7 September 2017
Good News for New Zealand Donors
GC Aid in Palmerston North (www.gc3.org.nz) has been granted donee status, under Schedule 32 of the New Zealand Income Tax Act 2007, for donations made through them to specific overseas charities, including Limapela. This means that if your donation for the work of Limapela is made through GC Aid, you will receive the appropriate receipt from GC Aid, which will be valid for a tax credit. Note that GC Aid will deduct an administrative charge of 8% on all donations (minimum charge $5, maximum $200). For this reason we recommend GC Aid only for larger donations. All Limapela initiatives meet the IRD criteria, except for personal support, which you should continue to send through the Limapela Foundation. Please see our donation page for bank details.
This development has revived our intention to apply again to the IRD for donee status for the Limapela Foundation in our own right, and we are grateful to trustee Donald Cheesman for overseeing this.
Sponsorship
We are often overwhelmed to see how needs here have been met, and thank all of you who donate in various ways. Remember that as our work expands, so do the needs. The Fee Sponsorship Programme has been very successful as it provides a regular monthly income for educational costs. But the numbers at Limapela Cedric’s have increased by 60% since we started in 2009, so we need more sponsors. We have also increased teachers’ salaries year by year, so you will appreciate that the monthly salaries budget is considerably higher.
Maintenance
As our infrastructure in both schools expands, so do our maintenance needs — not very glamorous, especially if it involves a broken toilet or septic tank, but necessary nonetheless! Some of our donors ask us to use their donations for whatever we think best, and this is much appreciated.
Visitors
Some time later this year we are to be honoured with a visit by a representative from the New Zealand High Commission in Pretoria. The High Commissioner had planned to visit this week, but has had to cancel at the last minute. The High Commission has made two large grants to Limapela over the past five years, so it will be good for them to see in person what we have been doing. Most of our visitors this year have been New Zealanders — Grahame and Kerrie Waite (Auckland), Yonita and Kojo Twum (Whangarei), Neil and Val Furness (Howick), Murray Grindlay (Wellington), Mary Tucker (Auckland), Rob and Jan Bellingham (Rotorua) and David and Lynley Taylor (Auckland). I mention all their names because it takes resources, energy, and in some cases considerable courage, to visit Africa, a continent that usually makes a profound impression on the visitor. All our visitors bring both moral and material support, which we value very highly.
Organisations
The Global Grant for the Luyando Ablution Blocks Project is all but “in the bag”. Our very special thanks go to Rotarian Desmond Woods and The Rotary Club of Canberra whose determined efforts are making this a reality. Organisations like Rotary have proved to be very willing partners with Limapela in providing the funding we need for capital projects that the developed world takes for granted.
— Matthew F. Raymond, trustee