Nceduluntu Edu-Care
Last year one of our big projects was the building of an extension onto the Nceduluntuedu-care center. Up until earlier this year, it was a blank canvas. The volunteers were aware of the curriculum objectives and started the programme with great enthusiasm. Numbers, colours, and alphabet are some of the concepts the children focus on in their pre-school years. So the volunteers have worked with the children to create an environment that reinforces these concepts. What is particularly special is the pride that the children are taking in the room. They are so pleased to see their work displayed.
Our aim to support the local curriculum goes hand in hand with supporting the local staff with ideas for teaching children. There are new staff members at the centre this year and it is great is to see them taking on new learning and joining in with some of the learning activities. Circle time, where we sing songs in English, is an important example of this. The carers are becoming more and more involved with this.
Ikhayalethemba Special Needs house
One of our goals for 2015 is to help Ikhayalethemba meet all the criteria to become fully registered as a local care centre. As part of that goal, our volunteers have been busy making and installing custom fly screens at the Special Needs house. By addressing the health issue caused by the large numbers of flies, we are able to tick off some of the health and safety aspects for registration requirements.
At Ikhayalethemba Sanctuary, the design of the windows doesn’t allow for the usual style of fly screens and there is a lot of traffic in and out of the doors so flies don’t have much difficulty getting in. After a few prototypes and a bit of experimentation, our volunteers came up with a design using mosquito netting. It was great to see the volunteers sharing ideas and working together to solve this problem for the Special Needs area.
ACJ Primary School upgrade
More recently we have also been painting the ACJ Primary School. It is going to be such a fun teaching environment when it is all done!
