When we look back at what has happened throughout this year we are encouraged. The hand of the Lord was with us. We have been able to support over 80 children with the Reading Power Program.

Supporting, encouraging and motivating the children continued to be our culture at our Reading Power Programme. Coming back from maternity leave I was surprised by the enthusiasm the children continued to have on the programme.

The reports show that many of our children have improved a lot with their reading, comprehension and correct spelling. However, there are some of them who need constant support before we can see good results. We are grateful that we can be there for them. We feel glad to wake up every morning knowing that each day is an opportunity to make a difference in their lives.

We had a day of THANKSGIVING and GRADUATION on the 6 Dec 2011 at the Alliance Church of Marite.

We handed out reports of progress to each child who attended the program. The children were very excited. It was a good day, celebrating in various ways, music, dance,poems,talk shows etc. Primary caregiver/guardians were invited and between 25 and 30 of them attended.

We are grateful to the Lord for the donation of two laptops from Joshua Door Furniture Shop in Hazyview. In total, we now have seven laptops to facilitate the Reading Power Programme.

Accessible library

Our library is open to borrow out books to the children since the beginning of August 2011. “We enjoy working in the library and we learn a lot from the books we are reading said the SizaBantwana Library Prefects (SLP)”. Together with our library prefects we encourage the children to borrow out books to read at home and ask their guardians to read with them. We also train them to be responsible to bring back the books on due dates. The library will open again on the 16 January 2012.

The six of our library prefects received  certificates of LIBRARY SERVICE EXPERIENCE as well as a brand new T-shirt donated by Induna Adventures.

The Reading Power Programme will re-open the 16 Jan 2012.

We thank all who made it possible for us to run the READING POWER PROGRAM through their financial support, stationery donations and story books. Through your donation, you too took part in making a difference in the lives of these orphans and vulnerable children of the Marite /Alexandria area under the Bushbuckridge municipality in the Mpumalanga Province.

Plans for 2012

• Facilitator’s weekend training January 2012 in Pretoria. We need about R3.500.00
• Extend book shelves in our library. We need about R2.500.00
• Stationery about R300.00 pm.
• We need three more laptops to enable us reach over +/-110 children per afternoon.
• About 25 workbooks for 25 children about to start level A1 of the program @ R60 per workbook.

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

The reports show that many of our children have improved a lot with their reading ability and comprehension. We give thanks to the Lord because of that. We already see the bright future for them. However, there are some of our children who need our support a lot before we can see any good results. They are the ones who also encourage us to wake up every morning knowing that each day is an opportunity to make a difference in their lives.

Kind contribution

We are grateful for the donation of two laptops from Joshua Door Furniture Shop in Hazyview. In total we now have seven laptops to facilitate the Reading Power Programme. We are in need of R3.000.00 for licence fee and other installation related costs of the software programme.

Accessible library

Our library is open to borrow out books to the children since the beginning of August 2011.This is what our library prefects said, “We enjoy working in the library and we learn a lot from the books we are reading. We also encourage other children to borrow out books to read at home and ask their guardians to read with them.

We have our graduation and Thanksgiving Day on the 6 Dec 2011. Our children are preparing dramas, music, poems, dances etc, to make the closing ceremony enjoyable. Parents or guardians are invited as well as some community leaders. The Reading Power Programme will re-open the 9 Jan 2012.

Prayer items:

• Pray that all the preparations for the closing ceremony will go well.
• Pray that God will provide the amount needed for the licence fee for our two new laptops.
• Pray that God will help and give strength to Minky and Precious to love and support these children unconditionally.
• Pray that God will open doors, our Business Plan has been sent to DSD (Department of Social Development) for 2012/2013 funding.
• Pray that Sizabantwana as a Organization will keep on making a difference in the lives of orphans and vulnerable in the greater Bushbuckridge area.

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

SAFM radio broadcast

SAFM dedicated their whole day for SizaBantwana! They did a broadcast at Summerfields Rose Retreat & Spa about the origin and way forward of SizaBantwana. They also went to the SizaBantwana Impilo project, where they painted the buildings. SAFM also collected boxes of contributions from their listeners, including blankets from SPAR and Pizza’s from Debonairs Hazyview that they donated to the children and their caretakers. Their donation gave a big smile to the children, as they played and played… ”They Radio broadcast is just what we need to make the listeners aware of SizaBantwana. We need everybody and anybody’s help to ensure a better future for these children and everybody in South Africa.” – says Frank Mashego CEO of SizaBantwana.

