Please find in good order a quick update on what the Fund and I have been up to so far in the new year.
I also apologise to all our supporters for the very belated Thank Yous which are still being sent out, but with everything that was happening with the December trip and all the delays and paper work issues it was chaos. Please accept my sincere apologies with regards to this. We also had a small shutdown to try and recharge our batteries, however we were still kept incredibly busy even though it was working from the house. On a personal note my 2016 started with a bang with being given 2 weeks’ notice that we had to move to a smaller house on the estate. So I have been very busy going through our current home to see what can stay and what has to go (After 18 years of being married this is quite a challenge). We are expecting to get final notification soon that the new house will be ready soon as we are living out of boxes at the moment. I ask if everyone can please be patient for a little longer for the thank yous and the office will have my full attention again from February. This is an unbelievably stressful time for us at the moment and I am just trying to get everything back on track so that I can fully focus on my work for the Golden Oldies as this is going to be a tough year.
Once the December trip finally got started it was a huge success. Everyone was incredibly grateful to receive their much need parcels and they were all absolutely delighted with the special Christmas pressies especially the Solar lamps with all the current power outages. An incredibly HUGE THANK YOU to each and every person who supported the magical Christmas trip, with your support we managed to get every single one of our Golden Oldies adopted. I have attached the trip report for you to see how the trip went.
Once again we are busy getting everything in order for the upcoming February trip our first one for the year and as we all know December, January and February are very dry months when it comes to fund raising as everyone is still recovering from the festive season so we are turning our cents very carefully. We are looking at from April 2016 purchasing the goodies in South Africa once again due to the rapid price increases in Zimbabwe and the Rand that is trading so weakly against the US Dollar as everything purchased there is paid for in $US. This means we will once again have the pleasure of having to get the permits to import the products that we are allowed to, which we all know can take up to a month just to get processed and many trips are often required to Harare to ensure they get processed correctly. This normally falls on Hannes’ shoulders however as he is not getting any younger (63 this year and had a triple bypass in 2010) and constantly driving 1000’s of kilometers takes a serious toll on a person I will be accompanying him on a few of these trips to learn the ropes and hopefully be able to allow him also to be able to spend a bit more time at home. I have spent a lot of time on the phone and emailing the required persons but have yet to meet them. This means we will once again have to pay for the permits as well as import taxes, customs and surtax, however at this stage this is the most economical route to go and will enable us to keep doing what we are. So once again we manage to start a New Year with lots of challenges ahead. This will once again make my job as fund raiser for the Fund a lot more challenging this year. But I am looking forward to it and know and have faith all our supporters of our Golden Oldies will help me meet this challenge. We will still however be packing the boxes in Bulawayo as certain items such as Sugar, Cooking Oil, Tinned meats to mention a few are not allowed to be imported.
Our Web Page www.zpsf.co.za is also currently undergoing some maintenance as it was hacked last year by people with nothing better to do. So this is in Dots very capable hands(Leaping Ahead) and should be up and running 110% soon (Thank You Dot). These lovely peeps caused some serious damage and as you will see if you go to the page it looks like it has not been updated in over a year. Once Dot has managed to sort everything out I will take a trip down memory lane and repost as much of our history again as possible. So to everyone that has had a few issues with the page we apologize.
We are an officially registered Non-Profit Organization and Section 21A in South Africa and are registered with SARS as a Public Benefit Organization in terms of section 18A the Income Tax Act (Which means all donations are issued with a Tax Certificate and can be claimed back). PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE A TAX CERTIFICATE STATING ALL YOU DONATIONS. PLEASE NOTE THEY ARE ISSUED BASED ON OUR FINANCIAL PERIOD SO THE CURRENT ONES ARE FOR MARCH 2015-FEB 2016. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU REQUIRE ONE FOR THE CURRENT PERIOD. They will be issued once our Financial Year End has been processed, so from about mid-April 2016.
Kind Regards
Linda Schultz
Director – Fund Raising & Awareness for the Zimbabwe Pensioner Support Fund
(C) 079 6082676
(T) 013 7900934
Fax to Email – 086 267 8499
Section 21 Co Reg. 2007/034036/08
NPO Number 096733
Section 18A PBO No 930031642
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Alone we can do so little, together we can achieve much more!!!!
Director: Hannes Botha
084 5893221