April / May  2013

A warm welcome to our Autumn newsletter. As winter draws near and the days get shorter, it's almost time to stock up on firewood and break out the blankets, but not quite yet! we have a few more surprises in store for our families and children. More on these later in this newsletter... A big thank you to our families for making our Easter Bunnies so welcome, it was wonderful to see everyone and catch up on what has been happening in your lives. 
Easter Bunny Visit's
                 
 Sue and Antoni
 loving the ears !                        Marleen and Debra              Carol and JP 

James Bond Dinner Dance:
We hope our parents and guest's enjoyed our first themed dinner dance fundraiser. The evening was tons of fun, Robin was fantastic as himself and as our surprise guest "Elvis" It was wonderful to see our Mom's and Dad's dancing the night away. The event raised just over R5000, well done to Marco, Elise and Robin for putting together such a successful event, we will most definitely be hosting another one.

      
Billy & Charnette                Robin - Elvis                           Louis


Iris House is growing:
We are thrilled to share with you that we are now officially on board with the Premiers Pilot Project for Children and Youth with Disability in Mfuleni and Vredenburg. There is already 85 families identified in Mfuleni with Special Needs Children needing assistance. We are waiting for the Vredenburg details to come through. Iris House will be training care team members from the communities to provide respite care at the families homes and supporting the families with food parcels, clothing and medication. We are also in the process of submitting new business plans to the government for the following projects: Our Hospice in the Northern Suburbs / A Special Needs Safe House / Expanding our Care Team Training Program into full time carers - reinstating carers with the Nursing Council. 









Fundraising: 
As we grow our services and the number of families we support our expenses also increase. Other than our government funding it is essential that we raise our own funds to sustain ourselves. To this end we have formed a fundraising committee to assist us - We would like to welcome the following people to the Iris House Family: Marco our fundraising intern, Robin marketing and entertainment, Super Mom Sheila Belcher, Hiding behind the camera - David of Fishpaste Photography, Kathy Gentz Iris House Volunteer, Debra Care Team Manager, Lee Ann and Sam of Crimson Edge Events (Not in photo Helen Carstons of Pulse Marketing who has been appointed as our Corporate Fundraiser).
Should you have any idea's for our team, or would like to assist us, please give our office a ring on 021 559 0800
We would love to hear from you.

Iris House Fundraising Team - First Meeting 

Once again the Lighthouse Project run by Mel Roets came to the rescue in March with a deposit of R 50.000.00 into the Iris House current account. The monies collected are from the sale of key-rings, calendars, and raffles that Mel's team sells in shopping centers on our behalf. Mel's team are at their tables come rain or shine. In total Lighthouse Project has contributed a fantastic R 90, 170.00. to Iris House Children's Hospice A big thank you to Mel and her team for their on going support of Iris House.




Iris House at the circus!
A big thank you to the Mclaren Circus for accommodating our families and children for a complimentary show. By the looks on our children's faces it was a huge hit - Our care team also had a great time.
       



Family News ...

Clint Dreyer 23.03.1964 - 20-03-2013
Clint Dreyer dedicated father to Cole Dreyer passed away suddenly on the 20th of March 2013. Clint and Cole were extremely close. Clint was always finding ways to assist his son to have a better quality of life, including building special furniture and equipment for Cole who has Congenital Muscular Dystrophy, the best known of his creations is  his amazing off road buggy SCARAB which he built from scratch to allow Cole to explore the beach, one of Cole's favorite places to visit. Cole under went a huge operation to have rods inserted into his back on the 20th of April, he is recovering at home with his Mom Michele. Our love and sympathy goes out to the Dreyer family and little Cole. We are here for you !!!


SCARAB

April / May  Birthdays and News:  Congratulations to Claire and Danie on the birth of their beautiful baby boy Ethan. Not long to go now for Faranaaz, who is expecting her a baby boy in the next month. Iris House was thrilled to be part of her baby shower celebration.
                           
Ethan                                Baby shower                        Faranaaz 
                                           
Happy birthday! to Ferdi and Riyahd who celebrated their birthdays in April as well as our children "Big" Jacque and  Anine. May Happy Birthday to Carol on the 9th of May; Claire for the 13th and our children Clintin, and Abigail. 

Broad Horizons Academy

We recently visited a new Special Needs Care facility in Kraaifontein run by Sindy Furley (ex Snap) at her home. This is Sindy's story: " I, from a young age, enjoyed taking care of others and often during school holidays volunteered at the local children's home where I helped in the day care and special needs unit. After school I studied social work and worked at a day care center before I went to England. In England I gained experience in many different industries before settling in Liverpool and becoming a Support Worker for Autistic adults. This is where my passion was ignited. I enjoyed facilitating independent living with these individuals and gained valuable experience which I'd like to apply here in South Africa. 
In March this year i decided to start my own venture and opened a day care centre for special needs children. My aim is to provide a quality, affordable place for children with special needs to be cared for and most importantly learn. I have partnered with many local practitioners (occupational, speech, physiotherapists and other therapists) and schools all over the Western Cape. And I am currently planning a Disability Fair and fund raising to bring the service to whoever needs it". - Should you wish to contact Sindy please give her a call on 072 880 9520 (please note this is a paid service and not part of the Iris House care service)

Events...

