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Published: August 12th 2012
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I’ve had a fantastic and particularly rewarding week on projects. I had asked if I could be more involved in the HIV education, instead of working at a crèche in the mornings, so from Monday to Wednesday I’ve been teaching at Ubuhle Bemvelo Primary School with some of my fellow volunteers! The girls (and a few boys) we’ve been teaching are aged between 11 and 14, which may seem scarily young to be teaching about HIV, but it’s really important that the younger generation here are educated on the risks, how to protect themselves, and know that they can still live a healthy life even if they have the virus.
Our days started at Snenhlanhla Crèche, where we were dropped off with the volunteers who were teaching at that crèche for the morning. We then spent some time with babies at the crèche, before we walked to the primary school through the Khula community. During our half hour walk through the community we would be waving madly at local children who ran out to greet us, or exchanging a few words in Zulu with local people who were walking to one of the small markets. It was lovely to experience
more of the community first-hand, and to practise some of my Zulu! The reaction from black South Africans when we speak some Zulu with them is great- St. Lucia is mainly a tourist town so they really don’t expect white people to be speaking their language!
The children we’ve been teaching at the primary school attend the HIV classes on a voluntary basis, during their break time. It’s only a 2 week course, and they need to have the certificate to pass a particular grade, but I still find it very humbling that these children are giving up their free time to learn about HIV.
They’re a fantastic class, and we’ve had lots of fun! The end of Tuesday’s lesson was particularly special and a little emotional. We’d had a lovely lesson, with lots of interactive activities and the girls all came up to hug us at the end. When one girl hugged me, she said “You teach us so well!” It did make me a little tearful, as I’ve also been told by the project co-ordinators that some of these girls attend the classes because they are concerned they might have HIV, and therefore want to be
more informed.
One Wednesday morning, we gave the class a written test on what they have been learning and nearly all of them passed! I will hopefully be with the class again tomorrow morning to hand out their certificates, and then I will spend the rest of this coming week at Ndabenhle Crèche again, as I have requested to be there for my final week.
Thursday 9
th August was National Woman’s Day! It was a holiday from regular projects, but we attended an event in Ezwanhelisha Community. We also wanted to give the local women some information on maternal health and breastfeeding, so I offered to prepare a talk and a leaflet on these issues, with one of the medical project volunteers. It was great to represent African Impact, and I’m really glad that I took the opportunity to give a talk to the local women, particularly as this project is the last time that I will be volunteering with African Impact.
Friday was another holiday from regular projects so I spent the morning working with one of my good friends here, updating the primary HIV plan; and then went to the container (aka African Impact’s library)
for the children’s reading club that we’ve started running on Friday afternoons. It was great, and so rewarding to see the children’s excitement at having access to so many books!
Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny day so four of my good friends (Perry, Sarah, Cassie and Jess), and I, hired a car and drove to Cape Vidal. We had a brilliant day sunbathing and enjoying the sea. It was also a lovely way to spend part of our last weekend with Perry, Cassie and Jess as they all leave tomorrow. I’ll be very sad to see them go, particularly as Cassie and Jess have been my roommates for the past four weeks.
Although tomorrow will be an emotional day with more sad goodbyes, I’m looking forward to a good week with Sarah and what I hope will be another four successful days at Ndabenhle Crèche before I start my journey back to Mozambique next weekend…
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