Building bridges between urban and rural schools: Jujurha teachers visit Cape Town May 31, 2012

As part of their Early Childhood Development training, all our preschool practitioners have been given the opportunity to visitCape Townschools in order to observe and experience excellence in action. In 2009 Xolisa and Nokonwaba visited Herschel Pre Prep and last year Funeka visited Barkly House Pre Primary and The Grove. It was therefore with great excitement that Esethu, Phikiswa and Nangamso arrived inCape Townearlier this month to spend a week at both Herschel Pre Prep and Herzlia Preschool in Sea Point.

Both schools welcomed them warmly and shared their expertise, resources and time so generously. The Jujurha teachers watched, participated, photographed and talked with their urban colleagues, collecting good ideas to implement and share when they returned home.

 

They watched a professional puppet show, went on a Grade R outing to learn more about biodiversity, observed daily preparation, planning, implementation and methods of assessment. They were amazed by the involvement of parents and the volume and range of teaching materials and resources. They were also pleased to recognize many similarities in approach and practice – and the strengths which the Jujurha children possess such as their independence, resilience and advanced ball skills!

It is difficult to imagine the impact of the city on these 3 young women from a remote rural village and the daily challenges they faced in this strange environment. The friendliness of their hosts and assistance from BI friends inCape Townsmoothed the path in various ways but, ultimately, it was up to Esethu, Phikiswa and Nangamso to embrace the opportunities and overcome every obstacle in order to derive maximum benefit from the experience. This they certainly did and the Jujurha Preschool teachers, children and the entire ECD programme will be the richer for it.

More clean drinking water May 30, 2012

As planned, the first tranche of funding received from the Rotary Gistel for the Water Infrastructure Project has been implemented. The project began in Mgojweni Village, where 6 tanks were quickly installed. The next village to receive their tanks was the village of Folokwe, towards the end of last year and in March the third village in the area, Tshezi, were beginning to harvest their own rain water. The second tranche was received this month and Khuselo, the project manager, is already making his plans…

Installation of roof gutters

The Nozikakane family with their new tank

Visit by Tapini & CSIR

At the end of February we were very happy to receive another visit from the students of Tapini, the German based organisation that we have been working with for several years (www.tapini.org). Felix Pletzinger and Lukas Zscherpe were with us for a month. They checked the tanks installed in the 3 villages to make sure that the installations were all set for for optimal water collection, trained a local team in the installation of roof gutters for thatch roofs and round huts and assisted in our community water awareness training days which they had originally helped us to design.

We also had a follow workshops by the guys from the CSIR (www.csir.co.za). These workshops focused on the rollout of a cool new water filter that we’re piloting in the villages. It’s cheap and effective! If all goes well with the pilot, we hope to work with the local municipality to roll them out to each household. Water tanks are great when the summer rains are around but during the dry winter months, its often back to the ground water springs that can become contaminated and that need filtering. (www.tulipwaterfilters.com)  

Installing flexible, round gutters for rondawels and thatched roofs

Vulindlela Scholarships: Progress Report – May 2012 May 7, 2012

Most of us can remember our first day at school: the mixture of excitement and somewhat nervous anticipation! For the 7 young children taking up their Vulindlela Scholarships, the challenges have been far more complex and demanding. They have had to leave the security of their families and friends, their homes, Nqileni village – their entire world. They have had to adjust to living with strangers, going to a big, urban school, speaking and being spoken to only in English, and so much more. It is difficult to imagine how they must have felt on that first day in Grade 1.

Preparing them for these challenges has required a sensitive, well-planned and on-going partnership between the children’s families, the host family in Mthatha, the Umtata International School and the Bulungula Incubator (BI). The well-being of each child is of paramount importance and we have monitored this by regular visits to Mthatha, discussions with the families in the village and talking informally to the children when they return home every 2^nd weekend. It would have been unrealistic to think that problems would not have arisen but they have not been insurmountable and have been satisfactorily addressed. We are satisfied that the children are being well cared for and that they are adjusting happily to their new way of life. Indeed, they have taken the extraordinary challenges in their stride, showing amazing resilience.

 While we were confident in the children’s academic abilities, it was nevertheless difficult to predict how all these challenges would affect their progress in the classroom, particularly their inability to speak and understand English and we are therefore very proud of their achievements as reported by the Grade 1 teacher in their 1^st term reports. While most of them are making good progress, 2 are already achieving at an excellent level. It is gratifying to note that all the children show remarkable strength in Mathematics and the Creative Arts.

In order to assist them with their English which, in turn, will boost their confidence, we shall be setting up a tutoring programme at the Jujurha Education Centre (JEC) during the school holidays. Very few members of the Nqileni community can speak English so this programme will have to be carefully planned and executed if it is to make a real difference.

 During the April holidays, the children came home with a folder full of ‘homework’ worksheets which they enthusiastically completed with some assistance and supervision at the JEC. It was also an opportunity to gauge their progress and reinforce some of their learning. More importantly, however, it was an ideal way to assess their wellbeing in an informal and secure setting.

