News

ENHANCING CHILDREN’S CHARITY WITH A NEW WEBSITE

We are most grateful for 2 dynamic business owners that have supported, volunteered, and worked alongside CAAP for the last 15 years. Chanel Miller currently owns her own Wedding Venue in Virginia, USA but her roots are in South Africa.

For 17 years she worked with pioneers and businesses starting their online marketing campaigns, although she has had the privilege to work with larger companies and big international brands such as British Telecoms (BT) and Century 21.

Chanel believes in living a purpose driven life and still does marketing consultation for various small businesses and charities. She aims to equip and empower any team with excellent insight and step by step guidelines demonstrating how to conduct a comprehensive online business strategy. Her mission is to deliver cutting edge, easy-to-understand, high quality training consultations to assist and improve any charity or small business setting out to reach its goals.

In her own words ‘There is only one option for my clients and that is to overcome any obstacles, embrace powerful new marketing strategies and leap forward to greater success. There is no greater reward for me, than experiencing this first hand in my walk with CAAP’


Manfred K has been assisting Chanel for the last 20 years. Manfred owns Manfredk.com Internet Services – a small website design company that specializes in low cost high performance websites based on some of the world’s leading Open Source Content Management Systems – such as Joomla and WordPress. Manfred has a heart for charities and often helps humanitarian causes as well as animal rescue organizations. He is currently living and working in Protaras – Cyprus.

He has been working with customers in the Eastern Cape in South Africa, nationally, internationally and from all types of industries. With more than 20 years experience in providing internet solutions to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Manfred believes he is ideally placed to serve any business that aims to create or extend its internet presence
and is honored to work with the Children’s Aids Art Programme.

We are extremely grateful for Chanel and Manfred and their excellent work with CAAP over many years

A little Background

A Little Background on Children’s AIDS Art Programme (CAAP)

By Mary Miyata (Founder and Executive Director)

Since I began living and working in South Africa more than sixteen years ago, I have been deeply touched by the widespread need and courage that so many of this country’s children have in the face of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Thousands of South African children have been left parent less, in poverty, and battling to stay healthy themselves. Despite these immense challenges, I have had the privilege of working with orphaned children through art therapy sessions, and have witnessed incredible resolve and life improvements. Their resilience touches me every day.

I initially began teaching art classes to children at Nazareth House, a home for 150 orphaned children in Cape Town, South Africa in 2002. Over three years, I developed a fun and effective curriculum to not only foster disadvantage children’s artistic skills but to offer a platform for self-expression and confidence-building. I continued to teach in other impoverished schools in townships around Cape Town and worked for the Nobel Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s HIV Foundation until officially establishing CAAP. By 2006, we opened CAAP’s first dedicated art school located within the Baphumelele Children’s Home in the township of Khayelitsha, Cape Town.

Every year the kids always love our session, making mixed-media self-portraits. For these young people, who are trying to figure out who they are and trying to make sense of where they have come from, painting a picture of themselves is both an artistic and therapeutic process. Their work continues to inspire me, and I hope that sharing these twelve images with personal notes on the children will inspire you too. Our goal is to continue to open more art schools throughout the region and reach more and more children. Equally, this calendar is helping CAAP to build upon a higher education fund to secure further opportunities for these kids as they grow up.

Endorsement of CAAP’S Work from Rosie Mashale

Dear Mary,
I have read the Newsletter with so much interest and to my surprise so many of those children I know them and can vouch for them. They deserve the support from CAAP.
Keep up the good work for helping these poverty stricken children.
All the best,
Rosie Mashale

Rosie Mashale is founder and managing director of Baphumele, a South African organization that provides various levels of care for more than 5,000 children desperately in need. Mashale’s efforts have won her recognition, such as being on CNN’s Top 10 Heroes of 2017 list. In 1989, Rosalia Mashale “Mama Rosie” to those around her, a trained primary school teacher, moved from the Eastern Cape to Khayelitsha in the Western Cape Province. Rosie was disturbed to see young children going through the rubbish dump in search for food while their parents were away during the day, either at work or in search of work. She responded by taking children into her home, and together with a group of women from the community, began looking after these unsupervised children. After the first week, 36 children had joined their charge.

The name given to this project was Baphumelele (pronounced: ba-poo-meh-leh-leh), a Xhosa word meaning “you have progressed”. From these humble beginnings Baphumelele Educare Centre was founded. While the Educare Centre had developed a reputation for looking after children, Rosie also felt a calling to reach out to orphaned children in the community. To that end, Baphumelele Children’s Home was created as a place of safety for abandoned, abused, neglected or orphaned children, many of whom have been affected by the HIV/Aids pandemic or have HIV/AIDS.
Mama Rosie is a visionary paradigm-shifter whose leadership and vision continue to grow and shape Baphumelele today. In 2013 she was recognized as the South African Woman of the year. Rosie Mashale’s Baphumelele was visited by world renowned men and women, such as Nobel Peace Prize recipients Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Note: Rosie and I have been dear friends for 15 years and she is a trustee on our South African Trust. The CAAP Art School was located at Baphumele Children’s Home from 2005-2016. -Mary

Children’s AIDS Art Programme (CAAP)

Children’s AIDS Art Programme (CAAP) Cape Town, South Africa – Township of Khayelistha

As stated on our website, CAAP’s main initiative is to alleviate the suffering and stifled emotions of the children by utilizing a form of therapy through art. This technique allows the children to express themselves, providing them with a welcome diversion from their illness or abuse. It also develops their motor and visual skills. Children are given the opportunity to focus on something positive, with their art serving as a symbol of a bright banner for hope.

