Highlights of High Season: Part Two

Karen, a community volunteer from Scotland, who gave a
very generous donation to the building of Inkanyezi
Creche, pictured here with Mama Gumede. 

Continuing from our first "Highlights of High Season" blog, here are some of the goings-on throughout the last few months...

Special events and THAF

Besides being very busy on projects, over the summer volunteers and staff were invited to events, planned extra programmes and engaged with the projects on a number of different levels.

The Happy Africa Foundation (THAF) certainly benefitted from a large influx of volunteers, as many brought donations in the form of toys, clothes and medical supplies, as well as monetary contributions to many of our focal projects. A big thank-you to everyone who brought donations, whether big or small, they have helped us make the most of our time at projects like crèche, afterschool club and on our home based care project.

Monetary contributions given by some volunteers helped us complete Inkanyezi Crèche’s classroom and have gone towards beginning the next stages of the building project. During our peak season we also held a THAF Shop, which is always a hit amongst the communities as they get to purchase some of our donations that we are unable to give out on our projects. 

Finally, with the help of our THAF intern, we were able to hold a pizza night at a local restaurant to raise money for our medical project. We also gave out a great number of donations, including loads of baby clothes that had been donated throughout the year, which went to the patients at the Khula and Ezwenelisha clinics. 

Not only was it a great few months for our focal projects in terms of our donations and accomplishments, but African Impact volunteers and staff were really able to bond with the communities in which we work. Being invited to many local events was a highlight, as we attended Women’s Day celebrations in Ezwenelisha and in Khula. 

At both, volunteers prepared a speech about family planning and healthy breastfeeding. One event was put on by the Khula Clinic, and we have found that our relationship with the nurses and staff are continuing to strengthen. Each month we provide the clinic with statistics and they in turn provide us with some donations for use on our home based care patients.

A donated parachute has become a big hit at creche. 

Crèches

Due to the 33 community volutneers that we had throughout June, July and August we have been able to complete our two-month commitment to each crèche earlier than planned. This means we're also able to offer each one and an extra month of our volunteers working with them - leading to more instruction for the learners and more time with our volunteers for the teachers.

Throughout June, July and August the children at the Ndabenhle, Simunye, Inkanyezi, Khula Nomathiya, Malibongwe, Snenhlanhla, Dukuduku and Impumelelo crèches have received interactive lessons planned and taught by our volunteers. 

The lesson themes have included: myself, my family/home, my community/town, water, fire, transport/traffic safety, wild animals and farm animals. Volunteers also got creative with additional lesson plans that involved teaching opposites, the five senses and seasons.

We have also had a great number of volunteers come through with lots of teaching experience that have helped us to improve the work that we do at the creches. Volunteer Meagan, a primary school teacher at home in England, had great success during her six-week placement helping to show the teachers how to use different classroom management techniques. Megan’s fellow volunteers found a noticeable difference in the behaviour of the children she had worked with. Megan kindly document her teaching methods so that new volunteers can continue her efforts and put these behavioural techniques into practice in the other crèches.

The volunteers, volunteer coordinator Carla and a teacher
at Impumelelo Creche with their new tyre course.

Two week volunteer Gilian made the most of the short time here, using her knowledge from working with children with behavioural disorders at home in Scotland by helping to create interactive resources to help enhance the lessons.

Volunteers have made resources to brighten up each crèche as well as resources to enhance the children's learning. Finally, as something small for the children to remember us by until we visit them again next year we build a tyre course at each of the crèches. Volunteers designed a tyre course unique to each crèche, for example we built Simunye Crèche a butterfly, Inkanyezi Crèche a spider and Impumelelo Crèche a snake-shaped tyre course.