MAY NEWSLETTER

It is our great pleasure to present this first newsletter of The Valley Trust. The purpose of the newsletter is to keep you, our stakeholders, supporters and friends, informed about goings on within the organisation. It will also hopefully present you with various ways in which you can be involved with our work. We look forward to sharing our journey with you and welcome your comments or suggestions. We hope you enjoy it.

S’bo Vilakazi - Executive Director

Our very first breakfast fundraiser was a huge success!!! The event was in support of TVT’s Khula Kahle Mntwana Project which benefits more than 1,000 young children in the rural Valley of 1,000 Hills. The funds raised will go towards the purchase of ‘Care Packs’ which contain toys, books, warm Winter clothes and other items needed by the children.

The keynote address was delivered by Shane Ward, who spoke on the topic, “Good Corporate Citizenship in Uncertain Times”. Shane is a recognised authority on the subject of corporate citizenship and is passionate about spreading a message of trust as a basis for business success. He delivered a powerful message that all those in attendance could relate to. Siyabonga kakhulu, Shane!

A special thank you to Fig Tree Farm and Millflour Café who sponsored the incredible venue and hearty breakfast. To Inge and Iain, we noticed that our guests did not only express supportive for our work but were full of praise for the venue, meal and service. So well done to you and your team on that score. It is our hope that the event will result in more people learning about and visiting the Millflour Baking Co.

Our deepest gratitude goes to National Edging for the generous cash donation in lieu of attendance. We would also like to thank Olivetti, 4X4 Charity Drive and Thrivenow for booking tables of 10. The Hillcrest business community donated a total of 33 prizes for our raffle. Thank you for caring and contributing to the wellbeing of the children of the Valley of 1,000 Hills.

The Valley Trust (TVT) is proud to be a recipient of a donation of toys from Toys R Us. The toys will be distributed to children from the Valley of 1,000 Hills who are beneficiaries of TVT’s Khula Kahle Mntwana (isiZulu for ‘Grow Well, Child’) Project. Khula Kahle Mntwana is TVT’s flagship project and it helps parents and guardians of zero to six year olds take better care of their children. Annually we impact over 1,000 children through educating their caregivers in child health and parenting, assisting with vegetable gardens and financial savings as well as providing psychosocial support.

The project works with children and caregivers in their homes and seeks to adopt a holistic view to meeting the developmental needs of young children. Although TVT has a toy library where our facilitators access educational materials for use by the children, the toys and books are handed back to the library so they can be used by others. Our current toy drive seeks to give each household their own set of toys and children’s plastic tables and chairs.

We partnered with We Friends Pre-School and The Hillcrest Aids Centre who have kindly offered to be toy drop off points. However, TVT is happy to pick up the toys from anywhere in Durban and surrounds, and anyone that is able is welcome to drop a donation off at TVT’s offices in Botha’s Hill.

Our aim is for every child to receive their very own set of educational toys. We know that these toys are going to assist our children ‘learn as they play’.
#powerinpartnership #Strongertogether

The Valley Trust property is a beautiful space and we have recently completed the revamp of our hostel style 30 bed accommodation.

The painting is complete and what a difference a coat of paint has made!!! Thank you Shaves Paint Hillcrest for discounted product and donation of wallpaper and fabric swatches.

If you are looking for a team building time, conference or school tour accommodation, we have a solution for you.
The backpackers has a total of 30 beds for R250 pp per night.
We also offer light meals from the canteen, a hall/conference room and beautiful secure grounds in the heart of the valley.
For more information please mail:
info@vtrust.org.za or call her on 0621601958

What a productive time we had cleaning up our beautiful gardens, with many helping hands and hard work.We removed rubble, felled trees, weeded beds and planted waterwise plants.

This is an ongoing project as we improve our facility and give back to 'the ruby in the dust' property that has served The Valley community well for the past 70 years.

We would like to thank Peter from Valley Trading for his time and for bringing his chainsaw to thin the trees. Veronica from Tongaat Plant Wholesalers who donated 100 plants which were all planted. Martin from Mbotho Sales and Hire made his high pressure cleaner available for the day. Mnqobi, our resident photographer and two lovely daughters, thank you for the lovely photographs. And last but not least, Spha our very own DJ who kept the tunes pumping and kept our minds off the heat and hard labour.
Thank you to all the volunteers who worked so hard and helped us achieve way more than we imagined in a day’s work.
We are looking for anyone who can donate berea shade grass to cover the red soil under the trees, water wise plants and garden benches for our next clean-up day.

The Valley Trust – A Centre For Health Promotion.
“Our vision is to see the communities of The Valley of a Thousand Hills living healthy and active lives as full participants in a democratic South Africa.”
Through raising funds and effectively mobilising resources we build the capacity of local communities to sustainably ensure their own good health.
Any amount helps promote health and well being to all the families we serve in The Valley.