Thank you to our Italian friends Silvia Papini and Massino Sodini, from Lucca, and Monica Bottoni from Ferrara for coming to see us and bringing with them so many lovely things for our children. Your useful and thoughtful gifts will bring much happiness to our children.
Makuti cuties
Raise the Roof
Your wonderful donations have sent our Raise the Roof Appeal soaring to 96% of our £4000 target, and now there's just £152 needed to buy the remaining few makuti tiles. Thank you to everyone who has donated so far. To help take us to our target you can donate online at https://www.justgiving.com/smiletiles/ or send a cheque made payable to Happy House to Elizabeth Gomm at 6 Burwood Drive Blackpool FY3 8NS.
Having a family of sponsors means so much to our children and brings them a feeling of friendship and love from beyond the Happy House.
Each sponsor is able to open a different window on the world for their special child by telling them about their home and family life.
So it is it is wonderful for both child and sponsor when they get to meet.
Susan James, who has just returned home to the USA after volunteering with our family, writes about meeting Saumu Safari, the little girl she has sponsored for the past three years.
"I was a joy to meet my sponsor child Saumu.
She is sven years old.
I specially enjoyed
seeing her interactions at school, playing, at PE, and with her friends in the weeks I was at Happy House.
It is an amazing children's home and school that is developing the children's life skills and social skills.
The older ones help greatly with the
younger ones in all areas. They are well behaved in class and are learning all
the subjects.
I see the progress in action and the hard work
of the teachers.
Since I am a substance abuse counselor I was asked to speak in
class 7 . I gave my talk on drugs and the
dangers of drug abuse.
The children listened intently, asked
intelligent questions, and took notes. I used the board to make my
illustrations.
I enjoyed working in the garden and
helping in any way, I love seeing things grow and then becoming food.
I saw the new primary school
being built and the progress they have made it should be done soon if not
already.
California is a very long way to go, but it
was a trip well worth it. I plan to come back, but next time I hope
to bring interested friends.
Sue and Dave keep up the wonderful work
because it is paying off.
Raise the Roof Every day brings us closer to getting the roof on our primary school completed, thanks to the amazing kindness of our friends. We are now at 88% of our target just £442 away from raising the full £4,000 in less than two weeks. Thank you to everyone who has donated so far. To help take us to our target you can donate online at https://www.justgiving.com/smiletiles/ or send a cheque made payable to Happy House to Elizabeth Gomm at 6 Burwood Drive Blackpool FY3 8NS.
Our Happy House was the focus of a wonderful gathering of
friends when Thornton Cleveleys Inner Wheel held their International Night at
the North Euston Hotel, Fleetwood. And many of the ladies came wearing red as it is the colour of children's school uniform.
After a lovely meal, International organiser Irene Pollitt,
who is in Abu’s sponsor family, introduced Elizabeth Gomm who was able to give
an insight into Mama Sue's story and showed two videos bringing our family to
life.
Before the meal, guests had paid 50p for a photograph of a Happy House child and Elizabeth was able to tell them the stories of the child they had chosen.
She was thanked by Sue Simpson, who is in the sponsor family
of Abu’s sister, Sudi, and who, like Irene had in her introduction, told of how rewarding it is to sponsor a Happy
House child.
She also said of how proud and delighted she and her husband, David, had been to have Sue as a speaker at the District Rotary Conference when David was district governor.
Sue presented Elizabeth with a cheque for £200 from the
proceeds of the evening and that along with another £35 donations and bag sales has been
added to the offline total on our Raise the Roof Appeal to cover the costs of
putting a roof on our new primary school.
Many thanks to everyone who attended for their generosity
and for caring about our children.
Pictures: Top, from left, Margaret Crossland (secretary), Irene Pollitt (International organiser) Pearl Harris (president) and Jean Roberts (treasurer).
Above (left) Jennifer Brooks who was taking donations in exchange for pictures of a child, and Anne Marie Lewis (right) with the evening's programme and her Happy House bag which she told the ladies she had been happily using for months.
Raise the Roof
With £3391.70 raised in just eight days, we are so close to getting our primary school roof on and finished.
A wonderful individual donation of £1,000 from a friend of our family has set us on to the home straight.
Every single penny will help to make a difference, so please if you can spare just a a pound or two don't think it won't be of much help because it really will.
You can donate online at https://www.justgiving.com/smiletiles/ or send a cheque payable to Happy House to Elizabeth Gomm, 6 Burwood Drive, Blackpool, FY3 6NS.
Thank you for your kindness and, as we said, every tile bought will bring a smile!
Teacher Madam Nelly brings us the weekly report from Happy House School: We are now in the fourth week of term and all our activities are running smoothly and to plan.
New pupils who joined us have settled in well.
Our school is, for now, divided with primary classes still in Happy House while the kindergarten is happily on the new site. Everyone is looking forward to being together again soon when the primary school is completed.
Thursday is our games day when, after classes at 3 pm, pupils and teachers take part in various team sports like football, netball and volleyball.
