Ride for Life 2006: All Threads Merged

[essjay]

OCT 06 UPDATE FROM ANNETTE


Dear Trustees,

Just to report that I am back in the U.K. again as some of you know.

This was a very successful trip and I had 10 frantic days in clinic and we haven’t been that busy in clinic since 2003. The reason being many have stopped the ARV’s due to recent restrictions that the medicaments can now not be prescribed to a person if they live alone, as someone has to monitor the times you are taking the medicines and someone has to be with you to help you with the side effects. And if you don’t have enough food you can not stand up with the dreadful side effects. And at last the department of health realize it.

Another crazy African rule! And one which has just come out! And this has sent everyone into confusion and disillusion.

We have cleared most of the 120 acres of our new farm by hand, leaving only large acacia thorn trees for shade. Women are at present clearing all the short acacia bushes, as we have a snake problem. And we now have old burning tyres all over the farm and thick neat Jeyes fluid around the new clinic. And finally we are planting wild garlic in 6ft widths around the entire farm. The snakes hate bad smells!!!!

The new clinic has been painted and repaired inside and out. Just weather boards and new gutters need to go up when I fly back in five weeks. And one new large sliding door with shatterproof glass is on order.

All new windows in, all new burglar bars welded and painted.

All floors painted dark green. I shall get tons of pot plants after Christmas when the prices go down.

All the electrics have been checked inside and out. We still do not have water, but it’s imminent. And once it’s on then the five new loos and basins can be piped in.

Our one eyed builder Ellias, is there right now trying to get water pipes delivered, and then he will move the dispensary over and we shall start.


Once the water is on at the clinic then we shall install the microlite irrigation for the medical herb compound.

I hope that I am able to start ploughing on my return with an Italian Monks tractor!!! He’s trying to fix it for us as it hasn’t been used for 15 years!!!

The children’s party will be very big this year and in our new gardens, it’s scheduled for the 18th November. This year the menu is hot dogs/cake/fruit/sweets. African dancers to entertain and Traditional Healers in full costumes to pray for the farm and clinic and a wild and colorful choir that had been using the old clinic for choir practice will be leading the songs/hymns. The disco is a new one and they are fantastic. We shall bring the kids in by coach per area and per school. Several of the foster mothers pitch in to help.


I’ve got quite a few helpers lined up, including our new ABSA bank manager!!

The new clinic officially now opens January 2007.

Marie is organizing the SABC T.V. for coverage.

The project has really begun to shift for the better now. I think we have all those on board that want to be and are committed, and the others have drifted away and I respect that.

A new man in SA will be making a new promotional D.V.D. for the ball on the 2nd of November, its quite cheap so no huge outlays, and he lives on Orange Farm and so patients will feel comfortable with him.

We will be fencing the farm with 12ft electric fence poles, and razor wire. We need 300 poles to jest go around the compound at the moment, and so I am doing it as fast as possible as the money comes in.

Accounts O/S U.K.

We have an accountant’s bill in the U.K. to pay of £400 for 2005-2006
We have £236 to pay for stationary at Staples.
We have just had 2 cases of medicine labels printed for me to take out next trip to SA £120.

Accounts SA

Rand 25,000 for three years audited accounts
This is £2,500

Accounts have been forwarded to all official Trustees.

We are purchasing two new pop up stands from Twenty Twenty Displays at Penryn. I am finding the boards just too heavy to lift around. But they work most weekends for GNHCT.

My great friend Alaister McCloud has just joined GNHCT and with his background will be handling now many presentations to various clubs and village halls, and U.K. companies. Alaister has already booked talks to get people signed up to £10 a month to sponsor an orphan. Alaister used to own the Poldark mine which was a huge tourist attraction, and then he sold out and semi retired to France. Next weekend he is helping me to make 200 port and steak pasties for a fundraising weekend on horseback with the Four burrow Hunt.

The fundraising has been the best so far with a £20,000 donation that came in today that is to be used for the new “Cuddle Centre” alterations and set up. The exchange rate is R14 to the pound and that’s the best its been for some time, this exchange rate will allow me to pay the SA Accountants bill.

We have some serious interest in GNHCT in SA and should be able to have our first funding through in February 2007 for the new “Cuddle Centre” the funds will come from Social Development.

Voluntary Dorset Trustee, Allan Eason who is a renowned horticulturist is planning another walk at Sherborne Castle to raise funds. The Tea Party two months ago although hard work earned us a good few hundred pounds and Pauline is keen it becomes an annual event.


Trustee Philip Proctor has started the ball rolling for further match funding from Rotary International to try and start our laboratory equipment rolling. Badly needed.


I am ecstatic to share with you all that the Harley Davidson’s riders are going to continue to support GNHCT with the “Ride for Life” to take place again in May 2007.Yippeee As the new clinic is called The Harley Davidson Holistic Medical Centre, this is important to keep the links going.


Although Dorset G.5. Charity has left us, they were just wonderful with financial assistance, we have made some firm friends and Ken Lewis still pops in and out with added advice. Ken put me in touch with Seeds for Africa which is a small U.K. Charity and will be giving us £1,000 in February 2007 for a new orphanage vegetable and fruit garden. So that’s great.

