Earth Day success

Some volunteers with members of the community that
came out to help clean up Khula on Earth Day.

Volunteers and staff took it on board to celebrate internationally-recognised Earth Day on the 22 April by organising a community garbage collection. The volunteers made posters the week before and posted them around the Khula community. 

Volunteers and staff were joined by members from Ezwenelisha, Mother's, and Khula support groups, community workers, the councillor (a politician in the local area) and various other people totalling 59 individuals. Everyone worked hard in the morning collecting garbage and together we collected 62 massive bags of trash! We concluded the morning with fruit, juice and a speech about the importance of caring for our environment. 

Following the event, volunteers delivered environmentally-themed topics on various projects such as recycling and plastic bottle crafts. The below description is an example of what the volunteers suggested as an alternate life for a plastic bottle..

Mosquito/Insect Trap

Click here to see a photo of a completed mosquito trap.

Cut the top (just before the start of the cone) off a 2 litre bottle.

Invert the cone and place it inside the straight part of the bottle.

Glue the two pieces together, using a glue or silicon.

Add 1 tsp yeast and 1/2 cup sugar to some luke warm water, and pour the mixture into the bottle.

Mosquitoes are attracted to the carbon dioxide that you exhale. The yeast feeds off the sugar and emits the same gas, so the mosquito enters the bottle, thinking she will find food there. The little critters cannot then get out. 

Volunteer blog: Francien

I’ve been in South Africa for 2 months now, and I can’t believe I’m halfway trough my time here in St. Lucia. Only 4 weeks left! Time flies by when you’re having fun.


I started my volunteer work here at the medical projects and I will switch to the education project next week. Because there are more education volunteers right now, I probably will continue helping with some medical projects as well, which I definitely don’t mind because I love the medical projects. It can be hard sometimes, though. 

Before I went to St. Lucia I was at the project in Thanda with animals and I have to say that I feel more sad here sometimes because of all the things that I see. Like very sick patients, but I still see them smiling and thinking positive. 

It is starting to get winter here and I felt so sorry for the people in their non-insulated houses with holes everywhere because it was quite cold last week. 

Two weeks ago two patients in Ezwenelisha died and last week we saw a new Home Based Care patient with meningitis. He looked so sick... And it’s sad to see when people from 10 families are losing weight (what happened last week in Khula for a few patients). 

You want to do more sometimes, but you can’t. I have to remember myself that the patients appreciate every minute we’re there, even if we just talk to them and be supportive. And it feels so good to see when patients are doing better. 

For example, seeing the 10 families gaining weight or seeing children and adults pass for their HIV certificate. People tell us sometimes that they’ve got hope that their child or family member will survive after we visited them and that is one of the things we always try to accomplish: keep the families and patients positive. 

Last week we went to Rose, a woman with Kaposi's Sarcoma in her foot and leg and she wasn’t able to move for a very long time (she also had TB). Last week, after being given some crutches through the Happy Africa Foundation, she showed us she can walk again with her crutches! So she’s doing much, much better now. She said the nutrient drinks we gave to her give her strength to start walking again. 

On Monday I finished my part for the HIV primary school education and two other volunteers took it over. They all wanted to go on the picture with me and the next day they asked where I was. It’s always nice to hear when the children liked you. 

I surprised them on Thursday when I went to a new project at primary school called Girls' Club. And there were some girls from the HIV education that were glad to see me again. The 30 girls seemed a little bit shy in the beginning, but when we eventually started with pimping their journals with glitters, stickers and other stuff we brought they were getting crazy! I think this Girls' Club will be a very big success. 

I’ve been to the clinic three times this week and we finally were donated new thermometers to use for the children. They are forehead thermometers and are so quickly to use. So especially on immunisation day when a lot of babies and children are coming, our new thermometers will save a lot of time. 

It was a good week and our volunteer group consists of different people and that makes it a very nice group. I will enjoy my last four weeks here and I’ll never regret or forget the time I’ve been here.

Follow Francien on her own personal blog here. 

Girls' Club begins!

Today, project manager Alanna and volunteer Francien headed to the local primary school to launch a new project available for our 'Vulnerable Children and Rural Family Support' project volunteers. 

'Girls' Club' involves 30 girls from the local primary school, who applied and were chosen for the programme by the deputy principal of the school. They will meet each week with volunteers and staff from African Impact to partake in crafts, activities and discussions relating to the empowerment of women and girls. 

We're very excited about this new project, and look forward to spending the rest of the year with the amazing girls we met today. Check out the following photos of today's first meeting.  

An important component of Girls' Club includes journaling - where the girls will write down their thoughts and feelings after a discussion. Today's topic was about the future, and the girl's were given the following quote to discuss and journal about: 

"The future belongs to those to prepare for it today." - Malcolm X

Not only were the girls given their booklets and their first topic today, they were also given time to decorate their journals. This was the highlight of the day, as the girls worked for over half an hour on giving their books a personal touch.

The session lasted an hour and a half, and the girls happily posed for a picture and cleaned up the classroom before heading home for the day - after a snack and juice, of course!