What we’ve been doing in 2013

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This year we have expanded to the Respite Center, a place which cares for adult people infected by HIV and other diseases. We provided art therapy classes for them, as a form of recreational exercise where they discovered their creative abilities. Working with this group has been a challenge in many ways, but we are very happy that we were able to provide therapeutic lessons with them. We plan on continuing with the Respite Center instruction next year. CAAP is expanding to the Desmond Tutu Youth Center in Masiphumelele, SA in 2014.

We are now organizing a trip to the Iziko South African National Gallery with a picnic at the Company’s Gardens for the children. The gallery has great art education programmes for school kids during the summer. This trip is going to be a good opportunity for the children; they will look at amazing artworks and participate in workshops designed specifically for them. The trip promises to be fun and exciting. It will allow them to experience a different atmosphere and environment as most of them know only the home and the township surroundings. Taking them out and showing them new things will refresh their minds and spark more creativity. We continue teaching throughout the year, having only a two week break for the holidays. (Nobu’s report for November 2013)

People Behind CAAP’s Cape Town:

Nobukho Nqaba (Nobu) Head Art Instructor & Programme Manager University of Cape Town, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Masters Degree Program

Nobukho Nqaba (Nobu)
Head Art Instructor & Programme Manager University of Cape Town, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Masters Degree Program

Mpumelelo Makeleni (Mpumi) Student Art Teacher

Mpumelelo Makeleni (Mpumi)
Student Art Teacher

Philippa Claire MacDuff Full-Time Volunteer Oxford, England

Philippa Claire MacDuff
Full-Time Volunteer
Oxford, England

Here is some recent work done by the children. They are exploring different spatial techniques using color, texture and 3-dimensional objects they have built into their mixed media sculptures

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Here is some additional artwork:
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Patients enjoying art therapy at the Respite Center:
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CAAP Art School Children:
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Information on Children’s AIDS Art Programme (CAAP) USA and CAAP, a South Africa Trust-South Africa
Children’s AIDS Art Programme (CAAP) USA
Mary Miyata Founder & Executive Director
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miyata.mary@gmail.com P: +1 (415) 320-2442 childrensaidsartprogramme.org
Children’s AIDS Art Programme Corporation is a 501(c)3 chartiable organization. Our Tax I.D #26-0118652
CAAP USA is 100 South Street, Suite #110, Sausalito, CA 94965 United States of America.
CAAP, a South Africa Trust
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CAAP, a South Africa Trust, #097-451-NPO and PBO #930040687
CAAP, a South Africa Trust is 11 Buitengracht Street, Cape Town, 8001
CAAP TRUST

CAAPHolidayUpdate2013WContacts

 

Farewell to Madiba

Dear Friends

Recently, we joined Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela’s family and loved ones, and our dear friends and colleagues in South Africa and throughout the world, in saying goodbye to one of the most beloved and inspirational leaders of our time. In our mourning, we celebrate Mandela’s remarkable life and many accomplishments, including his commitment in raising awareness about the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the devastation the virus has caused in Africa.
Mandela was one of the first public figures to break taboo in speaking about AIDS in South Africa. The attention he brought to the millions of individuals in Africa infected with the virus, helped bring HIV/AIDS out into the open and defy the stigma and shame associated with the virus. He galvanized governments around the world to declare a global AIDS emergency and launched campaigns to raise awareness and funds for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and research.
In 2005, Mandela shared the painful news that his last surviving son, Makgatho Mandela, had died of an AIDS-related illness in an effort to “give publicity to HIV/AIDS and not hide it” and turn it into a “normal illness, just like TB, like cancer,” he said at the time.
Mandela’s call to action in a 2000 World AIDS Day speech still resonates today. “HIV/AIDS is worse than a war. As we speak now, there are thousands of people dying from it. But this war cannot be won. This is one war where you can make a difference,” he declared.
Thanks to the efforts of Mandela and countless number of people on the local and global level, tremendous progress has been made since then in reducing the number of AIDS-related deaths and new HIV infections among adults and children, and getting antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to people infected with the virus. Children’s AIDS Art Programme (CAAP) and CAAP, a South Africa Trust, we know first-hand the incredible progress that has been made in saving children’s lives and ensuring babies are born HIV free.
Yet, with more than 1.6 million people dying from AIDS-related causes and 260,000 children infected by HIV around the world each year, much work needs to be done. We hope that the global community will honor Mandela’s legacy by continuing its commitment to ending the pandemic and providing critical support for countries and communities still heavily impacted by HIV/AIDS.
Let us keep Mandela in our hearts and minds, and always remember how he inspired the world by actions, humility, grace, and courage.
Rest in peace, Madiba…we will always love you.