FROM YOU EDITOR ESMARE WEIDEMAN
It’s the final issue of YOU for 2008 - a difficult year for economies around the world and experts are predicting the tough times will continue through 2009. Our heartfelt thanks to all of you who have supported YOU so faithfully.
Before we close our offices for a short break I must thank our readers who have opened their hearts to one of our big projects, our Ubuntu fund. Once a month we publicise requests from our most needy fellow South Africans to all who can assist to help to make their lives a little better. And you certainly opened your hearts and wallets in the past year.
Here are a few examples. Elspeth Gleave, owner of a beauty salon in Dubai, often sends donations of about R2 000. “People in Dubai are doing well and I feel privileged,” she tells us. “So I do what I can to help people in my country.”
A reader in Winklespruit donated R10 000 towards basic necessities such as milk and sugar after reading in YOU that the residents of Ithembelihle Centre for the Disabled in Germiston survived on meals of porridge and water.
For the past two years the Wolpert sisters of Midrand have been making up gift parcels for Aids orphans. Cindy Bezuidenhout and Tony Ford of Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal have made and distributed hundreds of wooden toys to needy kids around the country.
The list goes on. And On the Dot marketing ensures all donations - from books to barrels of cooking oil - are delivered to even the most remote places.
YOU isn’t only about hard news and circulation, secrets and scandals. Our readers care about others and for that we thank you - including those of you whose prayers support the people whose hardship and problems we write about. (Danielle Roos, the 15-year-old girl whose death we reported on recently, drew a widespread response. Her parents have already received about R100 000 from readers, so thank you once again!)
And so, from me and our editorial staff, may the Christmas period be good to you; peace and joy to all of you. And remember, we’re back on the shelves next week!
Till then,
Esmaré
IN THIS ISSUE (* indicates there’s a condensed version on YOU Mobi)
*Garth le Roux’s jail ordeal
*Mandoza: I live with guilt
*Nico and Christi’s Christmas party
Blockbuster bonus for the holidays
Poster: Britney Spears
*Win the year’s hottest CDs
Biggest teen stars of 2008
Win 3 cars: third puzzle piece
Great games for the kids
Deon Meyer fiction special plus more holiday fiction
Highlights of the year in world sport
*Assisted suicide: row over TV footage
*Miss World - an Abba fan
Celeb moments of 2008
YOU staffers’ Christmas memories
*Medical marvels of the year
Runaway Rockefeller mystery
*Why I killed my druggie son
PLUS ALL THE LIFESTYLE ARTICLES AND HOT STUFF YOU’VE COME TO EXPECT FROM YOU
