Since learning about Bulembu in 2013, JACEK has done many campaigns to support this incredible town in Swaziland that is home to over 350 vulnerable children and their care givers.
A little background…
In 2006, a team of social developers and entrepreneurs purchased the abandoned mining town of Bulembu with a vision to restore it to a fully sustainable town to provide care to orphaned and vulnerable children. Today they have a variety of Community Enterprises such as the Bulembu Country Lodge, Bulembu Honey and Bulembu Water to provide for the sustainability fund for Bulembu. The children live in family homes with a caregiver, where they receive all they need including a full education at Bulembu Christian Academy. The goal is to educate and raise the future leaders of Estiwani.
Over the last 10+ years, JACEK Chocolate has raised over $58,000+ to support the community of Bulembu through the sale of chocolate, which of course is only made possible with the incredible generosity of our customers. Below are the projects that have been supported over the years:
2013: Funding the renovation of an old, dilapidated miner’s house, now fondly referred to as the ‘Chocolate House’ which is now home to six children and an ‘Aunty’ (caregiver). $9,500 raised.
2014: Funds to develop, irrigate and fence a 2 hectare vegetable garden to feed the community whilst also giving hands-on experience to the agriculture student’s education ($7,000 raised).
2015: Funding the transportation of a container of much needed goods that were purchased and donated by the community in Edmonton/Sherwood Park. ($7,000 raised)
2017: A new pair of school shoes for each one of the children in Bulembu ($10,000 raised).
2018: Updated school books for all grades for the children in Bulembu. ($5,947 raised)
2019/2020: A special JACEK Birthday Collection with proceeds given in memory Brendan, Melissa, Evelyn & Colton Perrott, and Sabelo of Bulembu for a Scholarship ($5,260 raised)
2021: We reached out to the leaders in Bulembu on how they could best support the children this year. They responded with:
“We would appreciate it if you could allocate your campaign to purchasing solar streetlights for the childcare sites. Electricity is becoming increasingly unreliable and expensive in Eswatini, so we have had to look at ways to not only save on electricity usage but also ensure that the children have light around their homes even when we have power outages”, replied Kurt Puttmaker, Bulembu Partner Relations.
“As you can imagine the electricity used by more than 400 children and care givers in 61 homes adds up to a substantial bill every month, and then making sure they can all walk in safety on the very steep and rough terrain is challenging. Solar streetlights are definitely a way to address both those challenges.”
With the very generous support of JACEK customers, the target of raising $5,000 was far surpassed, with $6933.50 raised through the sale of chocolate bars over a 24 hour period! This is enough to purchase 15 solar powered street lights.
2022: The ask for 2022 was the same as in 2017 as the children needed new shoes again. $4,092 was raised this year to supply school shoes.
2023: $2,581 was raised for breakfast porridge to nourish the children.
2024: Coming soon (August 2024)
Future Projects
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