Fellowship of Rock & Roll

The FORR 2009 DVD is ready and we will be launching it on the 5th of November at Steak & Ale in Centurion. This will be your first opportunity to see the DVD and to buy your own copy.

It will also be the official lunch for the “FORR the love of…” festival to be held at Malongane from 25 to 28 March 2010. Unlike the September festival, this smaller, more intimate festival will only feature acoustic music. More information about the festival will be revealed on the 5th and bookings will open on the 6th at 13h00.

To give you a taste of what to expect from the “FORR the love of…” festival we have arranged 4 awesome acts to entertain you after the screening of the DVD. Performing on the night at Steak & Ale will be Laurie Levine (JHB), Joshua Grierson (CPT), Rambling Bones (JHB) and The Allen Wood Project (PTA). These are some of the finest acoustic acts in South Africa today and it is sure to be an unforgettable evening of music. A big thank you goes to Laurie Levine for organising all the artists for the evening.

Cover charge for the night will be R60. The DVD will be screened at 19:30 and the music will start at 20:30. For bookings contact Steak & Ale on 012-664-5155

The FORR Rise of the Fellowship Festival was held from 3 to 5 September 2009 in Ponta Malongane, Mozambique.

Over and above the fact that we had an amazing music festival with a beautiful crowd, talented musicians and awesome people, the festival organisers and crowd pulled together to Pay It FORRward to the tiny rural under-privileged community of Malongane.

The following projects were held:

EYE TESTING PROJECT

Estelle Bruwer kindly offered her services and professional expertise to perform eye testing for the local community.

This service was performed as a donation and 5 local persons had also been trained to perform eye testing in the community on a continuous basis.

To date the following had been provided to the community paid by the funds donated to the Pay It FORRWARD Charity Project:

286 pairs of reading glasses
medication at cost price in the amount of R400
about 20 pairs of prescription glasses

Thank you to Dick & Annie who took the prescription glasses through to Mozambique.

LIBRARY PROJECT

Festival goers and sponsors provided us with children’s and educational books which was donated to the local school.

A puppet show was also held to launch the library – watch this space for video and photo footage!

We want to especially thank the following persons and institutions for their contribution to this project:

- Juta in Hatfield for the educational children’s books
- Ilze Venter and St Paulus Primary School in Brummeria for the children’s books donated
- Alexa Strachan for the children’s fiction donated from Tafelberg Publishers
- Jaco Lotter for the portuguese children’s books and portuguese dvd’s collection
- Mrs Elsie Calitz from Regio School in Clubview for the children books donated
- Charlene McKenzie and the customers of Steak ‘n Ale for the books donated at the venue
- Chrisna Pesquito and the customers of Cafe Barcelona for the books donated at the venue
- Ann Toerien and Nohline Geyer and the customers of Die Pienk Kerk for the books and clothes donated at the venue
- Nada and Andre van der Walt for the sweeties handed out at the school
- Sharon Belardinelli, Laubscher & Esta Calitz for transporting most of the books to the festival
- Festival goers, friends and friends of friends who generously donated children’s books
- Pedro Barbosa (Mrs B) for the wonderful translation and performance in the puppet show
- Werner & Chantel Smith for providing transport for the Malongane Creche to join the puppet show.
- Annelie Coetzee & Dick Venter from Nudidivers for the boat
- Hallo Ben Manufacturing and the Pay It FORRward team for the materials and creating the puppets
- The “actors” and Albert Meintjies (Alan Wood Project) for the puppet show and background music!

MUSIC WORKSHOP

A music workshop was held to introduce music basics to the broader community and advance classes to local musicians to learn more.

A good news story: Andre Kriel from Black Cat Bone provided one of the local security guards, Renaldo, with a guitar. After his advanced music workshop with Nibs van der Spuy, Renaldo has been booked for paying gigs at local restaurants!

We would like to thank the following people for their contribution to this project:

- Andre Kriel (Black Cat Bone) and Jaco Lotter (Die Kaalkop Waarheid) for the harmonicas and tambourines and other instruments donated to the workshop
- Andre, Kobus & Wimpie from Black Cat Bone
- Nardus, Wimpie, Wyand & Jaco from Die Kaalkop Waarheid
- Nibs van der Spuy for the advanced class.
- All the friends of FORR who joined the workshop and supported the cause.

Security guard Ronaldo with his guitar donated by Andre Kriel.

SPECIAL THANKS

To Jesse Botha for the clothes and gifts donated to the orphanage, Marna Roets for her generous donation and Werner and Chantel Smith from Tartaruga Lodge for their valuable input and advice regarding the specific needs in the community. The supporters and film crews who took time to record these events and joined in the fun.

We can not thank everyone enough for their generous contribution to the Pay It FORRward Charity – this project really made a difference to the community as a whole!

Please post your “good news” stories on this page – your feedback is important to us.

Should you wish to get involved in next year’s charity projects or if you have identified a specific need in the community, please provide us with your ideas/input.

Pay It FORRward Charity