Education Programmes for Kids &Teachers, Cape Town

Thank you so much for supporting education and food programmes run by our partner organisation, ORT SA CAPE, in South Africa. These have been challenging times and your support is truly appreciated and is making a big difference!

Below is a report from Bev at ORT SA CAPE, showing how your contributions were used over the past few months.

-----------

For the past 28 years, ORT SA CAPE has been operating at the forefront of education in the Western Cape,South Africa. We focus on educating, training, supporting and empowerment of teachers in under resourced communities.

Our vision is a future where all teachers receive quality training and all children have access to quality education. Ultimately, better trained teachers result in better educated children.

ORT SA CAPE’s interventions continue to have a strong focus on play-based learning as well as computational thinking and problem solving. We focus on Early Childhood Development (ECD) and Foundation Phase (FP), working with educators across these phases who teach children aged 0 -9 years.

Through play, children build flexible skills that help them take on the future with confidence and develop a love for learning, improve mental health and build resilience.

Since January 2022, ORT SA CAPE has trained over 2500 teachers across our various short courses, impacting almost 80 000 learners. These courses include: Perceptual Skills Level 1 and 2, Lego Playbox Level 1 and 2, Lego Six Bricks Level 1 and 2 and Introduction to Educational Coding and Robotics.

The continued support from CHW allows us to expand our reach and change more lives through education. The donations [we received since our last report] were allocated to our monthly food relief, as well as our training initiatives for ECD practitioners. These included workshops on Perceptual Skills and Lego Playbox held in October and November

Perceptual skills have been called “the keys to all learning”. These are cognitive skills that children learn through the five senses and apply across all learning areas. This short course demonstrates how teachers can use LEGO blocks and everyday resources to teach foundational skills through fun activities.

LEGO Play Box is a versatile and interactive resource that lends itself to teaching a range of skills through fun activities, promoting learning through play. Teachers participate in several practical activities that cover perceptual skills, as well as emergent literacy and numeracy. Each participant receives a Lego Playbox, sponsored by The Lego Foundation for use in their classrooms.

‘’All children have the right to feel safe and have access to quality education and healthcare. But to date, early childhood development has been not just under recognised, but grossly underfunded,”  T.K. Kristiansen, Chair of the Board of Directors at The LEGO Foundation.

Over the years, ORT SA CAPE has developed a robust methodology to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of our teacher development programmes. We collect and analyse three types of data: participants’ written feedback immediately after each workshop; brief pre- and post-training assessments (knowledge & skills surveys); and, where applicable, lesson observation data gathered during classroom support visits. Both online and paper-based data collection methods are used.

The feedback from teachers is compellingly positive, indicating that the training has strengthened teachers’ insights into the impact of learning through play. The data suggests teachers leave the training confident they would be able to implement what they have learnt and will be able to support the learners who struggle with learning barriers.

Therapists who work with at risk children as well as teachers working with special needs learners have been included in our training programmes in 2022. It is encouraging to see what impact learning through play and the Lego manipulatives have during therapy sessions.

Our food relief also continues with monthly donations of food parcels to needy families, ECD centres and soup kitchens. We have also recently partnered with an all-girls soccer school, Ikasi Soccer School, they are able to provide meals to those who attend their training sessions every Monday and Friday. Thank you to the donations from CHW that have allowed us to continue providing this much needed support.

ORT SA CAPE would like to thank CHW for the continued support we have received throughout 2022, we have been able to reach more beneficiaries this year than ever before and continue to empower people and strengthen communities.

-------------

We are very grateful to each person who has supported ORT SA CAPE's work through CHW. Thank you for all your help.

We wish you a peaceful and joyful holiday season!

Everyone at Children's Helpers Worldwide (CHW) is very grateful to you for supporting food and education programmes in South Africa, through our page on GlobalGiving! Our partner organisation, ORT SA CAPE's main focus is on education and teacher training. However, as the level of poverty rose during the lockdowns, ORT SA CAPE also started a food programme in 2020.

Below is the latest report from Bev ORT SA CAPE, about the programmes your contributions have been supporting:

----------

During 2022, ORT SA CAPE has continued with its Learning through Play training and support programme for Foundation and Intermediate Phase teachers (Grades R [Reception] to 6) across the Western Cape, South Africa.

We believe that learning through play empowers children to become engaged, creative lifelong learners in an ever-changing world. It also allows teachers to explore new and innovative ways of approaching their teaching. Play creates a platform across language, culture and context and allows growth and development in an unthreatening way.

Since January 2022, ORT SA CAPE has trained over 1200 teachers across our various short courses. Our partnership with CHW allows us to expand our reach and change more lives through education.

Our education team spent time in 2021 developing new courses that expand our learning through play initiative and build on the content already covered in previous courses. Our three new offerings, namely, Perceptual Skills Level 2, Playbox Level 2 and Coding 101 have been positively received.

We have also piloted a course aimed at Intermediate Phase teachers. This course shows teachers how to use Lego as a resource to enhance language development across the curriculum. Since February 90 teachers have attended this training with very positive feedback.

On the 7th May 2022, we hosted a group of ECD [Early Childhood Development] practitioners from a very underserved community in Khayelitsha. Twenty educators from various schools were hosted at ORT SA CAPE’s training venue for the day. They attended two training sessions, one on Perceptual Skills and the other on LEGO Playbox. We will also provided lunch and transport to and from the venue. Each teacher received a Lego Playbox to take back to their classrooms.

