Archived News

27/05/2010

Marathon winner supports Point

We have today received a wonderful donation from Jonnie Rogers who lives in Steyning. He completed the Brighton Marathon in a creditable 4 hrs and 16 minutes. Both Jonnie and his wife Emma have been extremely supportive of the Point Foundation and we are very thankful to him.

21/05/2010

New TV is installed at the Noel Orphanage

On his visit three weeks ago, the Chairman promised the older children that he would install a television and satellite in time to watch the world cup starting on the 11th June. Today the satellite was installed allowing the older boys to watch the Champions League final tomorrow for the first time – their excitement is overwhelming

20/05/2010

Noel Orphanage Visit Dates

We return on the 2nd of October with a number of new visitors. A second trip is being organised on the 22nd October.

19/05/2010

Southdowns Charity Bike Event

Our annual event, in partnership with South Downs Nursery School takes place on the weekend of the 3rd and 4th July with riders cycling from Winchester to Beachy Head – a total of over 100 miles. Hopefully we will exceed the £30k raised last year

16/05/2010

The Point Foundation announces the launch of its 1st book

“Your place or Mine” covers a wide variety of holiday destinations and favourite eating places around the world as recommended by well travelled friends of the Foundation. With a foreword by Sally Gunnell, this coffee table book will be published in late July.

08/05/2010

Chairman Returns from Rwanda

Following a very successful visit to the Noel Orphanage, where Charles visited the management team and our builders to check on progress, he has written up a full report on all our activities there including the building of a new library, which can be viewed by clicking here.

25/04/2010

New Toilet and shower block for the Khulani School

We have today funded the building of a new toilet and shower block for this wonderful and growing school, which houses 30 mentally and severely disabled children in the Mduku community. We hope the toilets will be ready by the end of July

23/04/2010

Advent Hope New Orphanage House opens

The new building to house up to 50 orphans opened today with separate dormitories for the girls and boys, a kitchen, showers and toilets. This is an incredible change to where the children were living before, in one room at the back of Thandi’s house with one outside toilet. New pictures can be seen in the Advent Hope section.

18/01/2010

Bakery close to completion

We are pleased to report that we have finally managed to purchase the bakery which is sited next to the Noel Orphanage. The bakery will now be run by theOrphanage with bread baked for the children and surplus loaves being sold locally. Our aim has been not only to make the Noel more self sufficient and actually by using bread will help their diet but we intend to start apprenticeship schemes to train children to become bakers.

We go live with the ovens in two weeks time.

10/01/2010

Christmas at the Noel

For the first time ever, the children of the Noel Orphanage celebrated Christmas day in style. The children were encouraged to dress up for the day in their Sunday best clothes and after attending Mass returned to the home to find a sumptuous lunch which included a very rare treat - boiled beef, maize and vegetables. Also the children enjoyed bottles of pop and sweets.

The Point Foundation funded the �2000 needed for the 700 children plus their carers and local dignatories to enjoy the day. After lunch, the children performed dancing and enjoyed lost of games. The Director sent a note saying how delighted the children were and what a wonderful day they all had. For once all the children slept soundly that night.

21/12/09

Steyning Panto a success for the Point

Over the past two years the small mid Sussex village of Steyning has supported the Point Foundation through a number of events and once again have made an amazing contribution by allowing us to run the bar at the local Panto, Jack and the Beanstalk. From the 3 nights, in excess of £2600 was donated.

12/12/09

Crane Foundation pledge further support to the Point

We are pleased to report that we have today been advised that our application for funding has been approved and we will receive $10,000 from the Crane Foundation. We were warned that due to a severe downturn in business, funding for special projects was to be cut significantly this year. Only four projects were awarded funds this year.

A massive thank you to the Crane Foundation for their support over the past two years. Without them the Noel Orphanage would not be where it is now.

On another note the 500 shoe boxes, that were donated by Marlborough Nursery in Leicester, have now been received and are currently sitting on 4 pallets awaiting shipment to the Noel. Each box contains presents for a child which include toys, clothing, pencils, paper etc. Thanks to Gail Hodgson for all her hard work.

26/10/09

New Point Foundation website is now live

Please take a few moments of your time by visiting all the new areas of the website including new video footage from the Noel orphanage as well as a host of latest images from other projects in South Africa.

17/10/09

First Point Foundation Ball a Grand Success

On Friday 16th of October 2009, The Point Foundation held their first ever ball at the Dorchester Hotel in London. Over 300 guests attended the event which was opened by Patron - Sally Gunnell OBE. During the cocktail party there was an exhibition area where guests were able to see for themselves the huge amount of work currently being undertaken in all five orphanages. After dinner, Chairman Charles Trace talked about the works completed and the ongoing projects, showing many “before and after” pictures, concluding that the Point Foundation were making a massive difference to the young lives of over 2500 children. We are pleased to report that the event was a major success with £150,000 raised on the night and with a further pledge received after the evening for an additional £30,000.

To see images from the night, please visit the photo gallery.

22/09/09

Report from Mdudla School

Earlier this month Karen and I returned to spend a week visiting the Mdudla School and the Advent School in the Mduku community in Hluhluwe, which is in Zwa Zulu Natal. We were accompanied by our good friends from the &beyond Foundation, who help us enormously by managing the funds we send down, as well as giving fantastic on the ground support within the community. Bheki, the local manager and Dominick the MD joined us on our visits.

22/09/09

Report from Advent Hope School

We also saw the lovely Thandi, head teacher of the school and her teachers and staff. Again we were honoured to receive a real Zulu welcome as we drove through the gates with signing and marching by the children with banners made in our honour. After formally meeting the teaching staff we were taken on a tour of the new classrooms that we funded as well as see the other building works that we have paid for. So many children rushed out to greet us and say hello to their “visitors” and we spent quite some time talking and playing games. At this point Dominick drove in with the consignment of 700 books and other materials that we had shipped down in July. Thandi and the school were overjoyed and it was a nightmare trying to get them from the car into the office as everyone wanted a look.