Thank you to you all so much – all our family, fellow Gogos and friends for your financial support and warm encouragement in this venture and adventure.

During our recent visit, we saw just what your contributions can do and heard from the Gogos how much your support matters to them – the video clip (last in the row of photos below) shows the Gogo team leaders on our first morning singing with such pleasure about the produce they have brought in to show us.  And how moved we were by this!

 In the photos, you can see a piece of typical land and run-down fence in a village and how land can be transformed by a stout fence to keep animals out, into a fertile and productive organic vegetable patch.  At this time of the year (winter in South Africa) the soil enriched with the compost they make, produces cabbage, carrots, turnips, beetroot but later on many other crops besides.

 Thanks to two younger women, Princess and Samantha who have been trained by a French volunteer, the Gogos are learning the benefits of organic gardening, about the use of compost and planting flowers to ward off insects and other tricks.  And about how gardening can help with aches and pains and the importance as Princess explains (see http://youtu.be/LQt2GGNkjLg of being “a cool gardener”.  In the photos you can also see a brand new, bright green water tank and water run-off collection system which means the Gogos have organic rain-water for free and less distance to carry it.

 Chicken-rearing is done with much pleasure though, as we heard from them, less profit and one of the tasks we have set ourselves is to try and help the Gogos by researching how to make chicken-rearing more profitable.  Chicken killing is done by the Gogos using traditional methods of cutting off the head with a knife, dipping in hot water then plucking and eviscerating.  As can be seen, we managed to dispatch a chicken or two ourselves with much squeamishness on our part (and thanking the chicken as we did it to ease our guilt) and hilarity at our ineptness on theirs.

 The fresh vegetables and an occasional chicken for the table enhances their and their family’s standard of living considerably – people aged 60 receive a pension of only 1,200 rand a month (approximately £100) which is often the only income in their family.  But aside from the practicalities of life, the projects have enabled self confidence, emotional connection and mutual support between the Gogos.  As you can hear from a video clip on UTube (http://youtu.be/XX3G7ilo8bU) one of the Gogos told us “Before we had the gardening and the chickens, I used to sit by my house everyday in the sun on my own but now I get together with the others and we learn and talk”.  And not only is their support of each other life-enhancing and fun (see the grandma’s netball match at http://youtu.be/Rna50EOy7qs), it clearly also matters to them enormously to know they are in the minds of our network of supporters here - “on the other side” - as they refer to it.

 Our thanks must ,of course, also go to Eunice and Annette of Keiskama in Hamburg who have been so instrumental in getting the Gogo2Gogo programme off the ground and keeping it going.  With the help of Princess, Samantha , Noseti, Dabs, Pumla Sita to name just a few of the many  inspiring women, together with continuing funding, we are hoping that more than the current 5 villages can be supported in these ways in the future. However, none of this would have been possible without the stalwart work of the Bourne End Gogos - a small local group of UK gogos - who have supported their South African counterparts from the start of the project in 2008 with hard fundraising graft, enthusiasm, commitment and a tremendous sense of fun.

 So once again, thank you very much from us and from the Gogos themselves.