What an absolutely magical month for a birthday. We are enjoying the beautiful sunshine and blue sky days. Then the afternoon showers appear and pour kindness on us by watering all our gardens for us and cooling down the air. It is perfect for adding loads of extra smiles and sharing massive dollops of kindness.
We started off by paying our yearly membership to our awesome charity, and NGO support group C.O.N.E.C.K.T whom we joined two years ago just as COVID started. I hope you have read about the many amazing projects Red Bagels have shared together with many other members of this group in the past years. We have and continue to make fantastic conecktions with so many new and old friends. Bringing us together to share our resources and enabling us to spread more kindness even further. These organizations include The Epap Foundation, The Slovo Centre of Excellence, The Angel Network, and many, many more earth angels doing their fantastic work on this platform. All the conecktions we are able to form allow us, through Naomi’s incredible group, to make a bigger and faster impact. The network we have achieved is invaluable on every level. Thank you, Naomi and Coneckt, for another awesome year. Red Bagels wishes you and the group health, strength, and success to continue your journey for many more years to come.
Slovo Centre of Excellence
We gave a donation to the Slovo Centre of Excellence for their upliftment program to provide extra mathematic tuition for a young boy who is in need of extra support. In addition they would like to give a group of teachers and caregivers in their struggling community, who run early childhood development programs, a small Christmas celebration. This group has had an exceptionally difficult year this year.
DL Link
Another really heartwarming project for us seemed like such a small project. DL Link asked us to assist with it and it has ended up having such an enormous impact on us that we are happy to share it with you. The project was to sponsor a matric dance dress for one of their cancer warriors. Of course, we were happy to do it. So we told them to go ahead and let the young lady pick out the material, find a dressmaker, and make the ball gown of her dreams. The dance was last week. She was so excited to be joining all her friends for this long awaited celebration. You guessed it, she was radiant, the smile never left her face. She was unquestionably the belle of the ball. When Red Bagels got her Thank You Letter, which we will share with you here, we shed tears of joy. What an extraordinary experience. We wish her a miraculous recovery. May all the cancer warriors be blessed with many miracles and miraculous recoveries.
Mental Health Awareness Month and Sandringham Lodge
Last but certainly not least, we were able to make a significant donation to benefit a project that will leave a lasting impact and lots of joy for a long time to come. Red Bagels was approached with a request to assist with this project by the Chevrah Kadisha in October. October is South Africa’s Mental Health Awareness month. So this project was very fitting, namely to help refurbish The Sandringham Lodge. Although we officially made our donation to the Chevrah Kadisha for this project in November in honor of our 3rd birthday.
The Sandringham Lodge is one of two facilities that are in desperate need of a lot of TLC. This facility is the permanent residence of the 40 people who call it their “Home.” They all suffer from various forms of mental illness.
Briefly, mental health is usually not something that people want, or understand how, to talk about. There is a stigma attached to mental illness that adds to this challenge of dialoguing about it. This makes it much harder for everyone. However, COVID has forced us to face the topic head-on. It has confronted us with the reality of the discrimination that people who are diagnosed with mental illnesses are faced with. People diagnosed with mental illnesses are known to be less likely to find a job, maintain relationships, live in decent housing, or feel like they fit into society. All of these factors, in turn, contribute to poor mental health. It is very hard for us to see the poor condition of even some of our upmarket care facilities. So when we were given this opportunity, we took it on.
Due to COVID, there has also been a high percentage increase in people diagnosed with mental illness. There has always been a shortage of facilities and trained mental health practitioners. It has now become a dire situation. This project is a vitally important one and should not have to wait even one day longer than necessary. The first baby steps have already been taken. It is with gratitude and humility that we have accepted this project.
We are sure that everyone who will benefit from this upgrade, from the residents to those who work there, and their family and friends will be happier, healthier, and laugh and smile much more often in their new homes. We hope they will feel the love we feel for them and it will last for many years to come. Red Bagels was happy to receive this Thank You Letter from the Chevrah Kadisha on behalf of everyone who will benefit from this project.
Thank you to everyone who has made this year a happy, successful year filled with kindness and light by supporting, caring, sharing, laughing, and working with us. It has been our great pleasure. Red Bagels looks forward to more years of bringing love and kindness into the world.
How beautiful a day can be when kindness touches it.
Powered by love and committed to kindness. Enjoy bringing love and kindness into the world.