Everybody enjoys being active and and understands how important exercise is to health and wellbeing.
On Saturday, we had lifeskills activities.
Mama Sue was in charge of the baking class with Musyoka, Margaret and Kezia assisting the baking group with her.
Other skills included the local craft of broom making, gardening ,sewing and and feet and hand treatments for more of our little one!
Pupils choose the activity they would like to take part in, depending on age and interest.
The kids are really enjoying the activities because they are gaining important skills to assist them in their future life.
We also had football match Happy House team against Mwamba. RAISE THE ROOF With yesterday's donations, including money kind raised by Thornton Cleveleys Inner Wheel Club last night, were are 58 per cent of the wat to our £4,000 total. Every £10 buys 25 of the 66,000 tiles needed to complete the roof of our primary school. Work is well underway. Please help us to get it finished by donating online at https://www.justgiving.com/smiletiles/ or you can send a cheque payable to Happy House to Elizabeth Gomm at 6 Burwood Drive, Blackpool, FY3 8NS. Thank you.
Surprise, surprise, Uncle Billy! Our much loved social worker Uncle Billy had the surprise of his life when he returned from an "errand" with Papa Dave and Uncle Red on Friday to find the whole family gathered and set to celebrate his 40th birthday. And the biggest shock of all was that the party, planned down to the finest detail by the kids themselves with help from Mama, had been kept top secret ... something he couldn't believe was possible in a family of more than 100 children! Uncle Billy writes: My Beloved family, I got a pleasant surprise for my Special day! Even now, I can’t believe how it was all organized without me having the slightest of an idea! Keeping a secret in such a big family successfully is not easy at all!
We have a lot to do and time flies fast so I didn’t see it coming.
The previous evening I had a chat with Mama and shared details of a little assignment I was planning to handle outside the office which she tactically deferred till Monday
On Friday afternoon, Papa Dave came in and asked if I would like to accompany him and Red to the new land as he wanted to ‘make some pictures’ and then off we went but to a different direction ...all in all I was still in good hands though at some point I wondered if everything was okay, as it not usual for Papa to go for a cold drink without Mama’s company!!
After a short while Mama phoned Papa’s to which he offered that we were just finishing up an errand at an electrician’s shop and that we wouldn’t be long…which made Red and I burst into laughter,
.In no time we were on our way home where a surprise was in store for me.
When we got to the Happy House I thought we just got in after some special guests …..as the kids were all smartly dressed and singing but wait a minute…it was a birthday song! Papa asked whether it was my birthday and that even made me more confused to which I answered incoherently…. I had forgotten it was my birthday!
For some moments I felt hypnotised and my heart leapt with joy as I started relishing the spectacular event.
It was a lovely party with food, cake, juice, apples and lots of presents!
A special book was presented to me with all the special messages from all our sponsors and friends.
I am deeply humbled.
My special thanks to Mama, Papa, Aunty Rose, Susanna Gregorio, Red, Brenda & Chloe for being there to share the joyful moments.
The staff had worked tirelessly in odd hours to make it a success, our wonderful kids for the beautiful presentations.
I phoned my mum who shed tears of joy while adding what she repeatedly says that I am blessed to have such a loving & supportive family.
There was more in store as I got a dinner invite in a nice restaurant with great ambience and good food.
This is my BEST BIRTHDAY party EVER and am so indebted to you all for making it absolutely fantastic for me
.To say that I thoroughly enjoyed it would be an understatement.
Thank you one, thank you all; you can rest assured that these special memories will linger on for the rest of my life. God bless you all.
Uncle Billy.
We are today entering Week Two of our Raise the Roof Appeal and are just over halfway to our total. You can make a donation online at at https://www.justgiving.com/smiletiles/ or text Roof08 followed by amount you want to donate to 70070 -- a free service operated by Vodafone.
Thanks to YOU our primary school roof is on its way.
Agile workmen, with no fear of heights, are busy putting tiles in place on the primary school.
Our Raise the Roof Appeal has raised more than £2,000 in less than a week, and we are now hoping the remainder of the £4,000 needed will come flowing in over the coming days.
We are in a hurry to get our primary children moved and settled in in the school next to our Kindergarten which where their younger brothers and sisters have settled in so well.
Mama says they are loving going out to school. "We can hear them singing when they are on the way home, the closer the faster they get and the louder!
"They all come by the office, saying Hi Mama. It really is lovely."
Thank you to everyone who has donated. Your gift is appreciated by every one of our family and together we are making a difference to children's lives.
Please encourage your friends to make a donation to help us complete the roof. They can do this online at .https://www.justgiving.com/smiletiles/ or text Roof08 followed by amount you want to donate to 70070 - JustTextGiving - a free service operated by Vodafone.
( JustTextGiving is free to use on any UK network, and you’ll only be charged for the donation you make. The donation works like a premium rate SMS, with the cost of the donation charged to your bill}
If you prefer to donate by cheque please make it payable to Happy House and send c/o Elizabeth Gomm at 6 Burwood Drive, Blackpool, FY3 8NS.
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