Happy Happy

It’s a brand new year. One filled with new beginnings and new inspirations. New friendships and new ideas. It’s a clean slate for all of us to rewrite our history. Create our own path and brighten our own future. It’s time to move forward to a place filled with opportunity and hope. Not entitlement and disregard. 2012 is our year for positive change.

As Martha and I sat hugging each other around the fire as the clock struck 12 on New Years Eve, we both felt hope for Heartfelt and the year that lies ahead. We felt slightly lighter, slightly wiser. And our wish for the ladies this year – that their hearts are filled with love and gratitude – for god has given them a brand new year to help them change their lives. May 2012 bring them the ability to see that they are in charge of changing their own future. And to embrace the true spirit of ubuntu. Without each other, there would be no community or support. Without each customer, there would be no orders or food on the table. And without Martha, there would be no Heartfelt.

And as we get started on all the exciting changes that lie ahead for all of us here at Heartfelt - our wish for all of you is that 2012 is as happy and as life changing as we hope it to be for all of us. Love every day that comes your way - for each day given to us is truly a gift.

Our World Aids Day Hero

As World Aids Day rolls around again, I wonder how far we have come as a country in the fight against HIV/AIDS? The stigma is still there and young girls are more worried about falling pregnant then they are about contracting HIV. Wives in rural communities still don’t question their husbands about whether or not they have been faithful while living and working away from home and retroviral medication funding is slowly running out. South Africa has the largest HIV burden of any country in the world, with an estimated 5.5 million people living with the virus. And women and children remain at the centre of the pandemic in terms of transmission, vulnerability and potential for impact.

That’s why, on World Aids Day, we want to recognise the incredible work that South to South have been doing in our little community and it’s surrounding areas. Their paediatricians and doctors have been coming to the local clinics and hospitals to integrate and strengthen Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT), paediatric HIV and adherence and psychosocial (APS) programs. It really is making a huge difference and helping mothers in the area look after themselves and their infants.

Our ladies try and get to the clinic with their babies if they need to when they know the South to South staff are in the area – once or twice a month. They’ve implemented other systems in the clinics too where more people are being tested to know their status – and it is encouraged by the staff to do so when being submitted.

The South to South Program for Comprehensive Family HIV Care and Treatment (S2S) aims to address these gaps in support of quality HIV care and treatment services. So thank you South to South for making such a positive difference to our community – we truly salute you! Your dedication to combating HIV in this country and your love and care do not go unnoticed.

We get excited when we know you are in the area and love it when you pop in to have a cup of tea with Martha and chat to the ladies – thank you for working with us to create a positive environment to talk about HIV/AIDS. We love you more than words could explain. Go in Kagiso (peace) and katlego (joy) always.

Ps. See you soon x

A heart for the community

Once again Martha proved just how big her heart really is. We were asked by one of our lovely customers if we’d help with a job that involved cutting material into strips for her client (Nando’s). It had nothing to do with Heartfelt products - they simply needed hands to help.

So we roped in some of the local ladies in the community and Martha put them to work. It was a huge job and the timings were incredibly tight. Martha – in true Martha fashion - jumped right in and made sure everyone was working and that the job got finished on time. She wasn’t earning anything for doing it – she just wanted to see that she could help and was grateful for the work she could bring to her community.

And when all the ladies got paid Martha sent me a message just to tell me how happy she was that she could help those women and their families and that her heart nearly burst when one of the ladies came to her the next day to say that she will use the money she earned to buy her children clothes for Christmas. Otherwise they would be getting nothing.

It made me think how lucky the children of Makapanstad are to have a Martha out there willing to work for 'mahala' so that their mothers can get food on the table. And how Martha has certainly taught me when you have a big heart - all you truly need is LOVE! Ta da da da da. . .

Something about today

I woke up this morning feeling inspired. Not only because today I received two very encouraging messages from people, but also because there is so much going on at Heartfelt and a lot of positive thinking. We are running around already in the throws of putting Christmas orders together. This is always our busiest time of year and from now until Santa jumps down your chimney, we will be up to our eyeballs in felt.

I chatted to Martha last night who’d been running around all day buying materials for the workshop. She arrived home at 7:30pm but somehow was as happy as ever (not unusual behaviour for Martha might I add). I had also been doing my fair share of running around and thank heavens we now have Charlene to keep the office fires burning and emails answered.

