Monthly Update: June I

June is done and we are into our seventh month of the year! Volunteers have travelled from Britain, America, Belgium, Sweden, Australia and Holland and have brought with them much enthusiasm. As volunteers numbers have increased the projects have gone from strength to strength and new ideas have sprung into action already. Read on to see what down in June.

Crèche

This month, education volunteer’s time was split between finishing lessons for Dukuduku crèche before rotating on to Ndabenhle. Finishing at Dukuduku meant there were a lot of activities that were undertaken - all with great success. 

The last days of Dukuduku were brilliant and included lessons surrounding family members, ABC, 123, healthy eating, oral hygiene, farm animals and wild animals creating a lot of the children's lessons to also improve their motor skills. Child Assessments were undertaken before the volunteers departed. Education volunteer Rian undertook 13 assessments and was hugely impressed by the amount of knowledge the children had absorbed. Dukuduku Crèche is primarily run by a community volunteer Thokozile who was so pleased that she requested copies of the assessments so she could show the children's carers. The volunteers left on a high note after having played the much loved 'Apple Game' and donating tooth brushes and tooth paste.

With an increase of volunteers we were able to attend two crèches before the three week holiday so not only did we start at Ndabenhle, we were also able to do an extra week at Inkanyezi.

We kick started the week at Ndabenhle with lessons surrounding 'myself', 'family members' and 'body parts'. The children excelled at the lessons prepared by volunteers, and the volunteers were very impressed to see how much the children already knew.

Now they have had a sneak preview they are itching to get back volunteers are excited to carry on their work at Ndabenhle after the three weeks of holiday club!

Holiday Club

Woohoo! We love Holiday Club! Holiday Club in Ezwenelisha was kick-started with some sweet activities surrounding themes such as animals, the environment, music and the Olympics. The volunteers' plans catered for upwards of 100 kids for the first week, which saw the return of the famous 'soap game'! 

Girls Club

Girls' Club continues to be a volunteer highlight as they get to spend the afternoon with 30 young motivated, talented and fun girls. This month the girls had a lot of exams to sit, so volunteers and Project Manager Alanna decided to keep activities pretty chilled by doing loads of fun craft-making and games. The volunteers helped the girls make butterflies out of old paper and birds from paper plates using resources from craft donations. They also all made fantastic bookmarks which they can use when studying for their exams or attending Reading Club.

Youth Day

Volunteers joined the Khula community for various sporting events held for World Youth Day which was hosted by the Councillor in Khula. The objective of the day was to encourage youth to showcase their talents and drive them down a path away from criminal activities. Volunteers were invited to join in and play a game of netball to showcase their own skills! It was a brilliant success and that ended in the volunteers being treated to some food and drink.

HIV education

Both students and adults excelled in the HIV courses with 20 students receiving certificates and 15 adults successfully completing their weekly course. In particular, volunteer Fawn really enjoyed teaching the course as she is employed in gender and sexuality at home. 

Reading Club

If we thought May was busy at Reading Club... June was busier! Volunteers were stoked to be handing out our 'Bronze' certificates; totalling 15. We have had more children edging closer to their reading goals and have now handed out 5 Silver Certificates! Our registration currently stands 256 children!

Garbage Pick Up

There were 5 Thursdays in May which meant that with the large amount of attendees assembling at Malibongwe Creche we were able to pick up 62 bags of rubbish! We handed out our first Certificate of Dedication as part of our phase 2 of Garbage Collection which meant that recipient Mama Thani, who has joined us for upwards of 8 hours over 7 garbage pickups, also received a reusable green bag and a pair of reusable gloves - all from the generous donations of volunteers!

Garbage? We think not!

Bowling using recyclable bottles as pins!

Preaching environmental sustainability is one of our key goals, and it can be seen throughout our education, medical and community projects. From reusing bottles and bags to creating fun games out of used materials, check out the following blog by Volunteer Coordinator Monique Ledger to find out how we're doing our part to save the planet! 

Our Garbage Pick Up project has really gained momentum over the last three months after a few little tweaks, including a change of location, a 7th pickup 'Certificate of Dedication' and an end-of-month 'Recyclable Goods Workshop.'

The first recyclable goods workshop was hosted by volunteers when they took to demonstrating how an old coke bottle could be turned into a mosquito trap - the attendees were mighty impressed!

What followed across various projects was brilliant. Our lovely housekeepers Mumsy and Nonhlanhla began saving everything from coffee cans and tomato cans down to yoghurt containers and old plastic bottles.

Our Khula and Ezwenelisha Support Groups also had demonstrations led by volunteers using old bottles to create mosquito traps.

The first Holiday Club of the year involved many craft making ideas - using plasticbottles to make decorative flowers and cans to make kitchen utensil holders, as well as old water bottles to create a 10 pin bowling set.

