first project, the Thembimfundo Special School, could be laid in state hands, we were free to turn to a new project. Our Board has decided after careful consideration, to support the construction of a kindergarten in Dumayo, in a very remote area of KwaZulu / Natal, some 30 km away from the Mbongolwane.
In March 2009 Edeltraud Parensen, Kerstin Holst and the parish priest of Mbongolwane have visited the place. For two years, there are 20 children cared for by volunteers, two women - in the sacristy of a small outstation chapel. Actually, there were 50 children, care seeking, but the greater part is due to the limited space at home.
South Africa is a country of great contrasts. On the one hand it gets ready for the football World Cup. On the other hand, there is high unemployment in the country and lack of infrastructure in rural areas. The consequences of AIDS are obvious and burden the lives of families. Grandmothers and older children often carry a great burden on their shoulders. And so it is good that the kids are being taken away from their often difficult environment and get prepared for going to school.
By supporting the construction work of the kindergarten we want to make the lives of these children in Dumayo a bit more carefree and happy!
Project holder of the kindergarten will be the Catholic parish Mbongolwane. Contacts for us are Fr. Francis Zulu and Bishop Kumalo of Eshowe.
A blueprint has been drawn in Eshowe - designed by Dorota Thiele. The estimate amounts to about 30000 €.
Latest news: The construction works have been started in March 2010.

A dance for the visitors	Entrance to the sacristy	The sacristy	A song about birds with Fr. Masuku

Ten years “Thembimfundo”

Our previous project, the Thembimfundo Special School in Mbongolwane, was celebrating its 10th anniversary in November 2009. At that time, 1999, Thembisile Mhlongo started to gather around children with disabilities of her environment. She taught them in a fertilizer warehouse and then rents rooms which were used as living rooms and bedrooms for the children. In 2002 the YEBO Zululand Initiatives were founded in Dringenberg, with their financial support an own school and home could be built.
Today the Thembimfunfo school is independent. She is now in state ownership. Help to have done - a self-help principle in development aid - and we look forward we were able to initiate and support this project which is very necessary for the disabled kids.
That was only possible due to the generous help and solidarity of so many friends in the past ten years: by many private donations, with the help of numerous groups, schools, clubs and even of large organizations.
At this point a special thanks to the children's charity association "The Sernsinger" Aachen, which increased all the years our monthly payment to Thembimfundo by 20 % and on the women's mission association, Koblenz, which generously supported the initial funding. The construction process of the project would be inconceivable without the Rotary Club Eshowe and his "Self-help Classroom Project”. British Rotary clubs as well as the U.S. Molly Hirschberg Foundation supported the construction project generously.
We cordially like to thank all for their support over the past ten years and would also like to pass on a thanks of the Education Department Empangeni, which has reached us in the final report at the end of 2009:
"Words alone can not describe how grateful we are to you and all your wonderful colleagues who have made such a huge impact on the lives of the staff and learners at Thembimfundo ... "
Today Thembimfundo Special School is independent. It is now a government school.
May what we sowed and planted is allowed to grow and prosper for the benefit of children.
May Thembimfundo be a place, where these children feel comfortable in and flourish, because they will be promoted in their specific skills.
May God bless all who live and work there!

Advent bazaar in Dringenberg
November 2009

All the members of the local charity foundation “Caritas” in Dringenberg were happy due to the succes of this year’s advent bazaar. The adults enjoyed the cozy atmosphere of the café drinking coffee and eating homemade cakes while the kids were attracted by the variety of acitivities e.g. they could participate a quiz about South Africa.
During the bazaar, handicraft work had been sold e.g. advent wreaths, angels, knitting work, biscuits and jam. A total of 1800   was raised for a kindergarten in Dumayo which is located in the hills near Mbongolwane in KwaZulu/Natal.
A big thank you to everyone who made this event successful!

A kindergarten for Dumayo
Pupils of Dringenberg get involved

It is already a tradition also this year pupils of grade 3 of the primary school in Dringenberg got involved at the annually advent bazaar supporting children in South Africa. They sold handicraft work such as snowmen, reindeers, doormats, stars and offered games for sale. On the day their parents provided great commitment by hosting the barbecue, baking crepes or offering hot punch as drinks for the kids. The girls and boys proudly submitted a total of 1,234.01   to Edeltraud Parensen which will be taken to build a crèche in Dumayo