Painting at the Reading project

The Pine Lake Lifestyle Resort team spend the whole morning painting the frames of the doors and windows at the SizaBantwana Reading Project. The team also wind and dust proofed the building to ensure a better experience for the learners. “These children are all going through rough and difficult times, and easily feel rejected. When they see there is other people caring and supporting them it makes them feel special again.” – says Kobus Visser from SizaBantwana. “This was a great experience and a good opportunity for us to see that every bit you give to those less fortunate gives them more happiness then you can ever imagine.  It was a privilege to put helping hands together and help Kobus Visser on this project.  I could see that everyone in the team showed extra heart and extra hand during Mandela Day.  The children’s smiling faces was reward enough to do this anytime again. ”- Cindy Pretorius from Pine Lake Lifestyle.

Food for the 208 children @ Impilo project

Sarah Neethling and her team from Sabie River Sun prepared and handed out lunch for each of the 208 children at the Impilo project. Lunch consisted out of boerewors roles, 2 different fruits and cold drinks with sweets chips as a desert. They and the team from Induna Adventures played soccer with the children, as they waited for the last children to arrive from school. The social interaction proofed beneficial to the children and the Sabie River Sun team alike, as both got an insight of different cultures and ways of live. The Induna team handed out branded T-shirts to the caretakers as a token of appreciation, since it is their voluntary effort that make sure the children are healthy, fed and schooled every day.

Renovation and implementation @ Impilo project

Induna Adventures renovated the dilapidated swings on the playground. “From the moment the last swing was fixed, until we left at 16:00, the swings never stopped. They say this is the standard operating procedure every single day. They actually need more obstacles on the playground, like a jungle gym, see-saw’s and tyres, to improve their orientational awareness. Kids love to play…” says Jurgens Lubbe from Induna Adventures. Hennie Kriek provided soccer balls, and everybody present had to kick and defend as they played as hard as they could. Some of the tables also needed some TLC by the team of Induna before they could be used as proper tables again.

The need doesn’t stop and ongoing support from anybody is welcome. Thanks to everybody that contributed in the lives of these children. We CAN make a difference!

Thanks Mandela

Thanks South Africa

Our Library

Furniture

We have gratefully received a donation of 20 chairs, 5 steel tables and a double door steel filing cabinet from SpingbokAtlas Tours and Safaris. SpringbokAtlas offers an optional community excursion to their guests visiting the Hazyview area, with the Reading Power Centre as one of points visited on the excursion. The donation was made on behalf of Springbok Atlas Tours and Safaris’ Top Agents. This donation enables us to comfortably seat all the children and makes the reading facilitation a lot easier. Thank you for your support SpringbokAtlas.

Helpers

Mandela day

National Lottery

The Reading Power Programme is financially supported by a grant by the National Lottery. The grant covers the direct operating expenses of the programme for the current financial year. This reading programme strives to assist children orphaned or made vulnerable as a result of HIV/Aids and other harsh circumstances.

It is the aim of the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF) that the grants made will make a difference to the lives of all South Africans, especially those more vulnerable. The NLDTF is dedicated to improving sustainability of the beneficiary organisations it funds.

SizaBantwana Children Benefit Organisation values this contribution from the National Lottery and jointly strives to bring hope to children in difficult circumstances.

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

The donation was made by Springbok Atlas Tours & Safaris on behalf of the following international agents:

• Page & Moy Travel Group
• Smartours
• Gate1 Travel
• Titan Travel
• Condor Travel Japan Co.Ltd
• Travel Butlers Ltd
• Grand Circle LLC
• Tourcan Vacations
• Intercontact
• Adventure World – N.Sydney
• Croydon Travel
• Cox & Kings
• The Africa Safari Co.
• Explorer – Fernreisen
• Gem Tours and Travels Pvt.Ltd
• Across – Luxury Travel & Safaris, Lda
• Wildlife Safari ( Australia )
• Snp Natuurreizen
• Corp for Professional Confrences Inc.
• Windrose Fernreisen Touristik

SizaBantwana’s Reading Power Centre

SizaBantwana Children Benefit Organisation provides care, support and empowerment services to children orphaned or left vulnerable as a result of HIV/Aids. Your support enables us to care and give hope to children who have very little in life.

