Open Day at our Therapeutic Centre in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe – acknowledging donors participants and volunteers

2017 has been a great year for Healing with Horses. We have been able to create more awareness amongst the local community of who we are, what we do, and how we do it.

Healing children and communities through Equine Assisted Activities and Therapies.

It was great to have so many of our donors represented at our Open Day this year.

National Foods always supports us, in the past it has been Mr Heathcote who did the honours, but this year Mr Heathcote retired and we had Simon filling his shoes. You did an amazing job Simon, we so appreciated you being there to share our day, and the kids were extra grateful for the donation of snacks from National Foods for the day. National Foods has been our biggest donor right from the beginning of our program, donating a ton of feed to us every month. This goes a long way towards filling our horses’ stomachs on a daily basis. Simon also helps to deliver the food to us when we are really stuck for transport, although our most regular transporter is Kim la Grange from JK Motors.

PPC also joined us at our Open Day this Year, thank you for making the effort, Nicky and Wonder. They came bearing gifts for the kids – caps, and I am happy to tell you, PPC, that our little ‘babies’ from Sandra Jones proudly wore their caps to their session with us this week, they looked so cute in their Fawcett t shirts and PPC caps! PPC have been a part of our program for the last three years. Thank you so much for your invaluable help PPC. For the last couple of years we have managed to stock pile a bit of hay, thanks to you.

Profeeds was represented this year by Nkosi and Millicent. We are so grateful to Profeeds who enable us to feed our horses their high class feed using a 10% discount. We have been privileged to have Profeeds’ support since the very beginning of our program, and this year has brought several visits from the managerial team. Great to have met you, Nigel, Tidings and Nkosi, and thanks to Millicent for being our on the ground person!

Nathan King and Kimberley la Grange joined us from JK Motors. JK have supported us all year, transport, cash donations, advice and so much more.

We had a new donor this year towards our Open Day. Fawcetts ‘came to the party’ this year and donated the most beautiful t shirts to all of our participants, and to our grooms. Chantel Bufe attended our Open Day in order to present these t shirts to the kids, who were ecstatic! Thank you to Anton Bhana from Creative Centre for making the t shirts and transporting them all the way out to us when the power cuts caused a delay in the production of the t shirts. Thank you Fawcetts, we really hope that, after seeing what our program is all about, we will be seeing more of you this year. Fawcetts does an amazing job of protecting the community of Bulawayo, we are grateful to you for that, and also for your support of Healing with Horses’ Open Day 2017!

So nice to see Vusu from Bancroft and Neil this year at our Open Day. Vusu has worked closely with us this year installing the irrigation system which was kindly donated to us by Australian Embassy. Vusu has been our on the ground man and has worked closely with us all year, listening to, interpreting, and doing his best to fulfill our dreams for this irrigation system. Our dreams are big! Thank you for believing in them. Thanks to the Australian Embassy and Bancroft and Neil we have come a long way towards bringing these dreams to reality, and are right now starting to reap the benefits of the system, literally reaping lucerne and star grass on a daily basis, and watching other pastures, bana grass and carrots mature in the fields. So exciting and amazing to see. Thank you to Matopos Research and Icrisat for donating seed to us, and for teaching us to sow the seeds and reap the benefits.

As always thank you to the wonderful, hard working volunteers who dedicate so much of their time and souls to our Healing with Horses family. No words can adequately express our gratitude to you.

KGVI, Sandra Jones, Harvest Family Village. Wow. It has been an honour to work with you all and your wonderful children. We are humbled by how much you have all taught us. Thank you from the bottom of our souls. May all your dreams come true.. Thank you to Debbie Brennocks and Emmanuel Dube for your kind words in the Open Day Speeches, but most of all thank you for your help and support through the year, what amazing people you both are.

Therapeutic Riding uses the movement and the intuition of horses to heal the bodies, minds, and souls of children. We see this miracle happening every hour of every day. Each day is a new one in which we revel in the breath taking miracles we observe. Thank you to our incredibly special ponies for so seemingly easily achieving these daily miracles and taking it all in your healing stride, without asking for anything in return. So undemanding and understated, we treasure you greatly. Each and every one has something new and different to offer.

Huge recognition to our grooms who work so incredibly hard and put so much of themselves into our ponies and participants.

To all our donors who didn’t make it to our Open Day, we value your support immensely, and could not continue with our program without the support of you special people.

Pilgrim Foundation

Ryan Keith and Forgotten Voices

Safeguard

Berghaan Foods

Capital Foods

Edgars

Warren King

June Meadows

Walter Hawelka

Roxy Ellis

Dr Jeremy Hubert

Deekay Farming