So as quickly as August came and went, so did September and the end of term 3! We can’t believe we are so close to the end of another wonderful year of fun and learning.
I want to start by sharing a story of hope; one of our children who receive mentorship and home support from us starting attending ES in about June. As we got to know her, it was discovered that she had been raped in the months prior to attending and her mother felt helpless in the situation. This is her story of hope and a renewed childhood through God’s love shown by ordinary people…
Luyanda (not real name) is in Primary School and has been attending Ed Support since the middle of the year. She was referred to ES by one of our ES workers, who told her mother about the help that was offered to children. She became interested and decided to allow her daughter to attend. Luyanda loves attending because it is fun and she feels safe! Luyanda and her family receive support through the Starfish funding in the form of mentorship and food parcels monthly.
When Luyanda first started attending she was very shy and withdrawn, sticking very much to one ES Worker she knew and not mixing with other children. Due to her family’s needs and her personal withdrawn characteristics she was highlighted as a child to received mentorship. As her mentor got to know her and her mother, visiting their home, it was discovered that Luyanda was raped in the year prior to attending the ES Programme and this understandably caused great trauma and caused her to withdraw from children her own age and majority of adults. Luyanda’s mother knew about the incident but didn’t know what to do to access support for her daughter and was too scared to go to the police to report it. Luyanda’s mentor was able to work with Luyanda, her mother and a social worker and link Luyanda to counselling and support locally. Despite the trauma she has faced she has she still has a huge smile on her face and is beginning to make friends and gain confidence in herself again. Luyanda’s mother is also amazed in the personal development and changes she has seen within Luyanda; she will now able to open up and chat about struggles and she can tell that she feels loved and special despite having faced so much pain.
Luyanda loves Fridays at ES because she has so much fun playing games and colouring in. Education Support has helped with developing her reading skills and she is more confident reading and enjoys reading a lot, but more than that, it has given her a safe space to be a child, to learn, to be loved and know the love of other’s and God.
This month we have had two volunteers arrive from Germany and they are here for a whole year! We are so excited to have Annalena and Annette with us. They have finished school in Germany and decided to spend a year in South Africa before heading to university. Annalena loves eating pasta, playing football and reading and Annette enjoys eating pizza and chocolate and singing, writing and reading. They have both loved getting involved in the ES Programme and the opportunity to teach and encourage the kids.
We have also had Nompilo and Nomfundo join us for three afternoons a week, they are two social studies students who are passionate about education and want to spend some time teaching whilst they are studying. They have been supporting in our Maths sessions. Also join the team this month is Mama Bongi who is a retired primary school teacher. Mama Bongi retired last December and after a bit of rest has wanted to get involved in her community and supporting learners. She heard about the Education Support Porgramme through some of her school learners and came to volunteer her time. Mama Bongi now leads our small group support sessions for children who are struggling to grasp basic language concepts. We love having both international and local people get involved who are passionate about education.
We have been learning lots about living healthily and looking after our bodies too. Katherine, a nurse at Ethembeni has been doing basic health tests on everyone coming to the Education Support Programme (which actually have been a bit fun) and she has also been teaching us about the importance of eating healthily, cleaning our teeth, what HIV, AIDS and TB are, looking after our bodies, why drinking water is important, why we need vitamins and minerals and lots of other important health lessons. We have had lots of fun learning form Katherine at the end of each day and putting into practice what she has been teaching us.
In September we also celebrated Heritage Day. Here are some of the pictures from our celebrations…
This next term (our last term of 2017!) and the one with lots of exams, has come round quickly. For term 4 all sessions and groups are focusing on preparing for exams and doing lots of exam practice so that when the exams start they are not as scary. We are excited about practicing for the exams and all the games and activities that will be done as practice. The kids enjoy the exam practice sessions because with each one they feel more and more equipped and their confidence grows.
Lessons. Experiences. Life. 