]]> http://www.sizabantwana.org/2011/08/donation-by-springbok-atlas-tours-safaris-on-behalf-of-their-top-agents/feed/ 0 http://www.sizabantwana.org/2011/06/reading-power-programme-progress-report-%e2%80%93-may-2011/ http://www.sizabantwana.org/2011/06/reading-power-programme-progress-report-%e2%80%93-may-2011/#comments Tue, 21 Jun 2011 08:22:58 +0000 admin http://www.sizabantwana.org/?p=675 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

Attendants from Sizabantwana was:
• Elizabeth Mgiba
• Yvonne Mashaba
• Busisiwe Nyundu
• Minky Makhubedu-Mashego

Speaker of the day was:
• Pastor Peter Sekhonyane from Orange farm in Gauteng together with his team.

We have learned that:
• We should make prayer the foundation of our Christian living and teach our children to do so.
• We must teach our children to be specific in prayer.
• In prayer we must expect answers.
• Persistence. (pray without ceasing).
• Positioning of one’s body when praying such as kneeling, laying down, lifting up of hands.

We were also exposed to an outreach to one of the OVC (orphans and vulnerable children) centres in Masoyi (Step in Faith children’s ministry). Pastor Peter and his team demonstrated to us how to lead a group of children in Prayer and intercession.

I experienced this as very positive and important aspect of Sizabantwana’s children benefit (Ministry).

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

A derelict building before…

Full of enthusiasm and passion they worked very hard over a period of two and a half weeks, to transform a derelict building into an attractive and very suitable Reading Centre. The students were absolutely committed to the project and to making a difference in the community of Marite. The project work was preceded by months of planning and lots of effort to collect all the funding required for building materials and specialised contractors, as well as loads of books, games and toys which they collected in their community of Coquitlam.

The students working hard at the renovations.

Three teachers accompanied the students, Nancy Brown, Leslie Ikeda and Bob King. These teachers did meticulous planning to ensure that the preparation for the trip and the outcome was of a very high standard.

The refurbished building is now the new home for our Reading Power Programme.

Inside our newly refurbished Reading Power Centre

This programme aims to improve the English reading skills of primary school children. The programme is computer based and uses sophisticated reading development software designed by Reading Excellence. The programme is presented to the children that attend one of SizaBantwana’s care centres; children orphaned or made vulnerable as a result of the HIV/Aids epidemic in South Africa. This new Reading Centre together with the library which the group also started, as well as the many other items donated, will readily assist our organisation to provide an improved service to the orphaned and vulnerable children in the community that we serve.

Thank you Pinetree Secondary school and the community of Coquitlam for assisting us with our vision at SizaBantwana: to provide hope to children in a hopeless situation. We can only realise this vision through people like you that have a heart for children and a willingness to give their time and money. Your school’s Global Perspectives students clearly displayed these attributes!

We hope that South Africa, the province of Mpumalanga, and the children of Marite have created a memory and made an impact in the lives of the Pinetree Secondary’s students. They have certainly done this in ours!

New home

It had not been easy to work in a garage at Amukelane Care Centre, where food was being prepared on a daily basis, as it was very hot and not a suitable place for learning. We were hoping for a miracle. Today we witnessed that miracle with the support of a group of 26 high school students accompanied by their 3 teachers who came all the way from Pinetree Secondary School in Vancouver, Canada, and were a real blessing to us. Within a period of two weeks they had renovated a building at Moduping Primary School for our usage. Now SizaBantwana is privileged to have a dedicated Reading Power Centre. They also provided us with plenty of books to start a library as well as clothes and toys for the children. We also appreciate the partnership between SizaBantwana and the principal of Moduping Primary School with the school governing body (SGB).

Challenges
We gave the children time to rest during the school holidays and it was also an opportunity for Precious, (Precious is an assistant facilitator in the reading programme) and I, to take a break. The reading power programme is very challenging as our children are not exposed to hearing, reading and speaking English.  It is our plan to eradicate this kind of disadvantage. As an example, I was helping a grade 8 girl with reading and understanding a story about a “daddy”. I asked her if she knew the meaning of “daddy” in her own language and she told me that “daddy” meant “baboon”. I just realized that there is a lot of basic and elementary work to be done.  We encourage them to utter simple words and to read easy English story books. We also encourage children who are a bit more advanced in reading to use a dictionary for words that they do not understand.

Thank you Skukuza Primary
We are extremely grateful for the donation of books from Skukuza Primary School; about 295 books altogether.

We are facilitating the Reading Power Programme for all the children from our Amukelane project at Moduping Primary School. I am glad that our other children from the neighbouring school are comfortable to join us and to attend to their reading lessons at this school.

Inside our newly refurbished Reading Power Centre

Keep on praying with us that this programme will be of transformation in the lives of our children. We really appreciate all of your support. Your coming to visit us when you have time is, and will continue to be, of encouragement too.

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