On the 11 November 2017, Kim la Grange held a fund raiser for Healing with Horses at Nesbitt Castle in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.  Kim put a lot of effort into this event and presented the public of Bulawayo with an elegant, sophisticated evening, during which the outside world could be forgotten while they surrounded themselves with art and entertainment.

The Bulawayo public were generous in their support of our fund raiser, and were well entertained by Kim’s line up.

First of all there was the most amazing display of artists I’m sure Bulawayo has EVER seen (but I may be biased). We had local artists, artists from across the country, and even a Pretoria based artist represented.  We were awed by the generosity of the artists who donated their pieces to Healing with Horses.

A total of 21 artists were represented at our art auction, with over 30 pieces of art on offer, this was very humbling to all of us at Healing with Horses. Every single one of these paintings was auctioned off in a very exciting silent auction, given an extra half an hour for people to bid on their favourite pieces. I think the bidding may have gone on all night without this restriction! It was a night for both Healing with Horses, who raised more money than we could have dreamt of, and the buyers who got such beautiful, valuable pieces of art for a fraction of their worth. Thank you so much to the incredible artists who donated their work to us.

Kim also arranged for musical entertainment in the form of the choir from the Sandra Jones Centre, a violinist, Mrs Ineke te Velde, and a band from Petra High School, Touching Base. They all provided us with a wonderful, unique atmosphere to accompany the bidding, thank you!

A big thank you as well to the community of Bulawayo who donated food and wine to our evening.  And thank you to Arthur Evans, #ACEdit for setting the mood as our MC. Arthur donated his time to us for the evening.  Thank you Arthur.

Healing with Horses is a non profit organisation. We provide Equine Assisted Activities and Therapies to children in Zimbabwe. We do this for no charge, and we aim to provide awareness of disabilities within Zimbabwe, and hopefully help communities to understand that every person in Zimbabwe deserves their place in the community and has something to offer. We like to say that, once a child passes through the gate at Healing with Horses, that is what they are to us, the amazing child we see before us and not the disability they have been labeled with. And so the art auction held on the 11 November was not only about the very important task of raising funds to keep our program going, but also about creating awareness in our community. We hope we acheived that.

Once again a huge thank you to Kim la Grange, Nesbitt Castle, our generous artists, the public of Bulawayo who donated food, time, skills to our evening, our valuable volunteers, the special family at Healing with Horses.

We dedicate this fund raiser to our ponies who are Healing with Horses, and the children whose voices deserve to be heard.