Madiba Magic Reaching Across Generations - July 2012
South Africa's favourite grandfather, Nelson Mandela celebrated yet another victorious birthday on July 18th. The staff and children of the Ibhabhathane Community Centre committed their 67 minutes of good, which is an initiative that shares Madiba's wish for spreading happiness and good will throughout our country, to visiting the Senior Citizens Home in Riebeeck East. The staff made a huge pot of delicious chicken soup while the children helped baked and iced a birthday cake, which was all taken with on our visit to the eldest of our community. Once there - a birthday banner - was rolled out and our Gogos painted the words Happy Birthday - then the handprints - the grandpa's and grandma's painted the hands of the little ones and visa versa and printed on the banner. Old and young inserted candles in the cake. Auntie Katie lit them for us and after a thounsand birthday wishes were made, they were blown out with one puff! Happy Birthday Dearest Madiba cheered throughout Riebeeck in Xhosa, Afrikaans and English.
Sharing Nelson Madiba's Birthday was a superb start to our X-Generational learning program. Once a week the oldest and youngest of our community get together and engage in tradisional Xhosa singing, story telling, and fast forgotten crafts like beading and pottery.
Through the Generational learning program we attempt to bring the importance of Early Years Education to the attention of our elders and for the children to experience their cultural indentity and hopefully build strong relantionships that will offer a sense of belonging as they travel through their life's journey.
We were very fortunate to take a few of our children on an excursion to the world's second largest art festival, the Grahamstown Arts Festival. The AmaThembu tribe was performing their traditional dancing. The children were totally enthralled. The performers' outfits were discussed as well as the color use in the bead decorations which blended in very well with our X-generational learning.
We are very privileged to have had these experiences first hand which provide such a meaningful learning experience for our children. We thank our sponcors, donors and the powers to be who have made this possible.
Our Sincere Aprreciation
The staff and children of The Ibhabhathane Conmmunity Centre
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The Ibhabhathana Community Centre is a registered Non Profit Organisation and non-government funded. The centre has been operating in the village of Riebeeck East, Eastern Cape, SA for the last 3 years.
We understand the critical stage of human development the window period 0-4 year’s presents and it is our mission to provide a varied and nutritional programme to feed our children properly and to engage in stimulating activities that will benefit all stages of the young child’s development and thus ensure that they are well prepared for formal schooling.
The centre is unique in the sense that it is the only facility in the area that provides the above services as well as providing a safe environment where working parents can leave their children with confidence.
Since 2009, from selling second hand clothes to buy food and educational material, for the 15 children attending the centre and employing one child minder, the centre now employs 5 full time employees, operates from a 3 room fenced-in facility and offers its services to 30-40 young children age 0-4. Through the kindness of friends and donors, we were able to equip our classes with the necessary educational material and equipment, which is so essential in providing the stimulation necessary for this critical learning phase.
The digital divide in our community has always been a concern and it was a wonderful moment when we received sufficient funding from Unisys SA LTD to acquire the necessary equipment to roll out a digital programme for our staff and pupils attending the local Riebeeck East Combine School. Polaris Technologies were so kind as to install the equipment for us.
Our present school building is looking nearly new since the students from Rhodes University has adopted the Ibhabhathane Centre as their community outreach project under the brilliant leadership of Thabo Seshoka and inspired by Marion Penney. Our building received a fresh coat of paint inside-out among much dedicated laughter on Human Right’s Day, March 21st.
The Global Action Week 2012, a worldwide campaign launched by UNICEF, took place during April 22 – 28. The focus this year was Early Childhood Development and Care. The global initiative voices the urgent need to ensure universal access to the stimulation and nutrition Early Childhood Development Centers offer.
At present just over 10% of children age 0-5 in the Eastern Cape are attending an Early Years facility.
With the help of like minded people as yourselves, giving so generously, we are able to increase access to this very critical service delivery. Your continuous giving is much appreciated.
We thank you sincerely.
Have you joined The Ibhabhathane Community Centre on Facebook ?
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The generous giving of our donors has enabled The Ibhabhathane Centre to prepare 76 meals on a daily basis since January 2012. The meals provide much needed nutrition for 38 pre-schoolers and toddlers who are all from socio- economically challenged homes. The children benefit from the variety of different foods that are being prepared and are also enjoying weekly cooking lessons! These lessons are providing a wealth of learning opportunities for the young children as they learn different tastes, texture and smells which is so important during Early Childhood Development, as well learning about hygiene and observing how food changes during the cooking process(first Science Lesson!). We thank all at GlobalGiving for being so instrumental in enabling The Ibhabhathane Centre to provide this valuable service.
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