As part of our community outreach programme we try to involve the mothers of the preschool children as much as possible.   We do this by the mothers taking turns to cook the children’s lunches (in lieu of school fees) and also by attending regular workshops and meetings.   As you may be aware the preschools have an organic garden attached to them to provide fresh vegetables for the children’s lunch.

This months workshop was on the importance of nutritious food.  We are hoping to encourage the mothers to set up their own vegetable gardens at home so that the children have a plentiful supply of nutritious meals.  Three beds were cleared in the garden, one for each classroom. The mothers attended a workshop talking about the importance of vegetables in the diet, and then came out to the garden and were shown how to plant seedlings. Each mother planted a seedling in the garden ‘belonging’ to her child’s class and the children will now water and harvest the plants in the coming months. An enjoyable and informative day was had by all.

The Jujurhu preschool children went out for an hour and transformed the look of the place. It also taught them a good lesson about how much better somewhere looks without litter!

If only all the after effects of the storm were as straightforward. We have spent much of last week compiling lists of the damaged property and sending them to the relevant government departments. We’ll keep you posted with the progress.

The road from here to the tar road was impassable on Sunday due to flooding and a huge tree coming down.  We’re hoping that should be cleared soon as the sun is out and the roads dry fast. 

We are currently assessing the extent of the damage as we will need disaster relief assistance as soon as possible from the government to fix the road, and to mend the huts as for many people this will be their only dwelling.

These sessions are taking place at the same time as Funeka (the school principal) is running workshops on how to make your own resources with the Jujurha teachers and the other teachers that are being trained here at Jujurha. This has included making containers and musical instruments and improvising to make the games that we don’t have.   We are going to be doing workshops on games to help with auditory perceptioin, visual perception, numeracy and literacy and hope that this will be an inspiration for more resource making.

1. Secret of the Lion: Pay yourself first, live off what is left
2. Secret of the Leopard: Create a clear financial vision
3. Secret of the Elephant: Learn what you earn, know what you owe and spend
4. Secret of the Rhino: Charge down your debt
5. Secret of the Buffalo: Protect your assets and make your money work for you.

He encouraged us to save ‘as much as possible’ and talked about different methods of saving. He warned against loans and credit by showing the shocking difference between how much money you borrowed originally and how much money you finally paid back. He allowed plenty of time for questions (mostly about how do we make more money!) and gave us all booklets with further information and budget plans. Everyone said that they found it very useful and enjoyable.

Early days

Building in progress

The first floor of the building is already build and stone floor is completed in the bathroom.

Stone floor

The skills the apprentices will acquire are all important for the local community, for example building with natural local materials, compost toilet management, permaculture gardening, solar power installation etc. This way the project will be long term sustainable and the trainees at the centre will be able to establish their own small scale enterprises.

Lulamile, our NACCW trainer      

During the training

They had 5 weeks of intensive training and a thick assessment book to fill. Managing to complete the cluster is an important achievement for our caregivers, as some of them struggle due to their limited education. During the previous months they visited all households and collected information on the number of old, sick and disabled people, the children or any other individuals needing care. So we are really proud of them as they all completed the Cluster and already started visiting households with children in order to observe, assess their particular needs and help when necessary.

Study group to fill the assessment book after the training was over

Soon they will receive the Mentor Mothers training, part of the Philani outreach programme, during which they will be trained in ante-natal and post-natal care, nutrition, breastfeeding support, HIV and basic child health. They will start working with pregnant women and continue to care for them at least until their baby becomes three years old.

While they sat waiting, Khuselo talked about the importance of clean water and protection of springs and Erofili about life after being tested for HIV and gave tips for people living with HIV/AIDS in order to stay strong and healthy. The CWP workers offered some valuable help with carrying stuff, cooking and serving people, while they are an important asset during games and sports.

People who got tested could sign up for the games and the raffle for winning soccer shoes and other clothing items, a hamper with goodies like samp, cooking oil, maize etc. We had 60 people tested in total and more wanted to but unfortunately the nurses had to go. The games started with the bucket race and tug of war, then netball and finally soccer.

Bucket race

Tug or war. The ladies were very competitive and enthusiastic!

The CWP workers were the winners of the day as they won 3 out of 4 games.

Netball

There was a draw in the bucket race (CWP vs community 1-1), a win in the tug of war (CWP vs community 2-0), a win in the netball game (CWP vs community 4-1) and a win in the soccer game (CWP vs community 3-1).

Soccer

The prize was a sheep and it was slaughtered to be cooked and eaten at the end of the day.

Victory for CWP team!

Winner of soccer shoes.

Winner of the hamper

It seems that Health Days made people less scared about HIV testing and it is really important to get the nurses earlier on the spot so everyone who wants to gets tested. We had more youth participation this time but less men than women got tested.

The Bulungula Incubator has created a how to DVD for microenterprise project. This DVD will give you all the information you need to start your own microenterprise in the rural community The microenterprises you will find on the links below are Wool felting, sewing,Rural Home stay and Hair salon.

The DVD is a full length DVD with all the necessary details but you can also watch short video clips of the microenterprises on youtube following the links below. You can obtain the full DVD by contacting Khuselo: khuselo@bulungulaincubator.org or on 047 577 8908 (8am – 6pm) and 0731349809(after 6pm). Donations of R50 are encouraged to cover admin and postage costs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DajxIgGpMd4&list=PLMdYCLZ9P4iQnCSvnusTxg8yzprB9sJPZ&index=1

this is Wool Felting here we make products like bags, blanket and cell phone pouches using sheep’s wool. You just buy the wool which is ready to make your products.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq14-n1zeoU&list=PLMdYCLZ9P4iQnCSvnusTxg8yzprB9sJPZ&index=2

Here you find Hair salon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jabec_eTRl8&list=PLMdYCLZ9P4iQnCSvnusTxg8yzprB9sJPZ&index=3

This is the Home stay it’s the accommodation you find in the rural area where you get to stay with the family and learn their everyday life you have your own hurt prepared for you and you eat what they eat if you like you help them with daily chores.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a5LwVkDbvo&list=PLMdYCLZ9P4iQnCSvnusTxg8yzprB9sJPZ&index=4

This is sewing business which is doing very well at the moment.

The day started slowly as we arrived and there was no one there. We waited and when they came they immediately grabbed chairs and joined the queue for testing. Time was going fast so we had to do our presentation on water management and STDs outside and it was a success as people participated and asked questions.

We then proceeded to our games as usually with the most exciting being the water race. It was village against CWP (community works programme) workers, girls against girls and women against women.

The workers got themselves a point for the young girl’s team.

The workers got another point for the mama’s team.

We moved to the tug of war, but the CWP girls were a bit older than the village ones.

And CWP women are too strong for village women

The Netball game was not as entertaining with CWP women winning the game versus the village women (9-7).

The Best soccer game followed Xhorana FC vs. CWP workers with Xhorana representing the local community which won by 2-0 getting a share of the day’s victories.

He can miss the soil with a pick

Both teams won the sheep and it was slaughtered and eaten on the spot, so it was for everyone.

This workshop gave us power to look forward to the following village as we now have a technique of getting the youth to test.