I’ve been on holiday and the blog hasn’t been updated in a long time but thanks to all of you that have helped updating while I was away.

Extra special treat for the children on their birthdays

Auntie Ruth is one of our long term volunteers and every Tuesday and Thursday she visits 78 house and 34 house and plays games with the children, bakes with them and reads stories to them. The children love having Auntie Ruth around!

When it’s one of the children’s birthday, Auntie Ruth takes the birthday child to her house for a sleepover and the birthday person gets to choose a friend to go with them. This is really exciting for the children because they get to sleep late and choose whatever they want for supper! Thank you Auntie Ruth for loving our children in this way.

January birthdays

February birthdays

Outing for the boys:

Jeppe Boys, one of the top high schools in our area, have a Foundation that provides scholarships for underprivileged boys. As part of their programme they encourage these boys to get involved in outreach to their community. Since we have had a relationship for many years with Jeppe Boys, they approached us, offering to spend time with our children. Last month they organised for our bigger boys to spend the day with them where they swam, played rugby and were also treated to a braai! They are hoping to do something like this once a term. This is a wonderful opportunity for our boys to have some male companionship and, hopefully some good role models.

Schooling:

For some time now we have been dissatisfied with the level of teaching and discipline in the school which most of our children attend. We were therefore very grateful to Leicester Road Primary School for accepting three of our grade 6 children into their school at half the normal school fees. Because the standard of the school they were in, these are having an uphill battle trying to catch up with the other learners. They attend extra lessons for Afrikaans, English and Maths that the school provides free of charge. We are so grateful to the Leicester Road teachers for putting in this extra effort for our children.

We are trying to move all our children to better schools but it’s hard to find good schools that have room for extra children! We were lucky to find place for our Grade 1, 2 and 3 children at Sunny Ridge Primary School and they will go there from the second term (April). We already have a child attending the school – it was the only school in the area that had a remedial class that could provide learning for this child. Since many of our children have learning problems and are going to need remedial help either now or in the future, this is an ideal school for us. We will try to get the other children (grades 4-6) into this school next year.

Volunteers

At the moment we don’t have any volunteers to help with the driving to clinics and schools and to help supervise homework. And that’s why we are appealing those of you who have friends who are qualified teachers or someone who can help with the driving around and who are looking to volunteer in an orphanage for few months. If you are interested please do email us.