Last month the two of us attended the Legends Magic Workshop in Cape Town. It was the first time Charlene had ever been on a plane, so you can just imagine her excitement. This sales & finance focussed workshop was fabulous. It was two days of learning and sharing and it gave us a lot of very important business tools to take home and start implementing. Run by Fetola (Winner in the Services Sector category of the 2011 Africa SMME Awards, held last week in Johannesburg) and its fabulous staff – as one of the Legends beneficiaries we now have exciting opportunities and ideas coming your way.

We’ve also just come back from exhibiting at the Constantia Gift Fair (19-23 October), which was a huge success. It is the second year we’ve taken part and it was lovely being there again - nestled amongst all the beautiful products and visitors.

And on that fine note I best be off. I need to get back to all our orders and emails. Christmas is just around the corner don’t you know… oh my shattered nerves!

Love is blind!

A few weeks ago Western Cape Wineries, started by New Zealander Christine Andrews, held a Blind Wine Tasting evening at the Two Ocean’s Aquarium at the Cape Town Waterfront. Other than learning about and enjoying the wines, its main aim was to raise money for Heartfelt in an effort to buy school books for one of the local schools we support in the Makapanstad district.

The venue was spectacular. There were four tables of 10 settings set up amongst the fish tanks. Everyone tasted 10 different wines over the evening while sharks, turtles and all kinds of fish swam past, creating an ever changing wallpaper.

At the end of the evening bottles of wine donated by various wine farms were put up for auction. Christine managed to raise a whopping R6087.00 for Heartfelt. Wow – now that's going to buy a lot of books!

We’d like to say a very special thank you to: Allee Bleue, Creation, Hamilton Russell, Daschbosch, Delaire, Buitenverwachting, Trizanne, Morena, Conradie, Barista, Bilton, and Pulpit Rock for donating their wine for the auction. Also to Brooklands Guesthouse for donating a night in their honey moon suite valued at R3000.00 and to Van Doorns for donating R500. What a brilliant evening and a brilliant outcome.

The money raised will make such a difference to the Makapanstad children’s lives – it truly is a gift (for life).

To find out more about any future events held by Western Cape Wineries find them on facebook and follow their page.

A day to remember

Nothing makes a woman feel more like a woman, than being in a room full of woman. Phew, that was a mouthful! Hopefully you get what I am trying to say. It’s inspiring and motivating and filled with that thing we call ‘girl power’. Maybe it’s the fact that we are able to listen to each other and learn from each other. And no matter what walk of life we are from - as mothers, sisters, daughters, wives & best friends - we can all empathise and relate to one another.

And that’s what made this Women’s Day so special and inspiring for all the Heartfelt ladies. They got invited to a breakfast workshop with the wonderful women from BDO South Africa Incorporated’s Pretoria Office to teach them how to make their beautiful brooches (one to keep & one to sell). Martha chatted to the BDO ladies about the project and how it started and that no matter what your situation or circumstance you can make a huge difference even if you do it one heart at a time. They all shared stories with each other and the Heartfelt ladies even got to sell some of their products which they were delighted about.

The ladies left there totally inspired and motivated. Just the taxi ride in from Makapanstad, organised and paid for by BDO, was an experience of a life time. Some of the ladies had never left their little rural community or been as far away. They drove past the Union Buildings, Loftus stadium and The University of Pretoria (TUKS), just a few of the famous Pretoria landmarks. After the BDO breakfast and workshop Martha and Charlene decided, while they were out and about anyway and close to it, to go to Menlyn Park Shopping Centre with the ladies. As a Women's Day treat Heartfelt bought lunch for each lady to enjoy on the way home. Martha said you'd never seen so many excited women in one vehicle. Apparently, they sang and and laughed all the way back to Makapanstad!

We’d like to say a very special thank you to Esme Kluckow and Berton Bosman from the BDO Pretoria offices. They not only organised this Women’s Day initiative, but also went out to Makapanstad and organised the delivery and donation of new workshop chairs for all the ladies to sit on. Martha will be forever grateful to have her kitchen chairs back in her house!

Find out more about how BDO are involved with Heartfelt by clicking here

Martha's trip to the seaside!

