Fresh veggies every day December 17, 2009

Thanks to the generous support of Breadline Africa, Daddy Longlegs and the Ford Alumni Association, the Bulungula Incubator now feeds up to 250 children a day! Our two vegetable gardens – at No-ofisi school and the Jujurha Early Learning Centre – will soon produce enough vegetables for all of these meals …. and more.

The well established vegetable garden at No-ofisi school

The gardens provide spinach, beetroot, sweet potato, carrots, peppers, cabbage, beans, tomatoes, mielies, potatoes, onions, basil, mint, rosemary, lettuce and others.

Excess veggies are sold to staff and volunteers, to help raise funds to cover gardeners’ salaries.

Collecting fresh spinach

Our long term plan is to make the large No-ofisi vegetable garden a sustainable small business for the gardeners who are responsible for its upkeep. This approach to school food gardens provides a potential model for the sustainable supply of fresh, locally produced veggies and fruit for remote rural schools, where daily / weekly delivery of fresh produce is impractical.

The success of the food gardens means that children enjoy a delicious hot lunch every day, including fresh garden veggies picked especially for each meal. You don’t get fresher than this!

A gallery of fun December 2, 2009

These pictures provide a snapshot of some of the fun and creative activities that fill the Jujurha days and that help to develop the skills and broaden the experiences of our preschool children.

Working with the School Governing Body to address challenges at No-ofisi December 2, 2009

The Bulungula Incubator has invested much time and resources in building classrooms to house the local government primary school. However, we are deeply disappointed by the fact that the quality of education within these new classrooms remains exceptionally poor.

The school has no principal and the teaching staff are frequently absent (in fact, some of the staff have been absent more days than they have been present over the past six months). It is totally unacceptable that the children of Nqileni are being denied their right to a quality education.

We have renewed our efforts to address this education crisis – especially because the children from our Grade R class will be moving to Grade 1 at No-ofisi in the new year. The quality of education that the preschool children are getting at Jujurha far exceeds the quality of education they will receive at No-ofisi. In fact, our Grade R children are demonstrating numeracy and literacy skills that are more advanced than many of the Grade 1 and 2 learners at No-ofisi.

As part of our efforts to support No-ofisi, we have been facilitating weekly workshops with the school governing body. The workshops began with a visioning process – painting a picture of what we want No-ofisi to look like by the end of 2010. We then identified the various challenges (the “boulders in the road”) to getting to our destination. We are systematically working our way through these.

The road has already been a long one – members of the SGB have recorded their efforts to address the crisis at the school and many of these efforts date back to 2005! It is difficult for the SGB to remain motivated when they have had so little success in their efforts with the teachers, the acting principal and the district office.

In their latest attempt (a week ago) to get support from the circuit manager, the SGB travelled 2 hours to the district office, waited outside the office for 4 hours (constantly being told that the circuit manager was ‘about to arrive’) and then travelled two hours home, having been unsuccessful in meeting the circuit manager. They did however leave behind a letter detailing their concerns and requesting urgent intervention. If they do not get a response from the circuit manager, the same letter will be forwarded to the regional manager and, if necessary, beyond….

The delivery of a decent standard of education in this remote rural village is long overdue. The Jujurha Early Learning Centre has provided the community with an experience of quality education, and parents are now rightfully demanding this level of quality from No-ofisi.

Progress with our after-school programme December 2, 2009

Our after-school tutoring programme (for Grade 1,2 and 3 learners from the local primary school) has been an enormous success. We have around 20 learners daily and these are divided into smaller groups with two teachers each. The children enjoy the opportunity to explore puzzles, books and educational toys and the programme has a strong emphasis on developing the children’s numeracy skills.

Every now and again, we also devote some time to simply having fun and being creative. This past week, the children made musical instruments, and then danced and rattled their way around the preschool!

As much as the programme is intended to help the children catch up on missed education (the teachers at the local primary school are frequently absent!), we are also trying to demonstrate to the children that learning can be fun.

