Ama Wheelies

After the traumatic start and developments in Primrose we moved to the farm in Lydenburg knowing it is wild and lots of work will be needed, however rather than allowing it to stumble us we see it as a stepping stone soon to take us to new heights. At least the setting is stunning with the mountains and 1 fish caught in bass dam, not yet tried other 3 dams.  Had our first farm chicken, farm eggs and lots of visitors, them sleeping all over the show.

The kitchen tea helped a lot and we thank all for the help. We are still in need of monthly food items so if anyone is interested in donating a few items of tinned food, or anything else, that will ease the load, it would be much appreciated.

Garden equipment is expensive and we lend whatever we can. The grass is very long a meter high and I had to buy a bossie kaper, we are still cutting the grass. We started with ramps, excavating the one side and filling the other.

We desperately need a small store but will have to build it ourselves as we are short of funds and counting every cent before spending one. We preparing for veggie garden and will first put 2 pigs in to clear all bossies fattening them in process. Once done we will eat them.

Things do seem to be happening faster than expected, last week we reported that there was no 3G on the farm. This week we are happy to say thats a thing of the past. Vodacom upgrading the tower in our area specially for us improving internet and email speeds and on Tuesday evening we officially connected at 3G speeds and clocked 1.3Mb/s. This is a vast improvement from the 16kb/s we had only days before. A HUGE thank you to Christo Breytenbach and his team who worked around the clock to make this happen, you guys rock!

The Department Social Development Mpumalanga did a site visit late last week. It went well and we await next stage. New postal boxes and many things happening, even our washing line is up and our washing is done.

Do come visit, we are poor, struggling but happy and yes we need financial help desperately, but we keep praying.

A few very adventurous members of Ama Wheelies took the plunge this week, moved to Lydenburg aka Mashishing and started Mpumalanga’s first quadriplegic home!

Barry was evicted from Remme-Los (a quadriplegic home in Primrose Germiston) for raising funds to develop the Ama Wheelies quadriplegic home. Barry leads the small group establishing themselves on a farm outside Lydenburg in the absence of Moses the Chairman, still battling with pressure sores and only able to join the group once fully recovered. The trio on the farm is Barry Botes the treasurer, Chris Le Roux the acting chairman and Sarah Malibhe from Lydenburg.

Plans are for the quadriplegic home to be self sustainable and hence the farming project involving chickens. Ama Wheelies boast a comprehensive 4 year business plan and seek finance thru the banks. Bank laws and deposit requirement or surety guarantees is the major obstacle facing Ama Wheelies. Without deposit and no surety for banks Ama Wheelies resorted to fund raising projects. The hard work and energy soon drew attention and Remme-Los the quadriplegic home Barry was living in gave Barry 15 days notice claiming the Ama Wheelies project compromise the sustainability of Remme-Los. Ama Wheelies decided to treat the eviction as a stepping stone into the future, rather than an obstacle debating the correctness and legal rights and time consumed in courts. Thus Ama Wheelies remain focused on setting up the new home desperately needed by quadriplegics and paraplegics in Mpumalanga. Thus at short notice the home was started.

Occupation was taken in a cottage on the farm on Saturday 27 November; immediately cleaning, cutting grass and building ramps for the wheelchairs started, in what can only be described as one of the most spectacular settings in South Africa.

Telecommunication on the farm is rather poor and so please be patient if it seem there is no answer to your communications.  Application has been submitted to Telkom and we await ‘land-line’ installation. The farm has no 3G and the Vodacom signal is very weak and fails at certain times of the day.

Much help is needed, please help, any contribution will help, Our Nedbank account is a current account in the name of “Ama Wheelies of Lydenburg” account number 1930052944 and Branch 193042; but more if you own property and prepared to sign surety it will help the quadriplegics obtain finance sooner; please contact Barry on 0798755040 with any offers your heart feels inclined to offer!