The 18th of July is a very special day in South Africa, one on which we celebrate Mandela Day. Citizens are urged to contribute to society by doing good on this day to commemorate the birthday of Nelson Mandela.

This year ORT SA CAPE took part in three Mandela day initiatives:

• We hosted 30 children from Baphumelele Orphanage for the morning where they enjoyed a visit to the Science Centre as well as some fun activities with our staff. They enjoyed lunch and we gifted them with a lovely warm winter blanket to take home.
• Members of our education team partnered with SA Hockey Association who hosted a day for 40 ECD teachers from Vygieskraal. The theme was ‘’An active child is a healthy child’’. Our team presented Lego activities to the teachers and each teacher received a set of resources for their classroom.
• One of our ECD learnership students dedicated her time to an underprivileged ECD centre in Manenberg. We assisted her with food parcels and Lego for each learner.

As mentioned in previous reports, ORT SA CAPE started a food relief initiative in April 2020. This initiative continues and we supply food parcels to needy families every month. Below are some testimonies to this incredible project that assists so many people during very difficult times. Thank you to CHW for the support of this food relief initiative.

"Little Stars Daycare would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your donations. It will surely help feed the hungry learners that don't get the basic needs from home." - Sandra, Principal

" I would like to extend my gratitude and thanks for the food donations which we have received. It is a big help as many of the parents are struggling. At least with this donation I can provide these children with a decent meal on a daily basis. Once again thank you." - Lena, LA Tiny Tots Educare

" What an amazing and rewarding program this is to show love in action towards our fellow humans. We are totally blessed to share with those less fortunate... I love that so many children come along and just to see their happy faces makes my heart glad. ORT SA CAPE is truly a blessing to our community and all the ECD centres and communities that are being fed through this amazing initiative. I am grateful to be part of ORT SA CAPE as a whole and I can only proclaim blessings over the wonderful and most inspirational Foundation of which I am a part of. Bless you for your love and commitment towards my community. I am grateful!" - Dawn, Manenberg Project Manager, ORT SA CAPE

Thank you to CHW for supporting our various projects that empower people and strengthen communities. ORT SA CAPE is most grateful.

----------

We are excited to share with you that GlobalGiving will be running its "Little By Little" campaign from Monday 12 September, starting at 5 am UK time (6 am in South Africa) and ending on 16 September. During this time, donations of up to $50 (around £41) will be matched by 50% by GlobalGiving! You are already part of this wonderful project, and have helped children in Cape Town by improving the quality of their education and providing them with food. We would be so grateful if you could share this project during the Little By Little campaign. If you can invite just one more person to contribute, this will help to continue to make a difference for the children!

Thank you again for all your support for this project, and for caring and making such a positive impact for children in various communities around Cape Town!

--------

With thanks to Bev for the photos included in this report.

A big thank you for supporting food and education projects for children in Cape Town! Our partner organisation, ORT SA CAPE, focusses on education programmes for teachers and children, with the aim of making sure that children from disadvantaged areas receive a better quality education.

During the first lockdown in 2020, ORT SA CAPE also started a food programme, as the level of poverty rose. The food programme is continuing this year.

All of us at CHW thank you so much for your contribution towards these programmes. Below is an update from Bev at ORT SA CAPE:

---

"Since the beginning of 2022, ORT SA CAPE has returned to face to face training. We have run 10 workshops in February and March for over 420 teachers. These courses included topics like Perceptual Skills, Lego Playbox and Six Bricks, Demystification of Coding and How to use Lego to enhance language development across the curriculum.

We have also continued with our monthly food relief initiative, we are currently supporting over 200 families, 6 ECD [Early Childhood Development] centres and one soup kitchen...

Part of the funding [received from CHW] allows us to supplement the food relief initiative to maintain our reach. Our food relief takes place on a monthly basis and we rely on volunteers to assist us with the distribution process. Beneficiaries collect their parcels from two central hubs and the elderly and infirm have their parcels delivered to them.

Unfortunately, the need for food relief continues and many people are desperate for assistance. We would like to continue and expand our efforts, so that vulnerable people are able to satisfy their basic needs.

Below is an email from one of our beneficiary organisations, MES – They Mould, Empower and Serve street people holistically so that they are enabled to live independent, sustainable and meaningful lives.

‘"I don’t know you yet you blessed us with SOOO much!  @ ORT SA Cape Education and Little Steps Day care, thank you for ALL the groceries, fruit, vegetables, cleaning goods and toiletries!  Our shelves were empty this morning and here your parcel arrives… Thank you ORT!... Have a lovely afternoon. Kind regards Franita"

As ORT SA CAPE’s core focus remains the training and support of teachers, we are grateful to CHW for their continued support of our education programmes. [Part of the funding from CHW] has been allocated to various teacher training initiatives allowing us to reach more teachers and expose them to the various training sessions we offer.

Educators from various ECD centres enjoyed a workshop on demystification of coding held in the ORT SA CAPE classroom at the end of February. Teachers also participated in the ‘’Purposeful Play’’ workshops we hosted in February. Each teacher received a Lego Playbox for use in their classroom. This series of workshops was held in person and on-line and over 280 teachers participated over 5 sessions. ECD practitioners participated in a LEGO Playbox session held in the ORT SA CAPE classroom on 18 March. They learned about the importance of play in early education. [Photos of the workshops are included with this report.]

ORT SA CAPE prides itself on making a meaningful difference in communities in South Africa and driving our country forward. We are extremely grateful for the continued support from CHW. Your further support will ensure that we can deliver on our promise to train and support teachers and learners in disadvantaged communities in South Africa so that a quality education is received by all."