CHOSA deeply values relationships with individual organizational donors around the world. One such partner is Cultural Care Kids First Foundation in Cambridge, MA, USA. Kids First, the non-profit charity branch of an au pair organization, assists organizations that provide direct services to underprivileged children. Kids First has provided support to many of CHOSA’s projects in recent years and we are particularly grateful for the ongoing commitment of Susan Robinson and Gisela Nilsson. Gisela recently visited Cape Town and shares her experiences, below:

After an amazing experience visiting several CHOSA sites/partners in Cape Town 3 years ago with Cultural Care Kids First Foundation, I was fortunate to visit again in February 2013 with my cousin and her husband from Sweden. When I contacted Jared about spending time with the kids, he suggested visiting QQ as Kids First had helped with funds after the ravaging fire in March 2012.

Alice, my cousin’s granddaughter, is the same age as the kids at QQ and when her teacher heard about our trip, they decided to create Valentine’s Day cards for all the kids at QQ, and the teacher sent pictures of the kindergarten covered in snow – something the kids at QQ had probably never seen. After a 5 day delay out of Boston due to the massive snow storm, we finally arrived in Cape Town on February 14 and met up with Zukie at the office. We had packed our bags with all sorts of arts and crafts from the US to create Valentine’s Day cards with the kids: lots of pink paper, stickers, hearts and pens in all colors. We spent several hours with them and were happy to see that the kids were enjoying themselves and created Valentine’s Day cards that they could take home at the end of the day. I’m not going to lie, we were exhausted afterwards! The excitement, the heat and the emotions that went through us took its toll but we are so grateful that Zukie and the teachers let us visit. We hope to be able to continue to help the children of South Africa through CHOSA.