And of course, we end the day with juice and biscuits…

A day at the beach December 2, 2009

Each of the 3 preschool classes recently enjoyed their first preschool ‘outing’. Wearing their new shweshwe hats (made by the BI micro-enterprise sewing project) and carrying their buckets and spades, they called in at the Bulungula Lodge on their way to the beach.

Like children the world over, they were soon digging in the sand and building sandcastles.

After a picnic of fruit, cooldrinks and sweet treats (donated by our visitors from Truworths), they played in the tidal rock pools and collected a fabulous variety of shells.

After a lovely morning on the beach, the children made their way back to the preschool with their ‘loot’.

In the days following the outings, the shells were used in numerous learning activities, particularly when a number of hermit crabs appeared unexpectedly out of some shells! (These were hastily returned to their rockpools).

One of our creative volunteers (Karen) even managed to devise an educational game from the outing – using the shells to help develop the children’s matching and sorting skills.

Although these children live so close to the sea, they seldom spend leisure time on the beach and have much to learn about the eco systems and the protection of their pristine environment.

Watermelon, popcorn and jelly boats December 2, 2009

We had the great fortune of being able to observe the children’s delight as they enjoyed their first tastes of watermelon, popcorn and jelly!

Watermelon has now become a regular item on the weekly menu

The kids watched in amazement as the corn kernels that they know so well from their own annual harvests puffed into unfamiliar fluffy popcorns. This activity will no doubt also become a regular feature on the preschool programme.

Another 'first'

The children also delighted recently in eating orange ‘jelly-boats’ (scooped out orange halves filled with jelly. Once the jelly has set, the oranges are cut in quarters to make little jelly ‘boats’).

Hurray for jelly!

Expanding young minds November 4, 2009

It has been both fascinating and frustrating to observe the extent to which the remoteness of Nqileni Village has impacted children’s experience and basic knowledge. As an example, during a recent classroom exercise, several children in the Grade R class referred to the South African currency as the ‘Pound’ (pronounced Pont).

Until recently, the children were not able to name animals that do not live in the area. They could not for example identify a monkey or an elephant! Given the fact that these children seldom / never venture beyond the village and that they have no access to books, toys, or television in their homes, their lack of basic knowledge is not surprising.

In an effort to change this, we provide opportunities for the children to enjoy new experiences – using all five senses. Noting for example that the children had VERY limited knowledge and experience of any fruit and vegetables that are not grown in the village, we have been introducing them to a variety of new tastes, and to the previously unheard of act of eating uncooked vegetables!

Here they are, enjoying a platter of new tastes.

The start of our after-school tutoring programme November 4, 2009

The Jujurha preschool is a feeder school for the local primary school, No-ofisi. The Bulungula Incubator is committed to working with No-ofisi to ensure a continuation of education excellence for the children graduating from the ELC. However, we recognize that it will take some time to improve the quality of education at No-ofisi. As such, we have begun an after-school tutoring programme for foundation phase learners from No-ofisi.

Children in Grades 1 to 3 are invited to afternoon sessions at the ELC. These sessions include opportunities for supervised play with educational toys, structured numeracy and literacy lessons and story time in the Jujurha library.

At the moment, the tutoring programme is structured to accommodate Grade 1 learners on Mondays, Grade 2 learners on Tuesdays and Grade 3 learners on Wednesdays. We have consistently had over 20 children attending each day.

Our work with the children to date highlights significant gaps in their knowledge and skills, and points to the need for more concentrated and frequent contact with each child in order to raise their level of skills on par with peers at better schools.

Great kids, great staff – a winning combination November 4, 2009

Over the past few weeks, we have seen tremendous progress in the children attending the Jujurha Early Learning Centre. They are far more outgoing, demanding (in the best possible way!), and engaging. We are also seeing the impact of the educational programme on their ability to do puzzles (children who could not piece together a 4-piece puzzle 3 months ago are now happily completing 24-piece puzzles), to recognize and write numbers, to order and sort objects, to construct toys etc. And the daily creative activities have filled the children’s classrooms and workbooks with delightful artwork! We have also introduced musical instruments into the weekly routine, and library time.