It was my brother’s wedding last weekend in Cape Town and he really wanted Martha to be there. Like me, she is his 'African mother' and has known him from the day he was born. Growing up he was Emanuel’s best friend. It was such a special time. Martha, who will never get on a plane for fear of flying, caught the City-to-City bus up to Cape Town from Pretoria which took her 17 hours. When she arrived she was wide eyed and bushy tailed – and instantly fell in love with Cape Town.

Not wanting to sleep, she helped us with all the wedding ‘stuff’ that needed to be done and drove around in sheer awe of the mountain and the sea. It was so special to have her at the wedding and to share such a special time with us all – even though she was only there for four days - to her it was a memory that will last a life time.

It's a crazy thought to think that Martha, like the Heartfelt ladies, never gets the opportunities that we do to go on hoiday to places like Cape Town. Or even away for the weekend. Some of the ladies have never even left Makapanstad. Now there's a depressing thought - and we take it so forgranted and get upset if our flight is an hour late or we can't stay an extra night or two!

Arriving back from her trip last week, Martha was back at work and into the Heartfelt swing of things to show Annie Mokoena and the SABC crew of the show Leihlo la Sechaba which is broadcast on Thursdays at 6p.m. on SABC2 around Makapanstad. They are in the midst of doing a documentary about Heartfelt for Women’s Day and wanted to come and visit. So as you can imagine – all the ladies were so excited they could hardly sit still! We’ll let you know when the programme will be aired. Annie is such a lovely lady and filled with so much warmth.

And until the crew come back in a few weeks time to film the final bits - Mrs Celebrity will be staying putt for a little while, because as we all know, it's not like her to want to miss out on anything. And her four days in Cape Town? Well, as you can imagine - they are already the talk of the town (or rather - village).

Mrs Celebrity Makapanstad!

It’s been a buzz of excitement at Heartfelt over the past two weeks. Motsawako’s SABC2 talk show aired last Monday night featuring a story on Heartfelt – and the star of the show Martha. None of us knew it would be on TV, the first we heard of it was when we started getting frantic calls from friends and family. Wow, talk about exciting. I called Martha and she was already watching it – her phone had been ringing none stop. Since then we've had a few visitors coming to meet the ladies and see their beautiful handy-work. As well as receive inspiring emails from special people who watched the show. We have even employed a young girl who lives in Makapanstad who got hold of us after seeing the show and has a very heartfelt story of her own.

The ladies were all so excited to see themselves on TV and Martha has officially been renamed Mrs Celebrity Makapanstad by all of them. It seems to have given them all a huge boost and they are more excited than ever about what the future holds. It's wonderful.
Other than that we've all been keeping nice and busy and working on a lot of orders and wedding favours for our blushing brides. Also, my sincere apologies for the silence this month. I have been spending a lot of time training Charlene (Martha’s daughter) to work on the office admin side of things and with daily orders (not to mention moving house) it’s been a juggling act this month!

Charlene and I are also both doing a Costing & Pricing Workshop through Fetola & Old Mutual this month which we are very excited about – and the ladies are also getting a spoiling treat with Old Mutual actually coming to Makapanstad to give a workshop called 'On the Money' teaching them about looking after their finances. It's going to be held at a local school close to Pinky Place and each lady will be bringing a friend with her from the community. They'll also all get a free lunch from Old Mutual and the entire workshop will be done in Setswana so everyone can understand. It will be a very special event indeed and one that we hope will teach the ladies how to look after their finances - and not get suckered into buying on credit!

And finally, thank you to everyone who sent Martha beautiful messages on Mother’s Day. It meant so much to her and she felt extremely loved. Also, a very big thank you to Carolin & Sepati from South 2 South who met with Martha and the ladies this month and did a councelling session with them all - your continued support means so much to the ladies. They really love it when you visit and can't wait to share that next cup of tea with you when you are back in Makapanstad.

Oh and one last thing before I forget - please could you sign our water petition - we are still desperate to get water to our lovely ladies and their families in Makapanstad! Thank you.

Our week with Francie

Hi, this is Francie. I’m Heartfelt's 'Development Manager'. That just means I’m up for anything and interested in everything, especially the improvement of the work and sanitary conditions of the Heartfelt employees. I’ve been in South Africa for a visit for the past week working with the Ladies on several different things.

