In the last month, we have continued to work towards UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, with a special focus on Goal number 3 – Good Health and Well Being. This has taken shape through our initiative to start providing afterschool workshops with a special focus on WaSH and healthy eating.
Our new volunteers made sure that learning is enjoyable by having the children standing in a circle and passing a ball covered in glitter. Through this fun activity, our volunteers managed to illustrate how fast germs travel from one person to the next and that we must make sure that we wash our hands regularly. The workshop continued with our volunteers’ introducing a new washing-our-hands-song which is perfect for the children who all love to sing and dance!
By including rhymes and songs in our workshops, GVI helps the children to find easy ways to remember how to stay clean and healthy. It has been amazing for the local teachers, our staff and volunteers to see how the children continue to sing the song every day when they wash their hands before eating lunch!
GVI has however not stopped by simply focusing on the importance of washing our hands. We have covered many topics in our WaSH workshop including the topics of brushing our teeth and catching our sneeze. These WaSH workshops had been followed with discussions and games regarding healthy eating. During these healthy eating-inspired workshops the younger children counted, drew and wrote about our favourite fruits and vegetables whilst the older grades played healthy-food inspired trivia and word searches.
What makes our planning efforts worth it, is the joy the children see in the program and that they don’t want to pack away the activity at the end of the day as they are having too much fun!
The exceptional turn-out rate for the for the afterschool program shows the emphasis the community places on learning whilst taking every opportunity to ensure that the children stay healthy!
