Monday, May 28, 2012

99 pledges - one more today?

We just have one more pledge to go before we hit 100. Come on...we *know* you have a friend who wants to help us out!

In other news, listen out for us on CCFM at 11:30 tomorrow and look out for us in Die Burger as well.


Friday, May 25, 2012

Cool moment of the day

Dad chatting to acquaintance. Acquaintance mentions the 100k in 10 Days Campaign. Dad mentions that he is intimately familiar with it.

Here's hoping people keep giving in the last week.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Mystery donor #2

Our second donors of R20 000 want to remain (semi) anonymous. So a huge thank you to Richard and Shelley. You have made an exceptional difference to our campaign and to Saartjie Baartman.

Watch this space...

We haven't yet finalised the lineup, but we have a fundraising comedy show coming up with some BIG names. We can't release details yet as we still need to confirm dates, times, venues and participation, but keep your eyes peeled. We can't tell you exactly who's going to be there yet, but we can tell you it's going to be huge!

Simple pleasures

In between the absolutely amazing news of yesterday, a very cool (small) incident:

Having breakfast at the gym, and hearing two unknown men talking at the next table about the fundraising for Saartjie Baartman. I didn't say anything, just beamed into my salmon trout.

Reagola, we love you

We've heard from one of our mystery R20 000 donors: it's Mr John Murray of Reagola Print and Mail. Their name means "we are growing" and their website promises real, human contact (rather than scripted support and IVR lines) so it's great to see they put their money where their mouth is - because to us, this kind of generosity definitely falls under "the human touch"!

We are so grateful. Thank you.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Now at R130 000...

I am officially out of words. We are waiting for CapeTalk to confirm the names of two more donors who gave us R20 000 each this afternoon. Hopefully by then I will no longer be speechless.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We heard that Suzanne Ackerman-Berman had donated. What we had not yet seen was this:

Dear Marelise
Thank you for taking the initiative to try and save the centre.
My husband and I would like to offer R50 000 towards this fundraiser and I challenge other family foundations to equal or better our contribution!

Kind regards,
Suzanne Ackerman-Berman

There were some tears, and I'm afraid I sent her a reply with a great deal of exclamation marks in it. This is UNBELIEVABLE. Thank you so much to Mrs Ackerman-Berman and Mr Berman. We are absolutely overwhelmed.
 

Pick 'n Pay can, so can you

We got a donation today from Suzanne Ackerman-Berman (Transformation Director at Pick 'n Pay) and husband Paul Berman following an interview on CapeTalk. Nice!

Great to see corporate representatives living their social responsibility values in a personal capacity as well.

R40 000, here we come

We are almost halfway! Thanks to some fantastic exposure on Voice of the Cape and The Big Issue, we climbed past R35 000 yesterday. Onwards and upwards to 40 000!

It's starting to look possible. Thank you, thank you, thank you for everyone's generosity.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

We LOVE CapeTalk listeners

Wow! Within five minutes of being on Cape Talk, our inbox was flooded with responses from people who want to help. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We've just passed the R32 000 mark - we'll keep you posted.

Remember - if you want to just make a quick visit to our site, you'll find the banking details here.

Moody Tuesday?

Time is ticking - it's 3:15 and only three pledges today. If you've already pledged, please bug a friend or family member to match your donation. If everyone does that, we can double what we've collected and make it to R50 000 before the week is out.

In the meantime, we have two radio interviews today and one tomorrow, so hopefully that will bring some reaction. Keep spreading the word!

And thank you, today, to the following donors:

Susan Power
David Power
Shamim Allie

...Together, you've kept a family safe for 18 days.

Monday, May 21, 2012

One more thing...

This just in: the Western Cape government has decided to step in and give SBC enough funding to tide them over until September.

This is GREAT news. However, please don't let this stop your pledges! Otherwise we'll just be in the same position again in September. Let's see if we can get them back on their feet long-term.

Yes?

Yes!

Wahoo - we're famous

Big ups to the media for jumping onto this so energetically. Look out for us in The Argus, The Cape Times and Die Burger, as well as on SAFM, KFM Eyewitness News, Voice of the Cape and CapeTalk.

And keep spreading the word - we still need R5 000 today and R10 000 every day until the end of May, so please tell everyone you know about us, and, of course, about the Saartjie Baartman Centre.

Just a few more days! Let's make it happen.

Back in the game!

We were right - it was just a weekend lull *phew*

Today, so far, we have pledges from the following donors, adding up to R5 000 of our R10 000 target for the day:

Shen Cassim
Celeste
Chris van der Merwe
Biebie van der Merwe
Robert Morrell
Carla Lever
Pam Sykes
Raven Naidoo
Trevor Fleurs

...and it's only lunchtime. (We'll update more later.)

We've also had a fantastic missive from Lauren Lane, whose husband Richard has pledged to do the Comrades in aid of the Saartjie Baartman Centre on 3 June. So if you are approached by a lean man in trainers, be a dear and give him some money. It's going to a good cause. We promise.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Below target today - whoops

I think I need to have a word with that horoscope writer I spoke of earlier. We were fifteen pledges short of our target today, which means that if we want to stay on track, we need - gulp - 35 tomorrow. Yikes.

