September Update

At Reef & Dune to watch South Africa's
final Rugby World Cup match.

World Cup Rugby is upon us, the weather is warming up  and with the month of September came some amazing activities and coming changes that we’re all very excited for. Check out what’s been going on this month on our projects.

Creche

At the end of this month, the Induna of Khula has asked us to move on to other crèches in the community who are in need of African Impact volunteer’s help. With the children at Snenhlanhla and Ndabenhle doing so well with their lessons, the Induna has encouraged us to begin attending other crèches, in the hopes that we can reach out to even more learners and spread our love.  

As a result, volunteers have spent September reviewing many of the important lessons from throughout this year. This included reviewing days and months of the year, colours, numbers, the alphabet, hygiene, parts of the body, animals and shapes. When the children struggled with learning shapes, volunteers came up with a song (taken from the CBeebies) and made costumes to dress up like shapes and made a game out of shape identification – a big hit with all three crèches.

As a special treat, on the last Friday of the month both crèches were taken on a trip to the beach, which is always a highlight for the kids and the volunteers. Although we are sad to be leaving Snenhlanhla and Ndabenhle, we are confident that the teachers at the crèches that we have been working with are well equipped to be preparing the students for primary school without our guidance each week.

Support Groups

Khula Support Group continues to sell their crafts and this month they had a successful craft sale at the Ski Boat Club. The group had a very special session this month as the group ventured into Hluhluwe/Umfolozi to bless the park’s rhinos, an idea David came up with after hearing about Tibetan monks who bless the forests to prevent deforestation. The ladies were thrilled to see the rhinos, who all appeared during one of their prayers. The event got some great coverage in the local newspaper, which was a great way to improve our exposure here in St. Lucia.

Ezwenelisha Support Group is growing as the members have been discussing how to increase the group’s low turnout. The members are optimistic that they can encourage friends, family and neighbours to attend the support group in the coming weeks. Some of the ladies have even started to make bags to be sold in the same way Khula Support Group sells their crafts. So far a couple of bags have been made and they’re a great hit amongst the volunteers.

Home Based Care

September was a very positive month for our regular Home Based Care patients, who are all doing well. Gogo Breast Cancer was looking well the last time the volunteers saw her, and Gogo One-Leg did go to the clinic about the sore on her foot, which is currently being treated by the clinic. Scared that she would have her other leg taken off, Gogo One-Leg had been hesitant to visit the clinic so this was a great development for her. Christopher and Veronica area both doing well despite their conditions, although Christopher still has some pains in his eyes he now has visitors that are helping him with daily chores around the house. The boy that was taken to the clinic with severe burns in August has returned home and is very grateful for the clothing donations we provided him. He is making regular trips to have bandages checked at the Ezwenelisha Clinic so we see him quite often. 

After School Club

After School Club started off with a bang as the kids went on a trip to the beach on the first of the month. Always a big hit, the volunteers enjoyed playing in the waves with the kids, who were as thankful as ever for the field trip. Always eager to learn new games, our Dutch volunteers Nadine and Jeanet taught some games brought all the way from the Netherlands and (although it took a while and the kids decided to alter some of the rules), they also learned Capture the Flag from Emily, our American volunteer. The kids also participated in a talent show halfway through the month, all receiving pencil cases with pencils and erasers for their hard work, courtesy of last month’s volunteer Mathilde.

Community volunteer Nadine carrying
books donated to Ndabenhle creche.

Other

Large donations began being distributed throughout Khula this month from our large container of donations that came in June from two former volunteers. After assessing the needs of crèches in the community with the Induna and his counselor’s help, we have delivered donations to five crèches and the Ezwenelisha clinic including books, tables, chairs and other resources.

Our AMREF garden is now filled with vegetables at various stages of growth – from cabbages, carrots and spinach that we are in the process of cultivating to mealies and beans that were planted at the end of the month. During September we were able to pick some spinach, carrots and cabbage to give to home based care patients and some of our 10 Families.

Inkanyezi building project is also moving along very nicely as the volunteers have been making bricks at a breakneck pace in order to begin building the toilets in the coming months, though a few days of brick-making had to be postponed due to a few large rain storms we’ve had in the last week.