THANK YOU LETTER – DECEMBER 2023
REPORT TO VESTRY ON BUYANI HOUSE – MARCH 2023
Recycling at All Souls’
RECYCLING AT ALL SOULS
Purpose: To prevent any non-biodegradable waste from going into landfills. A bonus is that we are paid for our recycling – a small boost to our funds.
The success of the All Souls’ Recycling project depends on how well we separate our waste at source – in our homes.
NB ALL waste must be CLEAN and DRY. Bring all recycling to church in plastic bags and give it to the car guards. At other times, please leave the filled plastic bags in the recycling centre behind the St Matthew room.
- Please do not empty your bags into the white bags in the recycling centre. Simon and Nicholas have been trained to separate the recycling correctly according to the collector’s specifications.
- Kitchen recycling will be collected in a special bin marked (RECYCLING) in the kitchen.
We collect paper and cardboard, tins, and plastic. Unfortunately we can no longer collect bottles.
At home
Paper and cardboard:
- Put all paper in plastic bags.
- Flatten all cardboard boxes.
- Flatten all tetrapaks e.g fruit juice, long life milk containers.
Screw on the lid of the tetrapak.
Tins:
- Bring all tins in plastic bags and give the bags to the car guards.
Glass Bottles
- We are no longer in a position to recycle glass.
Plastic:
ONLY the following can be recycled at present. All other plastic should go into Ecobricks. Please use only 2 litre bottles for Ecobricks; all other sizes can be put into the recycling.
Please look at the recycling triangle on the packaging
- We collect all plastics marked 1 – 5. Remove lids of plastic bottles. We collect those separately for wheelchairs.
- We have recently found a collection point in Benoni for Polystyrene (No 6) so all polystyrene containers can be included.
- Please put all recyclable plastic into plastic bags and give them to the car guards.
NOTE: If you no longer use plastic bags, please bring your recycling in boxes or bags that can be emptied and returned.
A history of Buyani House
“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”
Matthew 11:28
An outreach programME of the PARISH in NORTHMEAD AND FURTHER IN Benoni.
Background: 2004 – 2014
In October 2004, Mtr Ann McGuiness asked the congregation if anyone was willing to undertake the ministry of Social Responsibility on behalf of All Souls. The call was answered, and the first step was to do a survey of local parishes that needed assistance. The parish of Christ the Redeemer in Daveyton expressed a need to help feed people who were receiving treatment for HIV/AIDS at the nearby main clinic. Initially, All Souls supplied fresh vegetables for soup as well as 80 loaves of bread each week which we obtained free from Regency Park in Johannesburg. It then became apparent that there was a few families that were struggling because of AIDS and unemployment. All Souls decided to supply 50 food parcels fortnightly for the Parish Council of Christ the Redeemer to distribute. This continued from 2005 – 2014, the funding coming from half of the tithed income of All Souls. Volunteers from All Souls packed the parcels.
In 2010, Mtr Ann accepted the offer of the use of a property in O’Reilly Merry St as a base for the Social Responsibility team. Both the property and a small salary for the administrator, Debbie Marsh, were sponsored by the benefactor who wished to remain anonymous. In 2010, a committee of volunteers was formed and was chaired by Mtr Ann, each member being responsible for a different project. Thus Buyani House was born, its slogan being taken from Matthew 11:28 “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” It was open to all who came for help and was registered with the Department of Social Development as an NPO to facilitate appeals for funding as well as carrying out fundraising activities itself. A Constitution was drawn up under which Buyani House is still administered today. The requirements of an NPO by the Dept of Social Development (DSD) were met and included monthly meetings, an Annual General Meeting, audited financial statements and an annual report in the format required by the DSD. The house was in use from 2010 –2014 when financial constraints forced the benefactor to rent out the property. Buyani House bought a Wendy house which was placed in the grounds of All Souls and moved all activities there.