However, the good news is that we had five brandspankingnew pledges today and - most importantly - each R500 donation to the Saartjie Baartman Centre keeps one family away from their abusers, and safely off the streets, for six days.

Today we received donations from:

  • Joanna Evans
  • Miriam Mannak
  • Marijke Mannak
  • Edith V
  • Jeanne V
Many, many thanks. Together, you are keeping a family safe at Saartjie Baartman for one month.

Good grief, Charlie Brown

Like many of us, I proclaim publicly that horoscopes are rubbish, and read my own slavishly anyway. There's a standing joke among journalists that there are no astrologers - there is just the reporter who's been relegated to the stars page as a last stop before getting fired. But today, I love that poor soul. Because this is what s/he said:

Is there some material need weighing on your spirit right now? If you can't see how to solve the problem alone, why not discuss it with your friends? They may have some ideas. Today, the word "impossible" has been banished from the English language. Take advantage of the opportunity and look for solutions in unlikely places.

Ha! You hear that? No such word as "impossible" today. Booya! Keep the support coming for Saartjie Baartman, people.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Day 2 - shorter list, big donations

There's only one word to describe all of you: AMAZEBALLS. Today our list of pledges is shorter, but a number of people donated R1000 to Saartjie Baartman, so we still hit our target for the day. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Today's superstars:

  • Victoria Chamberlain
  • Caryn R
  • Rebecca Davis
  • Jane Notten
  • pi-squared
  • Floretta Boonzaaier
  • Laura Hartnady
  • Sanja Bornman
  • Penny Morrell
  • Alison Gillwald
  • Ashleigh Gillwald Morrell

Huge kudos, also, to Nancy Richards of SAFM, who is walking the Camino in aid of the Saartjie Baartman Centre (though we can't claim credit for that - it's her own initiative. We just happen to want to clap, loudly).

Miriam Mannak has been invaluable in getting word out to the media, and Tamarin Morrell and Michael Muller have been enormously energetic in getting donations out of their friends and family. Thank you.

And last but not least, the Cape Town Lesbians community, care of the always-awesome Lara Aucamp, have also promised us that they have the party of the year up their sleeve to raise funds, so watch this space for details. Because we all know the best cocktail is a pink cocktail...

All we can say is WOW

Thank you, thank you, thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou. That is all I can say. The donations continue to pour in for the Saartjie Baartman Centre and although I have not yet had time to thank everyone individually, please be assured of our amazement and gratitude. I will post the updated list of pledges tonight.

Aluta continua!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Day 1, 20 pledges - tick!

Day 1 went fabulously - you are all amazing.

Thank you to the following people who have already either donated, or pledged their support. Let's keep it going!

  • Wesley Reynecke
  • Amelia van der Merwe
  • Johan Oberholzer
  • Bryce Hepburn
  • Gabriella Sanchez
  • DP Weideman
  • JM Weideman
  • Marelise van der Merwe
  • Michael Muller
  • Llew Claasen
  • Storm Buckingham
  • Alex Pryor
  • Ines Meyer
  • Shehnaz Kassim
  • Tamarin Morrell
  • Lily Kay
  • Susannah Read
  • Suhaifa Naidoo
  • Bradley Page
  • Lee and Cathy Hartman

The beginning

The background

The Saartjie Baartman Centre for abused women and children offers a new life to families that have been devastated by abuse. It is located in Manenberg, one of the Cape's poorest areas, and many of the women literally have no other option - they can go to the centre while they build a new life, or they can live on the street, or go back to their abusers. The Centre, like many other NGOs and charities, is battling to secure funds from the expected sources. Now they are near the end of their existing funds and facing closure. If they don't get R100k by the end of May, they may be forced to close - and 20 families, small children and all, will be on the street.  You can read more here.

The challenge

We want to raise R100k by the end of May. This means we need 200 people to pledge R500. That's 20 people per day.

(Obviously if you cannot afford R500, every bit helps!)

The collection

I'm running this drive independently of the Centre and have been taking in the donations to present in a lump sum at the end of May. This is purely for tracking purposes. However, some potential donors have said they feel more comfortable donating directly to the centre. This is completely understandable! You do not, after all, have any proof that I am not a mad fraudster. It does, however, make it difficult to see how our pledge is going, so if you are more comfortable with this option, *please* mail me at marelise@gmail.com to let me know that you donated, and how much. We'll be posting progress reports here every day, so keep checking in to see how it's going.

The banking details

If you want to donate via the 100k in 10 Days Challenge (that's us!), it's ABSA savings 9156133936. NB: PLEASE USE THE REFERENCE BAARTMAN and send proof of payment to marelise@gmail.com.

If you want to donate directly to the centre, use the following details (and don't forget to let me know your pledge at marelise@gmail.com so we can track donations and post updates!)

The Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children
First National Bank 201509
Current account 62028179415
SWIFT Code: FIRNZAJJ


The conclusion

You are awesome. Thank you.