I last came to Heartfelt and South Africa two years ago and since then I've been looking forward to the chance to come back to see if I could help make a few changes for the better for Heartfelt.

Over the past week I've managed to spend a lot of time with Martha finding out more about the problems within the workshop and other more serious problems faced in the community like the complete lack of reasonable access to running water. There are lots of things that I want to help improve and problems that ought to have been resolved since I was here in 2009, but the water problem is probably my primary gripe.

The wide spread village of Makapanstad has never had running water. A lot of the bore holes in the yards are also dry. This wasn’t such an unusual problem in South Africa ten years ago, but since then the government has been implementing a program of Free Basic Water, allowing for every family to have reasonable access to clean running water. So two years ago I stood in Martha’s yard and checked out the tap that had been put in more than 6 months previous which had not released a single drop of water. Last week I stood in the same place and wondered the same thing, what’s holding this water back? On the other side of the main road, in the same village of Makapanstad, water flows from taps and villagers don’t have to pay exorbitant prices to shrewd men who shop water around with their donkey carts and probably refill their tanks at the next village with running water.

We’ve had a petition going for a few months now which we’ll send to the local authorities to let them know that this problem needs to be resolved and that people around the world are aware of this situation. But last Wednesday, I think we had the biggest break through so far. I went into the Moretele Municipality building, found my way to the office of the Technical Services Manager, and had a quick chat with him. I can’t tell you how excited we were when he said he would come with us to Martha’s place where the workshop is to see what I was talking about. I’ll be honest and tell you that I think this little miracle happened because his eyes nearly popped out of his head when he learned that I’m an Australian!

Along with one of his colleagues, we went round to Martha’s place. Martha gave them a piece of her mind and certainly managed to convey her frustration. But we got some answers and we hope that soon we’ll also see some results. The water implementation programme is nearing its completion and our section of Makapanstad is the final stage. The problem there is the difficulty in plumbing the area since it, as opposed to the opposite side of the main road, is above the level of the water source. These are decent reasons for a delay in completing the services but what about just getting some water to these people in the meantime? Martha pointed out that on the opposite side of the village, when they were without water, a tank was supplied by the municipality. So we asked for the same provision for the interim. They didn’t promise it, but I have their email addresses so they won’t be able to forget our conversation too soon!

One of the Technical Services guys, after visiting the workshop and seeing what Heartfelt is doing there, said something very touching; he said, “its like that saying; ‘teach a child sport, keep him out of court’, that’s what you are doing here and it makes me very emotional”. So, fingers crossed that we see some action here soon. If you haven’t already signed our petition, please do so as I will be sending it to the guys that we met (http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/waterintomakapanstad/). Also, I’ll just take this opportunity to mention that we are hoping to raise some money to get a large water collection tank and an ecotoilet for the workshop. If you’d like to make a donation to our ‘Sanitation Fund’, please contact me and I’ll give you the bank account details right away: francie@theheartfeltproject.com

We had two other special events happen during the week. The first was a very special visit on Tuesday from a 3rd year Graphic Design class from Potchefstroom University. The students have been given Heartfelt as the client for their assessment project for the next 6 weeks. They’re to design packaging and a corporate identity pack. They were led by their lecturer Cashandra Willemse who is passionate about small developing businesses like Heartfelt that have an ethical purpose. Martha and Jules spoke to the students about how Heartfelt got started and what kind of design assistance it needs. I spoke to them about the health and sanitation issues the ladies face in their circumstances and Cashandra rounded it all off perfectly by reminding the students that in their work they should remember that the bottom line for Heartfelt and probably for each of us personally is the desire to live with dignity.

The students, 18 girls and one lucky guy, met and chatted with all of the ladies and had the chance to get a feel for village life. It was a very positive day and we can’t wait to see what type of innovative ideas they produce.

On Wednesday made lunch for us all and gave the ladies a workshop. I spoke to them about business and tried to explain a little about the side of the business that they don't see and how it works. I think many of us take for granted the knowledge of business operations and the necessary admin, but when you’ve never had a job or have only ever worked as a domestic employee, your understanding of what makes a business tick, is limited. So I spoke about what kind of company Heartfelt is and what makes being a ‘social enterprise’ different from a charity project or a standard profit making company.

