July Monthly Update

July has been a busy month here in St. Lucia! The beginning of peak season is always an exciting time with the prospect of lots of volunteers, lots of donations and heaps of enthusiasm! A full house has meant we have been able to facilitate extra projects, finish a lot of maintenance work and venture out on new and exciting projects.

Our 'Ocean Sizzler' graduates receiving their certificates!

On our Medical Outreach and HIV Awareness project we have had a very busy month at the clinic seeing a huge 1058 patients! Volunteers have been able to go to clinic almost every day to the delight of the staff there. In relation to Adult HIV Education, with the increase of volunteers we have had the pleasure of enlarging the number of classes in and around St. Lucia. Three classes a week have been taking place with two of them each week being held at stores of local businesses in St. Lucia. The staff have loved having volunteers go to their work place and teaching them all about HIV/AIDS. The total number of students passed this month including our regularly scheduled classes  39.  The good news does not stop here!

Volunteer Rian at creche with one learner 

On our Orphan Day Care and HIV Education project not only have we been able to go to more HIV classes we have also been able to start a second afternoon of Reading Club! Volunteers and children alike are thrilled that Reading Club is now on a Tuesday as well and kids have been coming to read purely for pleasure and love improving their English and reading skills. This month 11 children have reached their bronze certificates and four have achieved their silver. A few are very close to gold which we are all very excited about. This month we have seen some fantastic lessons at various crèches, a stand out lesson was one Friday morning at Inkanyezi where the kids learnt about and made volcanoes! This was a huge success and a definite keeper for the future.

The Vulnerable Children and Rural Families Support project rejoined Ezwenelisha Afterschool Club after breaking for a while, all the kids and Thembe where extremely happy to have us back. Volunteers planned face painting and loads of crafts for the kids to do, and with the help of Zakhele everyone has an amazing time. Volunteers have also been able to complete an incredible amount of refurbishments - including building a ramp, making shelves and erecting signs and fences at one of our support group gardens.

The 360 team outside Inkanyezi Creche

We were pleased to welcome back the 360 travel group this year to our projects. Last year this young group of hard working individuals helped build Inkanyezi Crèche and really got the project under way. This year the students and their team leaders made 216 bricks, build and painted shelves which were erected, completed murals on the inside and out of the crèche, taught lessons, picked up 36 bags of garbage in one afternoon and had an amazing afternoon at Reading Club! All this within four days!! A huge thank you to all that were involved, having you all here really makes a huge difference and we are all very appreciative.

This is only a tiny percentage of all the amazing work that has gone on this month and everyone at African Impact is hugely appreciative of all the work volunteers have put in and we are all excited for what the last few weeks of peak season will bring!