News Release

Macassar Girls and Boys Town Receives Help from Mormon Helping Hands

From making quilts to creating outdoor benches, Somerset Ward does it all.

All across the African Continent members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as The Mormons) participated in "Mormon Helping Hands" projects on 17 August 2013. 

Hours, days and weeks became a labor of love from the members of the Cape Town Somerset Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as they completed seven different projects for the Macassar Girls & Boys Town, starting in May of 2013 and ending in August of 2013.

To provide a homier feel and also a practical gift of warmth for the winter, the women from the Relief Society (Women’s Group) were asked to donate cash, material, duvets and sheets to enable them to make quilts for the Boys Town living quarters. They completed 62 quilts. The boys were very appreciative of the kind gift. The Principal, Jacqui Abrahams, was quite tearful when she realized the amount of time, effort and love that went into making all the quilts.

Over the months, the women also collected books that would be suitable for the boys to have on the bookshelves of the cottages. Church members, Pat Beavis and her granddaughters painted a lovely mural on the wall of a cottage and furniture was donated and placed in the reception area.

The men of the ward, together with the missionaries, fixed all the shelving, doors in the cottages, built-in cupboards and fixed the tops on many desks. Benches were made from scratch and along with bark chips were placed under the trees to make a nice place for the boys to sit outside.

To make way for a new recreation hall, families cleared out and removed from a large room on the premises, old furniture and accumulated junk.

This type of project brought the ward together in the spirit of service and love. All those hands that helped this deserving organization, though tired, were raised in the air at the completion of the project as a tribute to a job well done.

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