Purple Cake Day

Purple Cake Day - what is it???

Purple Cake Day is an idea conceived by Nelsonian, Emily Sanson-Rejouis to celebrate the spirit of her daughters, Kofie-Jade (5) and Zenzie (3), who were lost with their father, Emily’s husband Emmanuel, in the Haiti earthquake in January 2010.

It is inspired by Kofie’s compassion for children less fortunate and by Zenzie who wanted not one, but two purple cakes for her 4th birthday.

Immediately following the earthquake, Emily established the Kenbe La Foundation Charitable Trust (‘Kenbe La’ means Never Give Up in Haitian Creole), to provide educational opportunities for children in need in Haiti. The Foundation has since established Purple Cake Day as a specific day to celebrate, connect and support children around the world.

$30,000 was raised in one day of action, Purple Cake Day 2011. This was used to provide educational opportunities and support to children in Haiti and NZ affected by earthquakes. Find out more about these projects in the 2012 Resource Kit.

In 2010 the Kenbe La Foundation provided and coordinated direct support to the Source of Hope School in Tom Gato Community, Leogane. This primary level school supporting 120 students with 5 teachers, was completely destroyed in the quake. The Kenbe La Foundation has arranged educational resources, clothes and toys, food, seeds for crops, ShelterBox tents for temporary classrooms and 3 months of teachers’ and administrators’ salaries.

To read more about Emily’s story and the Kenbe La Foundation go to http://www.kenbelafoundation.org

Room 5 are busy getting themselves ready to help celebrate this fun day. To help decorate Nelson, they have made some amazing Mandala's. A mandala is a sacred space, often a circle, which reveals some inner truth about you or the world around you. In Sanskrit mandala means both circle and center, implying that it represents both the visible world outside of us (the circle- whole world) and the invisible one deep inside our minds and bodies (the center- healing circle). I have only been able to upload a few but if you would like to see them all, then visit Penguino's Ice Cream Parlour or the Nelson Library.