Rainbow of Hope
I chose to support Rainbow of Hope as a community project, mainly as I am inspired by one woman’s drive and passion to support abused and abandoned children. Alcohol and drug abuse are rife in Cape Town and gives rise to terrible social problems and total misery for the young defenseless victims. Alison Alexander, a qualified Pre Primary School teacher comes from an unfortunate background which was what inspired her to help children who have been abused and abandoned.
It started in March 1984 when Alison and her husband opened their home in conjunction with a project that was being run by Comminicare. Numerous children were taken in and cared for, the youngest being a two week old baby left in a drunk coma by her mother along with a bottle of neat alcohol. This child was later adopted by Alison and her husband and is doing very well in spite of her poor start to life. Alison officially opened Rainbow of Hope as a Non Profit Organization In 2007. The initial vision was a place of safety for babies to 6 years old but she soon saw the need for older children to be in a safe environment and then changed the age to independent living. She currently has 12 Children from babies up to children up to twelve years of age and she looks after their well being in terms of their physical, emotional and educational needs. She also trains staff and volunteers in caring for the children’s needs and runs workshops for those who are considering fostering or adopting children.
She also runs programs which focus on rehabilitating parents so that they can be in a position to parent their own children again. To this end she teaches moms various crafts like beading and provides all the material, 50% of the proceeds go to the moms and the other 50% to the home. Rainbow of Hope, is not a large organization by any means, but it provides a place of care, safety, love and nourishment for 12 babies and children who would otherwise have no real hope of survival. Alison does this without the help of government and operates purely on donations.
Many of the items on the needs list are small, so can be packed in your luggage. If space is limited and the items you wish to provide are bulky (like nappies) or sugar, I would be more than happy to purchase the items and we can deliver them during your stay in Cape Town. We would need to do this by prior arrangement and I would appreciate pre-payment.
Please visit Pack for a Purpose to see a list of items Rainbow of Hope need in order to make a big impact on children’s lives.
In the beginning of March 2020, just before the Coronapandemic toke over the world and South Africa went in to total lockdown, our group of 10 friends went on a week tour with Cape Splendour Tours. Well let me tell you, actually Cape Splendour Tours is just one lady, the lovely Mrs. Julie Clarke. She arranged a week tour including winetasting and a day tour around the Cape Peninsula. For 3 days we went on a winetasting tour in the wine areas of Stellenbosch, Paarl and Franschoek. We already made a list of which wineries we wanted to visit and Julie just filled in the blanks. That’s the good thing about Julie, she doesn’t always do a standard program, Continue Reading
Christi 13th October 2021
Our tour with Julie was a highlight of our visit to South Africa. Along with the major scenic stops we were able to spend some time at some areas we had specific interest such a local weekend market. Additionally, Julie was very helpful with helping sort out some other areas of our trip with transportation & running down something we'd left at the hotel - going above & beyond. We'll recommend her for our friends or family visiting the Cape Town area in the future - thank you!
Claire N 20th September 2023
Words cannot begin to express how WONDERFUL our groups private tour was with Julie for 5 days. I don't think it is possible to put into words how much Julie customized our tour to meet the needs of our group. Each day we had people flying in from Texas to join the tour before a conference we were attending. Our tour size ranged from 6 people to 18 people, and she managed to arrange INCREDIBLE tours and meet the transportation needs of our group daily. On the first day our group was scheduled to go on the City Tour and head to Table Mountain. Julie had the foresight to realize the weather would be bad, so took the initiative to Continue Reading
Lisa H 20th September 2023
Julie has a vast knowledge of the area and her tours are fantastic. However, it doesn’t end there. Julie was an enormous help in planning the Garden Route section of our trip before we arrived in SA as well as helping us after with a vendor that did not ship our goods.
Steph H 20th September 2023
If you want a fabulous guided experience in Cape Town and surrounding areas, make it your priority to connect with Julie Clarke at Cape Splendour Tours. We had the great fortune of riding with Julie for three of our four-day stay in Cape Town (on the other day we visited standard tourist attractions like Robben Island on our own). She is highly knowledgeable, affable, flexible, punctual and has excellent taste in restaurants, and is an excellent driver on top of that. The only thing missing from our three days was perfect weather, so Julie skilfully rearranged our itinerary to give us the best chance to visit the summit of Table Mountain in glorious sunshine (which we did) and maximize our Continue Reading
Mar 2023 • Couples 20th September 2023