April 17th, 2009

The day began very early as we arrived at Smutsville Primary School, located in Sedgefield, South Africa, at 7:00am to help sort 450 pairs of brand new school shoes for the students. We were joined with the volunteers at the clinic at the school and two employees of PEP Store, where the shoes were purchased.

The sorting went very quickly and by 8:00am we were ready for the students to start filing through to receive their new shoes. The volunteers from the clinic had prepared food and drinks for everyone and we were all anxious for the children to arrive at 8:30am. I was greeted by the schools Headmaster, Stephanus Dogh, who expressed his appreciation to FUWL for all that we have done for his staff and students.

The children started to arrive at the school auditorium, classroom by classroom. Taryn and I handed each child their new shoes. Each child thanked us for the shoes. As the children waited in line, we could see exactly why we chose to fund this project. There were children that were wearing shoes that didn’t fit them, some of them had shoes that were so badly worn that it was amazing that they were staying on their feet and there were some with no shoes at all.

Knysna Municipality Executive Mayor, Eleanore Bouw-Spies, joined From Us With Love at the school to hand out the shoes.

The day ended with every student receiving a brand new pair of school shoes and two of the students gave us thank you cards from the faculty and students. The two students stood in front of us and read the cards aloud to us. There was a Mother that brought her child to school that morning that went around the room and gave each of us a hug and to say thank you.

So many times I have said what a priviledge it is for me to see first hand the impact that From Us With Love is making in the lives of the children and families of South Africa. This was definitely one of those times.