Education support for children in South Africa

Well it really is the most wonderful time of the year!

We have come to the end of the school year, which naturally means a lot of preparations over the next month to get everyone ready for school!

We have a number of 3 children making the leap to high school next year!

We also have our newest girl who is about to start her final school year imminently,

As well as this 2 of our pre-school boys are moving from creche to ‘big school’ having been promoted to Grade 1 in January 2023,

And we have 12 children already requiring occupational therapy next year to help with their on-going developmental needs,

As you can imagine it is a whole on-going operation to ensure our kids have all their school uniform and stationery needs ready for 2023, and we want to do our best to get that in place now for them to we know the ‘back to school’ rush can go as smoothly as possible!

In between all of this we are doing our best to make his school holiday a special one for our children. Whilst we have a number of children who have families they may be able to visit over Christmas, we also have many children without that luxury which is where we try and make it as special for them as possible. We’ve already started with an educational outing to the local Fire Station, learning all about fire safety, as well as a trip to a trampoline park arranged by a local sponsor…looking to create memories that can last a life time!

We do all hope you can continue to support and invest in our children’s educational needs – let’s give them the brighter future they truly deserve

Links:

• Charity Website

I always find it so amazing how quickly time flies, often when working with children you also cannot believe how quickly they grow up. Even most recently I experienced a moment like that when we marked the 21st birthday of a young man who I first met when he was 5 years old when we started our work in South Africa. But I am so pleased to say that this is one of our many success stories and testament to the work we do throughout the ages and phases of development,

One thing that is wonderful about residential care is that you get to do much more intensive work with the children referred to us. Whilst it is fantastic that we are able to enrol them all in schools for their educational support, we also have a team that can provide therapeutic support. This is of course much needed for children who have survived abuse. This month we were able to have four children assessed by an Occupational Therapist and also welcomed a group of OTs to do an activity morning with our children as well as training for child & youth care workers. It is these additional services that help us to ensure the children flourish. 

We are also currently applying for 3 children to transition across to high school next year. It is in the next term that we especially take steps to ensure everything is in place for them and they have all their needs covered. It remains crucial for us to ensure that a child already disadvantaged from being taken into care is never stigmatized due to not having essential school items that can easily be taken for granted. But it is only with funds such as from our supporters reading this that we are able to open more doors and allow more opportunities for brighter futures to take place. 

Most recently our children also took part in some fun extra cirruclar activity. Our boys and our girls are each having dance classes every week, with a group of boys soon to be entering a dance competition which is very exciting for them! We also took part in a beach clean-up as it is so important to teach children to give back themselves and educate them on topics such as ocean conservation. Finally we also had a super educational trip to the South African Airfroce Museum.

Please think of supporting us to help in our quest to continue in changing the lives of kids and young people. Every little helps - together we can achieve even more! 

Links:

• Charity Official Website

We are definitely in the full midst of school here in South Africa as our children are already into their second school term of the year! Our year started with our children attending 10 different schools to cater for them right from ECD education all the way through to our senior college/university students,

However currently we are pleased with their progress and saw promissing results from the first term,

A number of four children were also provided with a much needed special school placement to get the correct targeted intervention and educational support,

We are also pleased to see the shift towards also embracing occupational and vocational pathways in schools, as announced by the Education Minister recently, as this also allows specific youth to start learning career skills earlier that will help them find employment,

However currently we are opening doors for extra tuition, still inclusive of live virtual maths classes at this time, as well as reading support and ensuring we have psychometric assessments complete for all new children,

The need for support towards this project cannot be underestimated, and we really hope more people will be able to get behind this GlobalGiving project and open doors for more children to get the help they need

Links:

• Official Charity Website

We can hardly believe that another year has gone by!

But honestly, we are VERY proud of our resilient, inspiring kids and young people that we support through our work at our youth centre here in South Africa!

We wanted to send a report to mobilize any supporters out there who may be looking to give a charitable donation this time of year, as we will really appreciate the help in this project!

With the school year running from January-December here, it means we will be very busy from early next month ensuring all our children have all their needs met for their various schools,

At this stage we have a number of 12 educational establishments that we will be transporting our kids to during 2022. This includes 2 creches (ECD), 2 primary schools, 3 high schools, 3 special schools and 2 higher education facilities (college//university). But of course each school has their own expenses. 

Just this term we had 3 children accepted to a special school as referred by the Department of Education following the results of the psychometric evaluations we arrange. This is to ensure we can really give the right targeted support. 

And as said in previous reports this helps us in achieving successful outcomes - investing in education from the foundation phase onwards, allows us to see success all the way into adulthood. Whilst remembering in South Africa the unemployment rate for those who do not finish school is as high as 40% (with youth unemployment specifically being as high as 46% according to Stats SA)

However we can (and are!) help in breaking the cycle, resotring hope and making brighter futures possible for children coming from unimaginable circumstances but finding the love, nuturing, support and care they need to flourish...!

Let your Christmas gift this year be the gift of education :-)

Thank you to all our supporters for standing by us and investing in what we do. We cannot do it without the support we recieve. Wishing you and your loved ones a wonderful Christmas and a blessed New Year!  

We are glad to report that formal schooling is continuing in South Africa on a more normal schedule, despite the presence of Covid-19 still causing disruptions to attendance at times,

The education department's efforts to introduce safety protocols in schools and to vaccinate teachers has now created the possibility to keep schools open and return to everyday attendance.

Whilst we know many virtual adaptations and provisions have been made at our youth centre – whilst still seeing successful outcomes for our children and young people – it is of course positive for them to return to formal schooling!

In the last report we spoke about the increased need within Early Childhood Development referrals. We are pleased that we have enrolled 5 of these kids into crèche/pre-primary. It is also thanks to our supporters who contribute to making such activities take place.

With outside support we received we have also been able to renovate a cement space at the youth centre into a functional venue for a ‘Maranatha Crèche’ to help provide education and stimulation for the 3 other boys, who we then hope to be in a position to enroll in formal school settings next year!

It is positive to see this growth in our ECD programme, whilst we continue to see successful outcomes for our young adults and long-term care cases staying with us as part of our Independent Living Programme for 16-21 year olds with an after-care commitment that can take them forward post-21 if needed, even up to the age of 24.

I personally think that this programme in particular is essential. It opens up doors for vital learning – transitional life skills for adulthood – and opportunities for work, study or training in a supportive environment that can help ensure the young person becomes the best possible version of themselves.

The importance of this has been amplified when we look at youth unemployment and the socio and economic threats it poses globally – specifically in South Africa where young adults account for over 50% of those unemployed. The latest figures from Stats SA shows that where we operate in the Eastern Cape there is a staggering unemployment rate of 47% overall.

This is where we are glad for the services we render. Just to reflect on some of our outcomes, of the 11 young people age 16-24 we support residentially at this stage:

o   18% are in high school

o   36% are in full-time employment

o   36% are in higher education or university

o   10% are in vocational training

We also track the young people who left the organisation and have been integrated into society in order to offer support where required.

It provides hope for us, when we see the small children referred to us, that we can also see the positive future outcomes of young people we have invested in. This helps to overturn what can often be a pessimistic outlook. It is only with the help of those reading this that we can continue to achieve such results and transform lives – please do give what you can!

Thanks for the support!

Links:

• Official Charity Website