I also gave them each a questionnaire a couple of days earlier which asked them what ideas they might have to improve Heartfelt and also what they personally would like to learn, from Heartfelt and in general. The overwhelming majority of the women commented on the need for ruthless quality management. They all expressed their desire to have the products leaving the workshop be of the highest standard they can make.

As for personal goals, several ladies mentioned that they’d like to start small businesses like catering or sewing household products. Others are keen for training. Things like learning to drive and completing courses that they have had to drop out of because of finances etc. I talked to them about the opportunities they are sometimes offered through Heartfelt. On paper, they’ll tell me that they’re interested in learning new skills, but when it comes to the crunch, many times Julie has not been able to convince them to give up a day’s work to learn something new that has been offered for free. We can all understand how crucial a day’s pay can be when you have a family to feed so it’s not easy to try to encourage someone to look beyond small immediate things to the future, but that’s what I tried to do! I explained that those opportunities to be educated for free are the best chances they have to change their circumstances and increase their earning power. I can’t say for certain that every woman was convinced, but we will certainly see next time an opportunity arises.

We talked about a lot of big and small things and I think that I have helped to make some things clearer. It was a fantastic opportunity for me to give these great women another perspective on what they're doing and where they can take it.

I wished that I could stay another week just to wake up each day in Makapanstad to hear the sounds of rural life and meet a neighbour's turkey wandering past the back door. But it was only to be a quick visit from the outset and I'm so pleased with what we achieved in such a small time. Next step is to check up on those municipal water guys!

Reality Bites!

It’s been a difficult week. One that’s been met with sheer excitement and complete disappointment. As we all sat in Makapanstad yesterday, facing the harsh reality that -after drilling 140 metres, spending R60 000 (£6000) & sharing two sleepless nights together - we weren’t going to find any water.

There was a 4% chance of this happening. 4%?! God obviously has other plans for us. We just can’t get our heads around what they are right now. Why does the rich businessman who owns a R12 million rand house in Sandton strike water straight away? Why, after all the love and kindness of complete strangers and the hope felt by the whole community - didn’t we?

My heart breaks as I type this. If you could have seen how excited Martha and the ladies were on Tuesday morning when Midrand Boreholes arrived with their drilling truck. And the sadness on their faces yesterday afternoon. I guess you can’t really question why – though it does make me want to scream and shout at someone up there. I felt so guilty when I got home last night and lay in my hot bath. We take it so for granted that we are afforded the luxury of water – when there are communities like Makapanstad, and good people like Martha, who aren’t.

Out of all the frustration and sadness, I guess there has got to come some good? Paul Spurgeon, from Cornerstone, who is responsible for the funding of the drilling – is the incredible bright light at the end of our tunnel. Having come all the way from the UK to be here for this, he has enriched all our lives through his enormously big heart and perseverance. He’s had to beg, borrow and steal to get the funding for this all to happen. So you can imagine how disappointed we all feel for him that we didn’t get the outcome he/we deserved. However, he and we are not giving up hope just yet. Somehow we will pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and try to find water another way. No one said this journey would be easy.

We would also like to thank Midrand Boreholes, owned by Linda and Alan. Two very special people who out of the goodness of their hearts decided not to give up on Martha and spent all of last night and this morning with their team drilling open a dried up water pump at the back of Martha’s property (it’s not been used for 30 years). They managed to find Martha enough water to last approximately 6 months. We are now just waiting to take the water for testing - as it might be contaminated due to its close proximity to the long-drop toilet next to it. If it gets the all clear, we will try and get funding together to relocate the toilet and get Martha a proper pump and a tank so that she can get at least 20 litres pumped into taps in her house and at the workshop daily. This little gift from Midrand Boreholes has been the hope that we have needed – to know that out of every bad situation comes some good. We have met and made special friends through our ‘water’ experience - Paul, Linda, Alan, Nqobile – it’s inspiring to know that there are such good people, doing such good things for others.

And if you want to do something good too - please turn the tap off while you are brushing your teeth. If we all did that, every day for the rest of our lives…  just think how much water could be saved. And after seeing what life is like without any water – believe you me, we do not want to run out!