Volunteers thrill with themed Holiday Club

It was school holidays during the first week of April here in South Africa, so the volunteers organised a day camp for the kids in the Ezwenelisha community. Here is the update on how 'Holiday Club' went, written by current Education volunteer Bea. 

Day 1

Our week of Holiday Club started off by bringing out the competitive side of all the children (and maybe the volunteers…) with “sport” as our theme. The day was filled with egg and sack races, bowling, jumping over sticks and a fairly clean round of the very popular 'Soap Game.' A fun day for everyone, that ended with snacks and big smiles for all the children.

Day 2

As the second day of Holiday Club began, we set our sights on putting in an effort to help our planet with “Earth Day” as our theme. Even though Mother Nature wasn’t on our side to begin with by giving us a pretty rainy morning during our trash hunt, the day turned out fantastic with a lot of recycling and learning. After picking up trash and learning how long it takes for it to decompose, the children got to make “I heart Earth”-pins as well as flowers and pen holders out of recycled plastic bottles and cans. A green and successful day for all participants we would say, and especially our planet.

Day 3

Day three started out pretty wild with all the children joining our Circle of Life for animal charades as an introduction to our third theme of the week – animals. After some impressive animal impersonations we moved on to playing “Crocodile cross the river” which got even the youngest ones in the group running around. As most of the children moved on to playing the very popular “Chunky monkey” game, the rest went with two of our volunteers to get their faces painted. Once they were happily painted as animals to stick to the theme, the rest of the children got their faces painted as well. Sixty butterflies and leopards later the children lined up for some appreciated juice and cookies after spending a fun day in the animal kingdom. 

Day 4

The grand finale of our week of Holiday Club was grand to say the least. The boys and girls had been preparing all week for the coolest (and possibly the cutest) activity so far, “Ezwenelisha's got talent." Some impressive talents took the stage and the day was filled with singing and traditional Zulu dancing, making it very difficult for the judges to vote. Once the winners had been crowned, a happy mix of both boys and girls who came in first, second and third place received some pretty cool prizes as well as everyone who participated and we managed to create a nice combination of children and sugar. In other words, we had a great ending of an amazing week filled with fun activities and a lot of smiles! 

Click here to see a video of the last day at Holiday Club!

Click here to see more photos from Holiday Club. 

Dinner with African Impact: Jollof Rice

The African dish that everyone loves and no one can agree on!

Whether you add okra, plantain or fish comes down to fiercely held regional preferences, but all varieties have one thing in common – they're delicious.

If you assemble the below ingredients it can serve 4-6 people. This is a recipe ideal for university students who find themselves on a tight budget! There are a few variations of this at the bottom if you were interested...

Ingredients

• Oil -- 1/4 cup
• Chicken, cut into pieces -- 1 1/2 pounds
• Water or stock -- 5 cups
• Onions, chopped -- 2
• Red or green bell pepper, chopped -- 1
• Garlic, minced -- 3 or 4 cloves
• Long-grain rice -- 3 cups
• Tomato paste -- 1/4 cups
• Tomatoes, chopped -- 2 cups
• Carrots, peeled and chopped -- 2
• Green beans -- 1 cup
• Cabbage, chopped -- 1 cup
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Heat the oil over medium-high flame in a large pot. Working in batches, add the chicken and brown on all sides. Remove the chicken to another large pot and add the water or stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.
2. While the chicken simmers, pour all but 2 to 3 tablespoons of oil out of the first pot. Heat the oil over medium flame, add the onions and peppers and sauté until the onions are wilted and translucent, 4 or 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for another 1 to 2 minutes.
3. Stir the rice into the onions and peppers and heat through for another 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste to coat the rice and give it a reddish hue. Add the chopped tomatoes and let them cook down for 2 or 3 minutes.
4. Pour in the chicken and its simmering liquid into the rice pot and add the carrots, green beans and cabbage. Season well with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover tightly and simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Remove from heat, let rest another 10 minutes. Remove to a serving platter and serve with dodo, sliced hard-boiled eggs and a side salad.

Jollof Rice Variations

• There are many variations of jollof rice. Feel free to improvise using what you meats and vegetables you have on hand. Try beef, ham, shrimp, fish, goat or pork. For vegetables, add peas, potatoes, eggplant or mushrooms
• Beef Jollof Rice: Substitute cubed stewing beef for the chicken. After browning the beef, simmer in liquid for 45 minutes before adding to the sautéed rice mixture.
• Vegetarian Jollof Rice: Simply eliminate the meat and stir hot water or vegetable stock into the sautéed rice mixture.
• Optional spices that can be used to flavor the dish are cinnamon, curry powder or cayenne. Some minced chile peppers can be sautéed with the onions to add extra bite.

Monthly Update: March

Fun at creche with leapfrog!

The third month of 2013 has passed! We have had volunteers entering from all corners of the globe this month including Belgium, Israel, Sweden, Holland and Britian. These volunteers have brought with them an abundance of ideas and enthusiasm and we are thrilled to report back how March unfolded...

Crèche

Time for the Education volunteers this March was split between finishing lesson plans for Simunye Crèche before rotating onwards for the following two weeks at Malibongwe Crèche.