Mother's Day
Hope to see you all on Sunday for our "Queen for the Day" Mother's Day Tea Party
Venue: Edgemead Cricket Club Hall
Date: Sunday 5th May
Time: 10am - 2pm
Guest speaker / Music by Robin
Games and prizes 
Click here for all the details: 



Stollerthon - Iris House - Rett's SA
We are so excited to be hosting this fantastic awareness day and fundraiser.

Fathers Day

Have we got a treat for you! We are inviting ALL our Dad's to join us free of charge 
at the Barnyard Willowbridge on the 16th of June, 1 pm for an afternoon of fun and
entertainment. Please contact Carol on 021 559 0800 to book your seat. If you would
like to book a seat for a friend to accompany you we do have a limited number
of seats available at only  R 100 per seat.

Filming - Iris House Video -
(Share your story with South Africa)

We are once again asking our families to open up their homes and hearts
to be part of our 2013 Iris House video. The video which will be launched at
our Ball on the 17th of August. We have a wonderful experienced camera man Steve Norman 
who has kindly agreed to do this years video. Steve is making himself available to shoot
for 3 weeks in May and 1 week in June. He will then take all the footage and put together
YOUR stories on film. We would like to shoot the footage in your homes to give a true
perspective to viewers, we don't require you to do any thing special for the filiming,
just be your amazing selves. The idea is to give people a glimpse into the reality of your lives
and the ups and downs of having a Special Need Child. If you would like to
be a part of this years video please contact Carol on 021 559 0800 to arrange
a convenient time for us to interview/ film you and your child / children. A member of the
Iris House care team will be present at all times whilst filming takes place to ensure you are 
comfortable with the filming.

Care Team News 
Congratulations to our care team members and family carers who completed their level one First Aid course in April - We are very proud of you! We have unfortunately lost some very talented carers in the last 2 months, due to relocation, health and work commitments. However there is good news ahead. Saturday the 4th of May see's the start of our
biggest care team training to date with 9 new carers attending their first session. We have also secured not one but two training premises to accommodate the Saturday morning
training. A big thank you to Luciano owner of  "Your Majesty's hair & make up training studio " for allowing us to use his premises. Also to Andre of Christ Church Tygerberg who has given us permission to use of the Church Sunday School house in Malmesbury Road Welgelegen for our meetings and training.
We look forward to introducing our new carers to you soon...

     
Luciano - Owner Your Majesty's hair and make up training studio      
   
Minister Andre Visagie - Christ Church Tygerberg
   
Level One First Aid Training - April 

 

•  

Office Contact Details

In order to ensure we meet the needs of our families effectively, please take note of the following contact details: 

Carol Matthysen
021 5590800
carol@iris-house.org 
1. To book sits
2. To apply for food / clothing / electricity support

Debra Sowter
021 5590800
debra@iris-house.org 
1. To report changes in your child's condition / admittance to hospital
2. To request a home visit
3. To request counselling

Sue van der Linde
021 5590800
0839377517
sue@iris-house.org
1. New  child referrals 
2. Any compliments or complaints 
3. Family Emergencies

Welcome to 2013

A very warm welcome to 2013!  We wish all our families everything of the best for the New Year.  2012 was a fantastic year for Iris House, we managed to deliver over 600 hours of quality care, over R28, 000.00 in support to our families and have grown from 12 families in December 2011 to 42 Families December 2012. We hope you all enjoyed the Year End picnic, we certainly did. A very special thank you to Tanya Fester and the Craig Group for the wonderful gifts they donated.

In 2013 we have one BIG aim and that is to raise R2 Million to purchase our own premises. We are going to be pulling out all the stops to make this goal a reality. We are asking our parents and sponsors to please assist us where you can to help us raise these funds.

Some suggestions for parents:
-          Cake sales
-          Tea parties
-          Raffles (we will supply the prizes)
-          Civvies day’s for those with children in mainstream schools
-          Share with us your favorite recipe to be published in our upcoming Iris HouseCook Book, Ebook and App
(come on Mom’s we know you have one you can share!!!!!) please                      
email your gems to carol@iris-house.org We would like to publish the book in April 2013
-          Selling Barnyard theater tickets – Details below of next show
We have also got a jam packed year of our own fundraising planned, starting with our Family Fun Day on the 24^th of Feb, we will do our best to have an event per month. Sponsors we ask you to please contact us if you can assist with this or any of the planned events.

Some suggestions for sponsors:
-          Sponsor a gazebo (joint branding) for our outside events
-          Sponsor prizes for events
-          Sponsor stage hire (joint branding)
-          Sponsor T –shirt’s printing, posters (joint branding)
-          Cycling Shirts – We have over 80 people on our waiting list for this year’s Argus
-          Monetary Contributions
 
Family News ...

January Birthdays: We would like to wish Antoni, Tasneem and Omar a very happy birthday as well as our Director Mel. Also congratulations to little Caleb on his first day of school this January. We have also heard from Kim, they are settling down well in Pretoria and she has started a new job. Estelle is continuing the support group, please note this is not just for parents of Retts Syndrome girls, anyone is welcome to join in the get together's. Please contact Estelle directly if your would like to join the group - 0826868878. Another of our Mom's Merle Foster is running a very handy service -Merle is able to legally reduce those annoying speed and parking fines - If you would to make use of Merle's services please contact her on 082 488 5809
Great News! Ruan has got his eye gaze system (Well done Sheila and Herman - We knew you would do it) He is making great progress, we are thrilled to hear the several of our other children are now trying out the system with great results, please send us some pics and updates as to how you are doing Moms and Dads...

 

Events...

Family Fun Day - 24th Feb - Nitida