Mosquito-trap building at one of our
support groups.

After our first  'Open Community Day' was held, and at a local's suggestion, volunteers jazzed up some old corn sweetcorn cans and made them into some pretty neat collection containers to be placed in Bed and Breakfasts.

Creche plans for themes such as musical instruments have been a massive hit! Some large old coffee tins have been turned into drums, and old salad dressing containers made into maracas - great tools for the children and the teachers!

As our next Holiday Club takes place there are many more activities and planning that is being undertaken by volunteers and integrating many craft activities that can include reusing old packaging. Volunteers and staff are always on the lookout for any new ideas to use what would be discarded material and turn it into something useful.. Please slide us a line if you have any suggestions!

Guestbook entres: January - June 2013

Eva handing out donations at Mothers' Support Group.

Going through our African Impact - St Lucia Guestbook to read all the incredible entries from former volunteers is always an inspiring experience. We've decided to share some excerpts with you. Enjoy! 

“When I was a child, I always said that I would be a nurse and go to Africa to help people who didn’t have as much as I have in Sweden. Finally my dream comes true (almost 60 years later).” 

- Eva, Medical volunteer, March (Sweden)

“I was astonished with all the passion and sparks in people’s eyes. This passion and devotion can move mountains. This experience made me think that volunteering and charity work will stay in my life for a long time." - Katia, Medical volunteer, February (Russia)

“Probably the best four weeks of my life, every week something happens to make it just a little bit more amazing than the week before. If I could stay forever then you would never get rid of me." - Heny, Medical volunteer, March (England)

Chris on the Garbage Pick-Up project.

“When I’m back in Holland I think that my life will change a little bit. I’ve learned here that you have to enjoy every day of life and, when you are able, to do all the things you dreamed of. Also the word complaining is now out of my dictionary. The people here have a hard life and I’ve never heard them complaining.” - Marlein, Education volunteer, March (The Netherlands)

“Every day was a learning curve in some way, and I really have taken a lot away from this experience.” - Katie, Education volunteer, May (England)

“The original intent of naming African Impact was meant to imply that somehow you coming to Africa would make an impact and in many ways that’s true, but to tell the truth I think that Africa has left a great impact on me." - Chris, Education volunteer, May (Hawaii, USA)

Volunteer blog: Kat

Current medical volunteer Kat is keeping her own personal blog during 

her three months on our 'Medical Outreach and HIV Awareness' project. 

Follow her adventure by clicking on the link!

Monthly update: May

Fun and games at Impumelelo Creche!

May is done with and we are into our sixth month of the year! We have had volunteers from Britain, America, Belgium, Sweden, Australia and The Netherlands who have brought with them much enthusiasm. As volunteers numbers have increased the projects have gone from strength to strength and new ideas have been sprung into action by volunteers. Have a read to see how May panned out...

Crèche

Education volunteer time this May was split between finishing lesson plans for Impumelelo Crèche before rotating onwards to Dukuduku Crèche.

Finishing up at Impumelelo Crèche meant various things for the children and volunteers.

Child Assessments were undertaken before volunteer departure. Due to the large number of children heading to primary school next year we were only able to undertake assessments with 15 of the 30 children and were hugely impressed by the amount of information the young kiddies had absorbed. Teachers Thabile and Mthembe were happy to assist volunteers and were even surprised themselves when the various children were writing their names and ABC with incredible neatness. Volunteers ensured the children were very clear it was not a test so as not to stress them, and each child was happy to get a sticker for their hard efforts.

Every Friday still means a visit to Inkanyezi Crèche for lessons with the children. Inkanyezi experienced a tragic loss when a one year child passed away. It was an incredibly sad day when volunteers and staff attended a memorial at Inkanyezi to pay their respects to the family and creche. Despite the tragedy, the community surrounding the crèche really pulled together to support the child's mother, who is also a student of our Adult English Class.

The last Friday of May was International Children's Day and volunteers had spent the night before baking to bring to the children at crèche who were delighted with their cupcakes to snack on whilst decoratinglittle paddle pop people with markers and glitter.

An incredible underwater mural made by
volunteer Bea from Sweden.

Resource making for crèche

Our volunteers went to town this month on resource making! Swedish volunteer Bea led the way by kicking off the resource making with beautiful, vibrant additions to a number of creche classrooms. This month we were able to leave Impumelelo Crèche with a beautiful underwater scene for the baby room, wild animals and numbers 1-20 for the teaching rooms. We were also able to assist crèches outside of our usual crèches on monthly rotation; one run by Ezwenelisha Support Group member Mama Mbuyazi as well as another crèche run by Zamani in Dukuduku.

Girl's Club

Girls have fallen happily into the routine of journaling together every Thursday. The 30 girls spent club sessions, journaling about self-esteem building, decision making, goalsetting and craft making this month.

