Monthly Update: September I

Volunteers were back at Malibongwe Creche this m

While most schools and Universities are commencing around the world and many countries prepare for winter, here in St Lucia summer is upon us. The onset of the rainy season and wind has us water-logged but it has not dampened our spirits!

September has seen a total of 23 volunteers come and go which means we have lots of stories to update you on. Let’s start with the community shall we...

Creche

The first week in September was our last week teaching at Snenhlanla Crèche, a favourite among volunteers who reported that the children there are very smart. Volunteers finished their time there with a review of all the topics that they have covered there over the past eight weeks while also teaching the children about the four 'African' seasons which was interesting and fun for the volunteers too, seeing as it is almost the complete opposite to their home countries!

Most of our time throughout September was spent at Malibongwe and Simunye Crèches. Malibongwe is a small home-run crèche. The children are all quite young which meant volunteers had to approach teaching these children with a different technique compared to the other crèches. Volunteer Julie and Alice created a life size human named 'Sipho' upon which the children could attach and remove various body parts when learning about the human body. 

Having found a learning style that suited the children, volunteers built on this by creating a "family members" poster to help the children identify themselves as well as mother/father, sister/brother and grandmother/grandfather figures by attaching the appropriate clothing and face onto a template. 

At the end of the month, our creatively-inclined volunteers also created a beautiful sign for the crèche, and Malibongwe principal Doris was thrilled with the result. 

At Simunye Crèche where the children are slightly older, volunteers were able to pick up where they left off last time we taught there. The large number of children has proven to be quite a handful but our volunteers have risen to the challenge. 

After a review week to recap and gage what the children can remember from our last visit, the volunteers have taught oral hygiene, garbage pick-up and how to use the toilet. Each child at Simunye Crèche has their own toothbrush and cup of water that they can use to brush their teeth each day with the help of the volunteers. 

Having been brought to African Impact's attention about the cleanliness of the toilets, community coordinator Shwele cleaned the 'long drop' toilets at the creche to the delight of the children who can now actually use them instead of going to the toilet outside. 

Preparing for Ezwenelisha Support Group.

Support Group

We have had an interesting few support groups these past four weeks. Volunteers planned the topic 'discrimination' to discuss with the members of the Khula Support Group over a three-week period and once at Ezwenelisha. The different support groups interpreted the topic in different ways and took the discussion in different directions such as discrimination between rich and poor, discrimination between employed and unemployed and discrimination based on one's HIV status.

The Ezwenelisha Support Group garden is still going strong, with members still taking home vegetables each week. The group has also had some interesting discussions about Zulu culture, mostly stemming from a wedding attended by the volunteers. The Gogos in particular gave some great insight into what it was like when they got married. 

Sadly, the end of this month saw the passing of Khula Support Group member Dolly's son. Volunteers spent the morning at Dolly's house with her fellow support group members to offer condolences and show their support during this difficult time.

10 Families

Volunteers have been hard at work creating new gardens for our 10 Families. This month Sibusiso and Cute Baby Mama both received gardens with spinach, cabbage and chilli's. 

Sibusiso has gained 4.5kg over the month of September. Volunteers have reported that he is looking very good, has been going for longs walks and says he feels great! Furthermore, Cute Baby Mama has gained 3.5kg throughout September even though she was battling with the flu earlier in the month. She has also been warmly welcomed as a member of the Ezwenelisha Support Group.

The Gogo of the Zikhale family from our 10 families program has been experiencing difficulties with her 11 year old granddaughter not wanting to help around the house. Nokwethemba and volunteers spent an hour with the Zikhele Family one Friday afternoon as Gogo shared her story. 

Gogo Zikhale has also fallen and hurt her ankle and as a consequence has been unable to look after her grandchildren to the best of her ability meaning she could not make them their Epap resulting in the family loosing weight from the previous week. However, the family are still gaining compared to two weeks prior and this is being closely monitored. It has been suggested that Gogo Zikhale join Khula Support group to have additional support from African Impact and the members of her own community.

Medical volunteer Tucker giving a 'Khula environmental
initiative' speech to one week's participants.

Garbage Pick-Up 

In other news, our Garbage Pick-Up is fast becoming one of our most popular projects among volunteers and members of the community. 

To regulate the vast number of participants (57 showed up one week alone), it was decided that we would put a cap on the number of people that could take part at any given time. The Khula community was informed that 15-20 participants could take part in the Garbage Pick-Up.

Upon completion of three afternoons on the programme, the participant will receive a certificate of appreciation. 

Each week volunteers deliver a 'Khula environmental initiative' speech composed by volunteers Tiago and Sarah, which is meant to educate the members of the programme on the advantages of keeping their community clean. 

So far, we have had 28 members of the Khula community receive garbage certificates and over 40 members have taken part in one or more garbage pick-ups. This project is a great way for volunteers and the community to see a difference being made straight away, to spend time with one another (volunteers have reported that their Zulu is improving because of this) and also to walk through the beautiful community that is Khula.

Keeping checking back for more updates from the month of September...