Let 2014 Begin!!

The first two months for us in St. Lucia African Impact has been a whirlwind of awesomeness! So much has been happening and we’ve already seen 25 volunteers from all over the world already pass through our doors and put their epic stamp on the African Impact St. Lucia projects.  We are well on our way to achieving our quarterly goals and we are excited at all the enthusiasm that goes into making it all happen.

ISV Volunteers working hard on the final touches

A huge success was seeing the completion of ‘The Blue House’ after it was totally destroyed by a storm last November. With a huge thanks to the ISV team (an Australian university group) who were instrumental in raising funds in November, which helped replace the roof and repair structural damage. Another ISV team came through again in January and put the finishing touches by helping sand, plaster and paint the house transforming it into a beautiful new home for the family of 7. Thanks a million to all the volunteers and their families who were involved in making this happen!

The Rural Healthcare and HIV/AIDS Awareness project has seen developments to the Nutrition project with more of a focus on educating patients surrounding basic healthcare and positive living that will directly benefit them. Volunteers have been working hard on short information packs revolved around subjects such as, ‘double boiling water’, ‘healthy food’ and ‘exercises’. Topics have also been prepared for individual needs, for example, patient Veronic will be taught more about the cancer she has and how it is specifically affecting her body.  Combined with these topics patients have each been set a series of individual goals, once they have completed these volunteers will assist them with building a garden and a tippytap directed at improving their lifestyles in a sustainable way.

Volunteer Freya helping out at Reading Club

Volunteers from the Orphan Day Care and HIV Education project have been busy with Reading Club!! The first Reading Club of the year saw 75 children attend, we started with a simple come and read session with no certificate goals in sight, we just wanted to get the kids back and excited about reading again and oh how they were! Following this, volunteers had prepared new sign off sheets and reading member cards and registration got underway. With over 120 children registered volunteers are making sure as many children as possible are getting the chance to reach their reading goals as part of the Zulu Readers for Zulu Leaders program. 

This year two new certificates have been brought into play, diamond and platinum, with this comes extra tasks such as roleplays on their favorite books.. Watch this space!

Volunteers assisting the three borthers

We are happy to announce that the Vulnerable Children and Rural Family Support has seen an awesome progression with our 10 Families Project. The project receiving a revamp and the results are very exciting – with three families identified as vulnerable, volunteers and staff are working closely to assist with specific needs for each family. Whether it is education, assisting in and around the home, healthcare or helping the parents or guardians apply for grants, write CVs or giving the basic English lessons, everyone is benefiting from an afternoon visit dedicated just to them. 

We have so far helped the ‘three brothers’  (11, 8, 5) who have never received any formal education access the enrollment process to begin school.  It was such a special moment when we were able to provide the three boys with their first school uniforms! Massive thank you to all the assistance with fundraising through The Happy Africa Foundation for our ’10 Families’ focal project.

The Happy Africa Foundation (THAF) is constantly working hard to assist our projects here in St. Lucia and we wouldn’t be able to do the work we do without the generous donations. In the past two months we have had an incredible amount of donations come in and we have made sure they fine great new homes. 225 nappies were distributed to nine crèches and two clinics along with 144 items of clothing to After School Clubs and heaps of toys, books and stationary as well. THAF has also raised ZAR 3870 through various events in St. Lucia.  We are currently on the hunt for a new THAF Intern… if this is something you would be interested in then take a look at the intern page and drop us an email. Interning is a great opportunity to learn and experience new and amazing things while working within the beautiful communities that surround St. Lucia.

Overall the start of 2014 has been great and with the help of fantastic volunteers the rest of the year is set to roll out perfectly!