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!