In the final weeks at Simunye Crèche we were unable to carry out 'Child Assessments' as we previously had for Khula Nomathiya as there were no children about to hit primary school the following year. We were unfazed by this as we knew our volunteers were working hard at creating lesson plans to cater for the younger ages and the larger classroom size.

In the final weeks the children at Simunye Crèche had lesson plans surrounding family members, wild animals, ocean animals, transport modes and water safety. Highlights for the children were without a doubt the much loved 'Apple Game' for their healthy food topic, games of leap frog as a fun sports day activty and finger painting fish for their ocean animals topic.

Volunteers were a little relieved after a busy Simunye Crèche to be placed at Malibongwe Day Care, where fewer children have allowed for a more intimate teaching environment. 

The children at Malibongwe Crèche started with a lesson of review followed by lessons on 'Myself', identifying boys and girls, 'My Family' and learning about different rooms in a house. Some of the highlights for these children have so far been sports day activities, playtime fun and mask making.

We continue to visit Inkanyezi Crèche every Friday afternoon. Mama Gumede and her children are thrilled with the lesson plans that our March volunteers had compiled, and pleased for the help received from volunteers in preparing her garden for the growing season.

Malwande enjoying some time in class at creche.

Malwande update

Malwande, one of our 4-year-old home based care patients, has continued to be accepted into each crèche we rotate to. Malibongwe Crèche has welcomed her with open arms and the children are very kind and loving towards her. We are very pleased to report that Malwande no longer needs a chair with armrests to sit in which we view as a small milestone. 

For all our avid Facebook followers, we were pleased to post a small clip of Malwande exercising her legs with volunteer coordinator Monique! We received loads of feedback on this clip from past and current volunteers that her progress brought tears to their eyes.

Reading Club

Reading Club has been incredible amounts of fun!

Our first registration had 52 readers attend, and we collected their name and their age for our records. The large number of children in attendance has not dimmed the positive attitudes of any volunteers with everyone taking the flood of readers in stride. Volunteers spread their time between children and rotate between groups to ensure that their time is shared equally.

As a reader completes a book with volunteer, they check-in with the registration desk again to have the book signed off on their reading card. We have introduced a bronze certificate given after 5 books have been read, a silver certificate after 15 books have been read, and a gold certificate after 30 books have been read. This is something the children and volunteers are very excited to work towards, and at the end of every month we will hand out any due certificates and with our eager readers.

  

Afterschool Club

The children attending After School Club are having a blast! Our March volunteers spent a total of 25 hours with the children in Khula, with an average attendance of around 40 children. 

 The children always have a great time kicking the balls around, playing with hoola hoops and getting help with any pressing home work.

The children's highlights this month was an afternoon of paper flower making which ended up as hair accessories, and an  afternoon of 'chalk art'!

Gardens

March was a busy month with much gardening being placed on the schedules! Volunteers attended AMREF garden, Ezwenelisha Support Group garden, Inkanyezi Creche garden, Zikhale gardens and Nomusa Gumede's garden. We can happily report that all gardens have been cleared and over 5000 seeds have been put in the ground in preparation for growing season.

Ezwenelisha Support Group were also pleased to harvest a large amount of peanuts from their garden, which were planted late last year. We're also happy to report that the group's banana plants are doing well.

Passing out donations at Mother's Support Group.

Support Groups

Our Khula and Ezwenelisha Support Groups gathered this March to spend mornings catching up on various topics. Volunteers prepared topics including memory loss, healthy foods, a recap of HIV/AIDS and the Khula support group were happy to be invited into a member's house for a prayer group.

Mother's Support Group were incredibly complimentary of the information that medical volunteers Gun and Heny had been researching for the group meetings at the beginning of March. They said they 'proved to be true and practical and they were really helpful'. They were also ecstatic to receive some donations of clothes and teddy bears for their little tots - a very moving moment for one volunteer Eva in particular who was handing over the first clothes she had ever given to her grandchildren.

From Home-Based Care, Home Assistance is born!

One of our goals for the quarter was to spend more time with our Home-Based patients. From this goal has born a new project we are referring to as 'Home Assistance'. This has allowed us to allocate time to spend with families that we notice from our Home-Based Care visits are falling behind on their house chores whether due to their own sickness or their children's sickness.

This month volunteers have spend a considerable amount of time assisting the Zikhale family which has brought both the family and volunteers alike some great delight. This project allows us to help spend time washing, cleaning, mopping, gardening and even doing home repairs and refurbishments. Stay tuned over the next few months we will be doing some great work for our families in their homes. 

10 Families

We are very proud of our 10 Families programme and the ability it provides us to be able to monitor at risk families by taking bicep measurements and weight.

Our March example of this are the children of Pendukhle. We noticed that three of her children had gradually been losing weight over the month of March. This alerted us that the children likely are suffering from intestinal worms and we were able to source the correct syrup for each of the children to rectify this and ensure the children's weight gain gets back on track.

Two original 10 Families ladies, Nomusa Gumede and Malina Dhembe, have regularly been attending our Ezwenelisha Support Group. As one of our aims of the support groups is to support each other through friendship and trust we are pleased that the ladies can confide their problems with our group members.