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.