Born Free/Shamwari Education Blog – May 2011
General
School program at education centre
This month we had 168 learners visit our centre which is a bit slow but we are nearing exams which has a big impact on our bookings. We have some really good news too. We are getting a new game viewing vehicle for our program!!! Our new vehicle is much safer as it has seatbelts and a roof canvas for shade. We are all excited to see it but sad to let our old vehicle go that has served us so well.
Eastern Cape Forum for Environmental Education and Sustainability
The forum had a meeting at Addo National Park to discuss the proposed Youth Summit for later this year. We have found a possible venue in area called Chinsta in the Eastern Cape, lovely holiday resort near the sea. For many of these children coming from the rural areas it will be the first time they will see the ocean. We still have a lot planning and fundraising to do as a youth summit for 100 people is quite a big undertaking at least we have experience from last years summit (see September 2010 blog).
- We say goodbye to our old samil
Global Friends
Wow what a great month it has been for our Global Friends Project! Friday 06/05/2011 is a day the learners and staff of Môreson Primary will never forget. For the first time since they have been in school (and for many years for before that) each learner has his or her own desk and chair. All thanks to two very generous people, Gerry and Douwe Helfrich who paid for the transport of a container full of second hand furniture from Holland to South Africa. The school is completely dependent on government funds as there are no school fees. Before the arrival of the 175 tables and 255 chairs classes containing 40 plus learners had to share a few broken chairs and tables, some of the classes had no furniture at all. Learners had to do activities such as writing on the floor which hinders learning.
Our Global Friends Funds are limited and the schools’ needs are exceedingly great so we often have to rely on outside sponsorship. So when Mr. Paul Gardiner from the Mantis Collection contacted to us to let us know that someone was sending us a container full of furniture we were absolutely ecstatic! Gerry and Douwe are old contacts of Paul who have sent over 150 containers full second hand furniture from European schools to Africa. The saying that says one man’s waste is another man’s treasure is definitely true in this case. The schools dispose of their old furniture and instead of throwing it away they give it to Gerry and Douwe to send to schools and I must say there old furniture looks brand new to us.
So now the learners can sit at a desk and do their work something so simple that we all took for granted while we were at school. A very big thanks to all who were involved in sending us the furniture and the Worldwide Experience volunteers who helped us off load the container, sort the furniture and carry it to the classrooms.
- WWE volunteers hard at work off loading the furniture
- Checking up on previous WWE volunteers work who helped paint this TV room sponsored by our Global Friends Grant
- Learners very excited to finally have their own chair and desk
We have been working really hard on our library project at Sandisulwazi High School. We have decided to call it Fundu Library Project, Fundu is the Xhosa (local language spoken in the Eastern Cape) word for read. We have purchased almost everything for the library now; furniture, shelving, two brand new laptops, lighting, burglar bars and security gates, a ladder to reach high books and other bits and bobs that a library needs. The World Wide Experience students have been instrumental in this project. They have been coming almost every Friday morning this month to help me and we are really progressing well thanks to all their efforts. So far we have painted the container, put in burglar bars and security gates, put up and connected electricity, assembled furniture and we are almost done with the shelving.
- WWE volunteers assembling the furniture for the library
- Amos from Shamwari’s Conservation team and the WWE volunteers hard at work making the library secure with burglar bars and security gates
- A Môreson learner remembering what the WWE volunteers and I taught them during our Water Day celebrations (see March 2011 blog). Washing dishes in bucket saves a lot of water!
Eco-schools
The schools are all carrying on with their projects and working hard. Things were a bit crazy this month so we never got a chance to have a meeting but we will have to have one soon. The vegetable garden at Sandisulwazi is coming along well the WWE volunteers are checking up on it every Friday that the come to help me with the library and our seeds have all come up and soon we will have to replant them. The bountiful rains we have had this month has also contributed greatly to the growth of the garden.
FGASA Workshops
FGASA workshops are progressing well and participants wrote the first internal midway exam with an average of 59% which is not bad as standard was high and it is the first exam most of them have written since school
- Students concentrating very hard on their exam
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