The front of the farm will have medical herbs growing near to the drying sheds, and the back of the farm will be vegetables and fruit for the orphanages and foster care system, to keep kids alive and with hope.

Now I am going to start a newspaper! “The Voice of Orange Farm” has been on my computer for 5 years!!! And I will start it as a news letter, and it will be FREE, and then if we can enlarge it a bit! Then it goes on sale on the settlement. And I hope to sell it for just R1. With 2 million people on the settlement if only 5,000 purchased it once a month that would be £500. Mr Dada said he is game to get his students involved at his school and will write the education page. So give me credit for thinking of ways for us to survive!!

We have two wonderful U.K. ladies making home made greetings cards for GNHCT and they wont take a penny to cover the costs.

God Bless you all.

And a huge “ thank you” to you all for your continued support to those who need us.

Annette

[BaZa ®]

The Harley Davidson Holistic Medical Centre.



The Harley Davidson Riders Club of Gt Britain Holistic Medical Centre.

[banquo]

Em. Yes. Don't recall the MOCO making much of a contribution...

[essjay]

Quite right, I have e-mailed Annette saying the same, unfortunately people who are not Harley-Davidson orientated find it hard to distinguish the difference between Moco and us but we will persevere

[Frog]

The Harley Davidson Holistic Medical Centre

That name will surely cause problems from the Mo-Co legal department, stand by for a broadside from Oxford.

If the company would like to make a significant donation from their end of year profits we could, as a club, perhaps authorise them to use their name for our charitable cause

As BaZa says, The Harley Davidson Riders Club Medical Centre.

[essjay]

Originally Posted by Frog

The Harley Davidson Holistic Medical Centre

That name will surely cause problems from the Mo-Co legal department, stand by for a broadside from Oxford.

If the company would like to make a significant donation from their end of year profits we could, as a club, perhaps authorise them to use their name for our charitable cause

As BaZa says, The Harley Davidson Riders Club Medical Centre.

I wonder what they would say, maybe; YOU MUST CEASE AND DESIST FROM USING OUR NAME FOR ANY CHARITABLE CAUSE THAT SAVE KIDS LIVES
Annette has taken your comments on board and sent me this;

Hi Essjay,

Thank you so much for copying me in on riders comments regarding the medical centre in South Africa.

I understand exactly where the riders are coming from, and have spoken to the Trustees about the matter.

In view of these recent comments, we have decided to have a sponsorship board outside of the new clinic and put all sponsors names on it.


What has happened in the last 6 months is making us realise that this project is getting larger by the moment, and we need everyone’s help to make this happen, our audited accounts show that this project which has cost over £220,000 to date, is now costing on average £4,000 a month to run.

Fundraising is really hard work, and each weekend that I am home in the U.K. is taken with various events. I actually got home from Dorset and our GNHCT annual Christmas Craft Fair at 1.30 a.m. this morning.

I returned home from South Africa one week ago. This time Alex Salt who is a voluntary Trustee came out with me, and in Alex’s own words she said no amount of listening about the project, or seeing the DVD’s prepared me for the magnitude of this project.

The project has more than doubled in the past year.

We need a Doctor at the clinic and full time, I am doing far in the excess of a registered medical herbalist! And so we now need to raise another £50,000 a year for medics, there are still only two Doctors on the settlement which has more than 2 million residents. We have asked and asked the South African Department of Health for a Doctor, and they say they are so short of Doctors as most have left the country to earn larger salaries.

Our budget for next year was to be £50,000 and now 2007 fundraisings budget is to be £100,000 and so it’s all hands on deck!!

Let’s hope that this year “Ride for life” gets bigger and more lucrative for everyone’s sake.

Any ideas for fundraising from members would be greatly appreciated by us here.

I think we need to do more ground work for the riders, and send them up leaflets and sponsorship forms in March, they can not be expected to raise the running costs of this project as its just going to keep getting bigger. But we have done a huge amount of work with the last two years “Ride for Life” sponsorship monies. So again a huge thank you, we are so very grateful for all the time and trouble you all went too.

I am up in London this Thursday to meet with Virgin Atlantic, to try and raise funds for the newly intended” Cuddle Centre” which will be for HIV/AIDS babies and toddlers that require special care, they have been supporting another project in South Africa and I am hoping that they will embrace ours, we can not do this alone and I can see a series of “Cuddle Centres” opening over the next five years to cope with the numbers. To date there are 2 million orphans afflicted and affected by the HIV/AIDS crisis in South Africa, they are predicting that these numbers will more than treble within 5 years!!

Our World Aids Week annual ball is next Saturday 2nd, and we still have a few tickets left if any of you would like to join us in Cornwall.

And I will look forward to seeing everyone at your Kernow Harley Ball next spring.

I am back to South Africa on December 27th for 10 days more work!!! No play!

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone.

God Bless


Sincerely

Annette x

Annette Montague-Thomas
The Founder
The Global Natural Healthcare Trust