Reading Power Programme Progress Report – May 2011

We find it a blessing to be facilitators of the reading programme. We are motivated to get up every morning and plan for the day ahead. Our minds are full of SizaBantwana and the children. We always ask God to make us useful vessels in the lives of the children in our community. It is our desire that the children will not find themselves in the state of vulnerability as we were as children growing up. Each and every day we grow to love and appreciate each one of the children (we call them our children). As Africans we say “it takes a community to raise a child”.

Precious & Minky - Programme Facilitators

Gone should be those days when it was said “if you want to hide something from an African, put it in a book”. When I think of the Reading Power Programme I see hope for now, and for the future of our children. Our dream is to eradicate illiteracy and poor understanding of English, because English is the language of the world.

Dreaming
On Friday 13 May 2011, eighteen of our children presented their life dream posters to us. It was good to hear the children trying their best to express themselves in English as they presented their life dreams.

It all starts with dreaming and then doing something about your dreams. We encourage the children to dream positively and to see light at the end of the tunnel; to see beyond their poverty and vulnerability and to tell themselves that they will not suffer like their ancestors did.

Reading is power
We are proud of our new library. Children can now read at the centre, and soon our children will start borrowing some books. Four children showed interest to be trained on the basic functioning of a library. We plan to train them in early June 2011.

SizaBantwana was blessed by a donation of two new laptops. These laptops were bought from donations made by Summerhill Primary School, near Hazyview, and by Pinetree Secondary School, Vancouver Canada. This will help us to reach and support more children.

Lotto Grant
SizaBantwana has recently secured a grant from Lotto (the National Lotteries Board) to fund the running cost of our reading programme for one year. The first payment was received during May 2011. This has enabled us to dedicate Minky Makhubedu-Mashego to this programme, and we will now be able to facilitate the reading programme for more children.

We would like to thank everyone who is making it possible for us to run this programme.

Kind regards,
Minky Makhubedu Mashego
SizaBantwana Project Co-Ordinator
Tel: 072 250 9304