RiTara Williams
RiTara Williams
South Africa 2014 - 2015
VIEW FINAL REPORT
My name is RiTara Williams and I will be working at an internship in Cape Town, South Africa. I will be working with African Impact and The Happy Africa Foundation. Read More About RiTara →

Working Through Circumstances

Y’all two weeks really fly by! I mean it feels like I just wrote on here yesterday!

Anywho... Even though these past two weeks have flown by, they have been packed with so many things that I can’t even remember what has been going on. I have spent most of my time at work planning my first fundraising event but due to circumstances out of my control, part of the event had to be cancelled. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed but hopefully we will still be able to raise the money we need.

The organization that we (The Happy Africa Foundation) is fundraising for is a  partner of African Impact called Sporting Chance. African Impact helps with their sports programming in the local schools and different clinics during the year. Sporting Chance also runs different programs during the year to get the kids in disadvantaged communities active and off of the streets. One such program is the Street Cricket program that is run in ten of the communities in and around Cape Town. The last time the program ran in 2010 it involved 15 communities in the Western Cape with 3500 children participating in the event. Since then, Sporting Chance’s funding has been cut and they have not been able to hold this event for the communities. The goal of our fundraising event was to raise enough funds to co-sponsor at least one community to be able to participate in this program.

So far our fundraising efforts have not produce a lot of revenue but the event would have made up for that. We are still able to hold the charity cricket match that will bring in some money and I was able to collect some really good raffle prizes that will generate some funds as well. I have faith that we will be able to reach our fundraising goals and all of the stress will be worth it when I see the children playing street cricket.

If you are able to help in any way, you can follow this link to donate:  (http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserPage.action?userUrl=CapeTownHappyAfricaFoundation&faId=491403&isTeam=false)

This has been a really good couple of weeks. I got lost on the trains with one of my really good friends (We took the wrong train out of the station). We had a fun adventure trying to get on the correct line and getting home before dark (taking the train after dark is a BIG no no). I attended my first (not really the first but the first one didn’t count lol) soccer match in Cape Town. It was Cape Town vs Nigeria and even though the game was not good, just experiencing the culture and people in the stadium was worth the ticket. We were also able to collect a lot of abandoned beer cups as resources for the focal projects we work on everyday. Another exciting event was the opening of the FIRST Forever 21 in South Africa! Zoe and I woke up early on a Saturday (for once) to be some of the first ones in the store.

This past weekend was a bitter sweet weekend because it was Zoe’s last one here. On Saturday, I went on a road trip to Hermanus to see the whales in the bay. You are able to kayak into the sea with the whales but I don’t want to end up like Jonah so I passed on that adventure. The trip was very peaceful and exactly what I needed because I knew I would have to say goodbye to Zoe the next day. Sunday I went to breakfast with some of my housemates and then hung out with Zoe the rest of the day. I finally road the Cape Wheel at the waterfront which produced the most amazing views. Zoe is one person who has been there for me no matter what and she will be missed dearly. I know that we will meet up in the States and travel up to Canada to go see Naz.

I will post picture the moment the internet allows me to do so!

CHEERS!

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