Ball bonus for football team

Happy House is a caring and sharing environment and the children in our care truly understand the importance of looking out for those around them and of sharing what they have. Evans has grown up in our care and is determined to qualify social worker when he leaves school. He is already interested and involved in the local community. When Jo and Pete Reid from Lytham arrived this week bringing with them lots of gifts of much needed items, there were a number of footballs. Evans asked Mama Sue if it would be possible to give two to a local soccer team in Timboni. Evans plays in the team and Mama knew that the footballs would be a great bonus to them and that they would be well cared for.
As thanks the team is renaming itself Happy House and will be flying the flag for the work we do. The team was invited to Happy House for a formal presentation with Jo and Pete. Evans is featured in this video.

Call to the band

Our new musical instruments are providing a huge amount of joy and inspiration for our kids at Happy House. They are really working hard to learn to play the traditional instruments the traditional way , plus the addition of some improvised instruments, and gathering help where they can. Uncle Foleni who works in our kitchen gave them some tuition at Kidz Club when they showed Mama and Papa what they had been learning. They are hoping to have a band, well rehearsed, by Christmas!

A thank you from Jo and Peter

Travelling from the Fylde Coast in Lancashire on their annual trip to visit the Happy House family, Joanne and Pete Reid took bags of gifts for our family. They had been donated by their friends and Jo's generous colleagues at Spire Fylde Coast Hospital, Pete and Jo have also raised £646 with an Into the Bottle coin collection which includes £270 raised by Jo's Spire friends taking part in a fitness exercise bike challenge.
The money is towards equipping a new art room at our school. Here Pete and Jo, from Lytham, say hello and thank you from the Happy House.

What a catch!

A visit to the beach gave some of our older boys a chance to have a go at fishing. Not that they used a net or a rod, they caught the fish whilst swimming underwater. It took some doing, but they landed a big one as John tells you in this video and took it home to Happy House to provide a tasty meal!

Dancing in the office!

Mama's office is the hub of the Happy House and place where the kids gather when they want to show her something new, sing a new song or just pass by for a hello and a hug. So after the older kids had been out to buy locally made, traditional instruments for the new music room at school, as Mama had asked them to, they were being stored in her office. After a delicious meal, cooked y the boys, Mama and Papa were in her office when Uncle Carlos, our builder, called by to see her and seeing the musical instruments he led the boys, volunteer Maisie, Auntie Rose, Uncle Ronald and Papa to a bit of dance. It was great fun!

Splish, splash, splosh!

Children from our Happy House family had fun in the sun on another trip to beach. As they are enjoying the long school holiday at home with Mama Sue, Papa Dave and the rest of our huge and happy family, visits to the beach are more often. They absolutely love their time splashing in the sea, with the older ones looking after the younger ones, and playing in the sand.

Christmas star

Happy House has it's own little Christmas star in the form of Alice Webster. Alice, who lives in Leyburn, Yorkshire, and goes to a small, struggling school which has federated with another primary school and now teach across both sites. There are 26 children taught in her school and 50 in the other. Chosen as a member of the school council, Alice put forward ideas for a chosen charity and obviously put forward the Happy House which was chosen jointly with Cancer Research. She’s been busy organising events to raise money starting with a toy and book sale and her second event is the sale of mince pies at the school nativity. And not any old mince pie, she baked her own (with a little bit of help from her mum, Louise!). Louise and her husband, Gary, were the very first people to join our sponsored child scheme, before the Happy House building work was complete, with their donation used to help finish and furnish. And as soon as the first children arrived she and her family welcomed our Oscar into their family. Oscar shares his birthday with Alice's elder sister, Grace, and the girls look upon him as their brother. Louise and Garry and the girls have visited Kenya on a number of occasions and will be back in the summer when Alice will personally deliver the money she has raised to Mama Sue and Papa Dave. Well done Alice.