 

Story time with Xolisa and Nokonwaba

All of this is made possible by the dedication, creativity and commitment of our teachers and trainee teachers (Funeka Jija, Xolisa Dayimani, Nangamso Debe, Nokonwaba Mbi, and Phikiswa Gashe) and the excellent leadership of our education projects co-ordinator, Annette Champion.

We are also very fortunate to have the support of a visiting volunteer from the USA, Karen Kievit. Karen has 15 years experience in special needs education and has already assisted in developing tools for use with children who have behavioural problems / severe developmental delays, and in teacher training and development.

Our staff development programme currently includes weekly teacher training sessions and classroom support and supervision. Staff also attend ad hoc training courses, and are encouraged to share their newly acquired skills with the rest of the team, in this way consolidating their learnings and developing valuable workshopping skills.

We plan on expanding our staff development programme next year by enrolling our teaching assistants on SETA accredited training programmes to enable them to work towards a National Certificate in early childhood development.

Essential Oils update November 4, 2009

The Essential Oils (EO) project is one of several Sustainable Livelihoods projects run by the Bulungula Incubator. The EO project began in February this year, with the establishment of one project plot of lemongrass (about 50mx50m). This plot enabled us to grow sufficient lemongrass to supply root stock to our first 5 community farmers. It also allowed us to test various land preparation techniques to ensure maximum yield.

We have been anxiously watching the horizon for the arrival of the first summer rains so that we could plant our first five community farmers. The rains have arrived very late this year, but some good downpours meant that we were finally able to get the first of our volunteer farmers crops planted in late October.

Out initial aim was to start with 3 farmers but we had such a positive response from community members to participate in the program that we have had to limit our first batch of farmers to eight volunteers. The first five farmers are planting now, with an additional three scheduled to plant in January after the Christmas and New Years break.

Planning meeting to work out practicalities of planting

Each farmer is responsible for farming their own private plot of land. The size of each of these plots may vary, and are referred to as either family of homestead plots, but are generally around a quarter of a hectare in size.

The project farmers are responsible for ploughing and preparing their own land, as well as ensuring that their plot is fenced in such a way that the crops are protected from sheep, goats, donkeys and cattle.
They are not paid in any way for these efforts, their only financial reward will come when their crops are sold, at which stage they will earn all money raised through the sale of their crops.

During discussions about planting, the initial eight volunteer farmers decided independently to work as a collective. This was a heart-warming decision to observe. They all arrived at one homestead and planted that one plot before moving onto the next site the following day. This has made the planting process very fast and has its own intrinsic checks.

Because the majority of the farmers are volunteering their time helping the owner of the plot, they work in a very efficient way and the speed with which each plot is planted has been quite astounding. We have then carefully shown the owner of the plot how to ensure that a good job is being done, so he, or she, generally moves behind the others to ensure that the group is doing a good job, and not sacrificing quality for speed.

Working as a team has proven very effective

Many hands make light work

Other benefits to this team approach include the advantages of establishing a collective skill set and knowledge base.

By acting as a collective, and electing a committee, the group has also taken the first steps to establishing a functioning co-operative. This will be important for the growth and sustainability of the project.

A team photo to mark the occassion

The project is very closely linked to food security and each of the project farmers has been supplied with a good amount of vegetable seeds.

Discussing the distribution of vegetable seeds

One of the conditions of participating is that they plant the vegetables as well as the essential oil crop to compliment their family diet. We have actively discouraged planting essential oil crops at the expense of subsistence crops, and it is pleasing to note that the essential oil crops are being planted alongside mielies (corn).A few of the project farmers have divided their fields and are planting half with mielies (corn) and half with essential oil crops.

In addition to the vegetable seeds, each project farmer has also been supplied with half a dozen fruit trees and a variety of herbs. The project farmers have been shown haw to plant these to achieve their maximum potential.

There was much interest in the tree-planting lesson!

Between now and February 2011, the project will grow to include at least 20 families from Nqileni and surrounding villages.