Projects
A number of projects developed:
– Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) for HIV/AIDS: The team, comprising nurses and trained counsellors, went out on a quarterly basis to encourage people to be tested. The venues used were schools in the area and many people came forward. When the clinics developed their VCT procedures and were able to manage the process, the VCT ministry by All Souls was stopped.
– Syalalela Counselling: This group, led now by Isabella Pretorius, trained in the Diocese and licensed by the Bishop, was created to listen to and help people who were dealing with various problems. The names and telephone numbers of the All-Souls counsellors were printed in the pew leaflet for easy access by those in need. The counsellors have continued to hold supervisory meetings and upgrade their skills through attending courses offered by the Diocese.
– Soup kitchen and food parcels: Food, mainly sandwiches, was prepared and numbers ranging from around 20 to 70 came daily to Buyani House for lunch.
Appeals to Woolworths (Rynfield) and PicknPay (Oakfields) resulted in regular donations of food which were used in the soup kitchen and packed into small food parcels as well as sent out to Christ the Redeemer in the larger fortnightly parcels.
– Distribution of donated goods: Gill Harrower, in her work at Unilever, had
come into contact with organisations that were very grateful for donations of clothing from infants to the elderly; linen and blankets; food that could
particularly be used for small children; toys, and anything in between. Gill used her experience to develop a network of places to which any donations could be taken and to date has carried out this ministry for eighteen years.
– Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC): Kate Dineka, a parishioner at St Johns and a teacher at Katlego School in Daveyton, was trained in the Diocese as a Child Advocate. In this capacity, Kate identified children in dire need in the various grades and asked the committee for help either for families or for the children in general. The Morning Guild at All Souls responded by sending six food parcels out to Kate on a fortnightly basis and the Buyani House committee helped where they could, knowing however, that the need was far greater than they could meet.
– Itutelo ti ro: This project was designed to help people become self-sufficient by starting up their own businesses and a fund was set up for this purpose. Initially it was used for a beading project but later, when Buyani House linked up with the White House organisation in central Benoni, mentors were trained to assist people who had attended the courses offered there. Don King’s mentee who now runs a thriving market garden in Etwatwa has been the most successful to date.
Buyani House 2014 –to date
Apart from the VCT project, Buyani House has managed to continue with all
the projects under the chairmanship of Fr Hubby and Fr Doug and now by
themselves. The parish of All Souls, however, has not been in a position to fund the projects, so external funders were sought and fundraising activities held.
The food parcels that went to Christ the Redeemer were handed over to that congregation as well as the support for the soup kitchen and the collection of loaves of bread. Food parcels were instead sent to the families of the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) at Katlego, but reduced to 32, which was all we could afford. A soup kitchen was opened at All Souls and initially a hot meal was served on four days a week with sandwiches each Wednesday. That has been reduced to two hot meals and two sandwich lunches, the Tuesday team taking the sandwiches to the Central Methodist church in Benoni to help meet the need there. Donations of food from PicknPay were stopped in 2021. Woolworths has teamed up with FoodShare, a digital project linked to Food Forward and Buyani House is fortunate to collect food from Woolworths in Rynfield twice a week.
During 2020 and 2021, the normal soup kitchen was suspended for a few
months and instead the food parcels increased. At present 31 families receive weekly food parcels from the Woolworths donations.
As Kate Dineka has retired, the OVC project at Katlego School has been taken over by Sekusile Ekhaya Labantwana, a voluntary group that provides meals and after–school activities for needy children and the leader, Busi Sibeko, has joined the Buyani House committee.
Kate now represents the Albinism Society of South Africa on the committee. To date, Buyani House has not been able to offer much support to ASSA but hopes to do so soon.
With limited funding, Buyani House has struggled, but the congregation of All Souls and the wider community have supported us very generously. Every person volunteering for any of the activities Buyani House offers, is a member of the All–Souls congregation, welcoming everyone who comes for help.
Without them, Buyani House would cease to function.
With the impact of the pandemic reducing, the Buyani House committee will continue to be the outreach arm of All Souls, helping as many people in need as possible.
Lorraine Hartman
Co–ordinator