The last club session we were able to hand over to the girls of Girl's Club donations received through The Happy Africa Foundation including a pencil case each that contained pens, pencils, glue sticks and stickers.

Nutrition Day

African Impact partnered with the Khula Clinic to host a Nutrition Awareness Day this month. Volunteers had spent hours outside of project time to prepare a script of a play surrounding 'Foods to Avoid'. Volunteers got rather crafty with lollipop, niknaks, carrot, banana and various other items as part of their costumes. There were various guest speakers from surrounding health institutions, and the speakers and volunteers were received by upwards of 250 community members in attendance! It was a very successful day had by all and we hope that everyone got a lot of information out of the day.

Volunteer Lori and Business Manager Sonja with some
of their Adult English Class learners.

Adult English Class

The students undertaking what has expanded from a 2 month course into a 3 month course are excelling. Students are in regualr attendance and even ask volunteers for homework! This month we have edged students towards preparation for a test to finalise their lessons and are confident the students will pass with flying colours!

Reading Club

May was busy at Reading Club! Volunteers were stoked to be handing out our 'Bronze' certificates totalling 20. We had our first reader Ncamsile who read 15 books with volunteers receive a Silver Certificate! Ncamsile is one of our most regular attendees and as part of the reward for reading 15 books received some pencils, a sharpener and an eraser! Our registration currently stands 203 children with an average attendance of 52. 

Garbage Pick Up

There were 5 Thursdays in May which meant that with the large amount of attendees assembling at Malibongwe Crèche we were able to pick up 68 bags of rubbish! This month we handed out 11 Certificates of Appreciation with attendees inching closer to our first Certificate of Dedication. A Certificate of Dedication is part of our phase 2 of Garbage Collection and means that recipients have joined us for upwards of 8 hours over 7 garbage pickups, also receiving a reusable green bag and a pair of reusable gloves - all from the generous donations of volunteers!

Support Groups

In May our Khula and Ezwenelisha Support Groups carried on with English lessons and gardening respectively. Members continue to enjoy catching up with one another and participating in topics prepared by volunteers. Ezwenelisha Support Group followed Khula's example by making some mosquito fly traps from old Coca-Cola bottles. Both support groups were joined regularly by yoga instructor David from St Lucia.

Moms and tots participating in mommy-baby exercises!

Volunteers had a very cute time with the moms and tots at Mother's Support Group when they prepared mama and tot exercises. On another occasion, Mother's Support Group were treated to a 'Spa Day'. Volunteers prepared avocado facial masks and banana and sugar hand scrubs to spoil the lovely mothers. There were manicures, pedicures, massages and to top off the afternoon volunteers had drizzled fruitskewers with chocolate for everyone!

Home Assistance and Home-Based Care

A new method of tracking patients attended to on Home Assistance was created by volunteers to ensure that they can use their time to full capacity and reach patients more effectively and efficiently. Home Assistance time is spent in patients' homes helping them with daily tasks that they may be struggling to complete as a result of illness.

There have been a couple of deaths that left volunteers feeling rather upset, but there have been victories that they have been pleased to share alongside the patients. Home-Based Care visits have been a roller coasters this month and there were two rather significant things to report.

The inaugural Walking Home Based
Care crew ready to set off.

Firstly, a patient Velenkosi, who had been added to our patient list mid April has made vast improvements. Velenkosi had been misdiagnosed and sent home early from the hospital. Velenkosi was suffering meningitis that, following his misguided early discharge, rendered him blind. Velenkosi found himself depressed, without energy and lacking the nutrients to give him strength to go about daily life. Volunteers continued to visit Velenkosi to offer him hope and supply him with nutrishakes, crutches to assist walking and advice about small ways to start exercising. It was a beautiful moment when volunteers came home after a recent visit and reported to everyone that Velenkosi had began walking again. These are the precious victories we love to share with our patients!

Secondly, Home Based Care Walking has been added to the schedule. As our medical coordinator Nokwethemba and volunteers are finding themselves with an increasing amount of requests for assistance and home visits, an extra afternoon of home visits is essential. The first HBC Walking was a huge success and meant that three extra patients got to be seen for the week.

10 Families

Recent graduates from the Ezwenelisha 10 Families received graduation certificates and each a native Sausage Tree this month - an amazing accomplishment for both ladies. The first graduate, Meline, when first added was so thin and underweight and has since transformed to a strong, healthy weight. Second graduate, Nomusa, when first added couldn't lift her own child and was also incredibly underweight and since gaining 16kg is living a much healthier lifestyle and enjoying working in her thriving garden volunteers help build. Both ladies are members of our Ezwenelisha Support Group and after their graduation will continue to be monitored by our team during the weekly meetings to make sure they're maintaining the healthy lifestyle they've been enjoying.