By Patricia Shu | President
As the JSS3 students at the Light School in Ishahayi Beach were preparing for their upcoming holiday break, the IBSF board of directors were hard at work planning and gathering supplies for two new sustainability initiatives - the Sewing Project and the Gardening Project. Both are new classes offered five days a week in the afternoon for one hour. In order to move on to Secondary School the JSS3 students must demonstrate their ability to sew, this class will help prepare them for their exam. Plus it will provide them with a valuable skill that they can use once they have graduated, should they decide to pursue a career in fashion, retail, or as a tailor or seamstress. The donations IBSF received from our generous donors helped provide sewing machines, fabric, and supplies for the class. We also hired a local Nigerian tailor to work with Mary, the new sewing teacher, to create a basic curriculum and beginner patterns for the students to practice with.
The second class - the Gardening Project - was also jumpstarted in December thanks to the time and dedication from one of our board members, Puspa, who has many years of horticulture experience. She is working alongside the teaching staff at the Light School to design a curriculum that will not only introduce the basics of agriculture and the best crops to grow in Nigeria - fruit, vegetables, and herbs - but also how to distribute through local sellers and manage inventory.
So far the kids are loving the new classes, they are engaged and asking a lot of questions! During our last visit to the school before Christmas break, we were surprised and delighted by a cooking demonstration on how to make Moringa soup using fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic, chicken, and moringa leaves. Yummm!
For Christmas, we had so much fun sharing in the festivities with the teaching staff and students of all ages. The IBSF prepared small gifts for everyone - ranging from coloring books for the youngsters, to art supplies for the older kids. The teachers received beans, oil, tomato paste and local fabric. Everyone was so thankful and they even prepared Christmas songs to sing for us to show their appreciation!
In early 2017 we look forward to continuing the new classes, we will post pictures of their sewing creations and the beautiful garden. We are also planning to have a second swingset built for the playground area because there is regularly a line 10 kids deep waiting for a turn to swing.
Thank you again to all our generous donors for making it possible for IBSF to support the Light School in modern and creative ways. We wish you all a very happy new year!
Sincerely,
IBSF Board of Directors
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
