We build the road by walking it

This African proverb has served as a motto for many big and small projects throughout my life.

I seem to love starting out with a good idea, lots of enthusiasm and few resources, imagining something good in future, feeling my way, borrowing staff and money here and there until a plan takes shape. In the same way that a footpath becomes a two-track, a gravel road and eventually a tarred highway these projects with their meager beginnings and vague plans later became viable, impressive enterprises.

The same is happening to our reading project. Scarcely two years ago we started out with four laptops and sixteen learners at the Kameeldrift Early Learning Centre. Today we have thirty laptops and 150 learners in two schools in our thriving reading project. In the near future the Grade R class of the Leeuwfontein Primary School will be added bringing another 38 children to the project. This phenomenal growth can be attributed to the generosity of our sponsors.

In April we received another grant from Beeld Kinderfonds. This money covers our running expenses for the next year. This time it also provides for four new laptops. Baie dankie Beeld en al die lesers wat elke jaar kaartjies koop!

On Thursday 6 May Nicola Harris, founder of the Click Foundation and Martine Schaffer, CEO visited us to meet the teachers, to observe us in action, and to talk about future plans. They brought ten brand new laptops, in fact chromebooks, with headphones and mouses/mice. This very generous gift will allow us to add the grade R class and to start Mathseeds, the Maths module for one of the classes.

We are just so fortunate to be part of the 16000 South African children for whom the  the Click Foundation is creating new opportunities.

Martine and Nicola with Liezel Landman, Kamcare manager, and Mrs Mavundlela, principal of the Leeuwfontein Primary School

     
Ms Maggie Malatji, grade R teacher, and ms Inolda Makhubela, grade 1 teacher, admire the new chromebooks.
Martine gives Boitumelo a high five for getting 100% for his reading quiz.

On top of that we also recently received four smart phones with Xander apps, created by Tribage App Studio, which help kids to get a grip on numbers, shapes, colours, ABC and basic vocabulary (xander.co.za).

Celebrations and Planting Trees

  The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not [necessarily] expect to sit (Nelson Henderson)

On the 23^rd March I celebrated my 70^th birthday and our first year of Reading Eggs at the Kameeldrift Early Learning Centre. It was a festive morning with lots of singing by the children cheered on by the principal, Lilly Ledwaba. I am grateful to this school which has given me access to the wonderworld of small children for the past year: their openness, their playfulness, the trusting way in which they throw themselves at you …

Kamcare (www.kamcare. org), under whose umbrella we function, received a grant from the Beeld Kinderfonds (Children’s Fund) and the reading programme will benefit from it. Beeld is one of the prominent Afrikaans newspapers in South Africa. The Kinderfonds (www.beeldkinderfonds.co.za) is an annual fund raising of which the proceeds go to various charities and projects aimed at children. The grant enables us to pay for the considerable amount of data we need and to hire three young teaching assistants. They play an important part in our operation and we use the opportunity to share our vision, insight and experience with them.They are

Jaqueline Mashitisho who has been with the reading programme since its start and already a real pro. Jaqueline is a full-time Kamcare worker and is involved with all its different programmes for children. She is currently enrolled in a part-time study course for social auxiliary workers.

 

Koos Kheswa grew up on a farm in the Leeuwfontein area and is an alumnus of the school. Koos wants to become a lawyer and his participation in the programme helps him to save money for his study plans. He is a natural teacher and is pleasantly surprised to see what fun learning can be if it is combined with good technology and a caring environment.

 

Suzen Ngobeni is the mother of Boipelo, one of the Leeuwfontein grade 1s. Suzen would like to become a teacher and sees the Reading Eggs experience as a good opportunity to learn more about how children learn and the way computers can be used in education. She is serious about motherhood and the role parents can play in their children’s education and the well being of a school.