 They are very obviously excited and enthusiastic about their new school and they seem to have integrated well on a social level. The 4 boys are boisterous and typically less concerned than the girls with neatness when completing worksheets! The 3 girls form a supportive unit and take great pride in doing their best at all times. The quieter, less extrovert personalities appear to be coping well and all of them give the impression of being proud of their role as Vulindlela Scholarship recipients.

 It would be unrealistic to expect that there won’t be further challenges to be overcome in the future but, at this stage, we are delighted at the promising start of this life-changing education programme and on behalf of Asali, Linewu, Linathi, Thulile, Yonwaba, Zethu and Zolile, the BI thanks each and every sponsor of the Vulindlela Scholarship Programme.

Check the summaries of the individual children’s reports by following the links.

Asali   Linathi   Linewu   Thulile  Yonwaba  Zethu  Zolile

Community Profiling: Update April 26, 2012

We are pleased to report that a great deal has happened with the profiling project since our last update. In December 2011 Nomzingisi and Kate finished collecting the profile data from Nqileni village. We would like to thank all the families in our community who welcomed us into their homes and put up with our many questions.

Through the generous assistance of one of our funders, as of early 2012 we managed to expand the community profiling project into the other three villages  (Folokhwe, Mgojweni, and Tshezi). Expanding the research to encompass three villages simultaneously meant we had to hire and train new data-collectors. Finding suitable people was initially quite challenging, as this sort of work requires both English literacy and a high degree of critical thinking on top of the interpersonal skills necessary for carrying out research in a community setting.  Nonetheless,  by February we had hired 5 women from surrounding villages, all of whom received training and coaching from Nomzingisi and Kate. By March all five were working independently, going homestead-to-homestead to profiling resident families. In March we also hired two local women with computer skills to input both qualitative and quantitative data into the computer.

We have now finished collecting data from all 439 households in the four villages, and we are at the analysis stage of this project. While it is too soon to report our findings, it is clear that this profiling project has given us a much clearly picture of livelihood strategies, health and mortality, views on local leadership, aspirations and concerns for the future, and interpersonal dynamics in these communities.

A huge thanks goes out to our data-collectors Nosabelo, Thembakazi, Nokhanyo, Lindelwa and Zoleka , as well as our two data-input staff, Kunjulwa and Bongiwe for all their hard work!

Equal Education visits dilapidated rural schools in our area March 23, 2012

The BI is an active supporter of Equal Education, an NGO based in Cape Town, which is in the forefront of the campaign for good education for all South African children. We were therefore delighted to welcome the Equal Education team when they visited our remote area to see for themselves the state of rural schools and to discuss the problems facing teachers and learners.

 

 

EE explained their campaign and court case for Minimum Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure and they distributed information pamphlets for parents as well as a petition for learners, teachers, parents and community members to sign.  We visited 3 schools in our neighbouring villages and this is what we found.

                                                                                 No teacher, no lessons…….                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                               

                                                                    Not even the basics for teaching and learning….

                                                                           A classroom, a kitchen and the only toilet    

Shameful conditions

 

Pantsula at Jujurha Preschool! February 17, 2012

When Karen Kievit, our ECD expert and volunteer, worked at the Preschool last year she taught the kids to play Rhythm Sticks – simple but fun tunes using drumming sticks. Karen’s back home in the States now but we did her proud with a great music and dance session today – the kids got down with some groovy Pantsula moves!

Making music with Rhythm Sticks

Some great pantsula moves!

A new health point in Xhora Mouth February 6, 2012

In April last year we started an HIV awareness and voluntary testing programme (see previous Health blogs). The programme was run monthly, throughout the year, in each of the 4 villages of the Xhora Mouth Area, in which the BI operates, namely: Nqileni, Mgojweni, Tshezi and Folokwe.

The events became very popular and over 600 people have now use the voluntary testing and counselling facilities, provided by the medical staff of Madwaleni Hospital.

While these events have been making a significant impact through the dissemination of information and by providing the opportunity for people to know their status, the access for community members to ARV medication in the area has remained a problem.

With resources from our Community Work Programme, a donation of land and a hut by Folokwe Village and assistance from Madwaleni hospital, the area soon open its own Health Point where medication can be distributed and HIV support group meetings can be held. It can also be used as a venue for the mobile clinic which visits the area on a fortnightly basis. The hut is situated near the road, in a location central to all 4 villages and we expect that it will be very popular, offering a much needed service!

Fixing up the hut donated as the new Health Point

 

A central location, near the road

 

ECD in Mgojweni Village February 6, 2012

The Jujuhra Education Centre, which opened in June 2009, has been offering excellent early childhood development (ECD) education to the children of Nqileni Village, library services, an after-school programme and, over the past year, formal training for ECD practitioners in NQF level 4 training.

Following the success of the Jujurha Preschool, in its delivery of world class education, the communities of the neighbouring Mgojweni, Folokwe and Tshezi villages approached us, at the Bulungula Incubator, about developing these services in their areas. After a meeting held in November last year, it was decided that the community members would provide as much of the infrastructure and labour as they could while training would be done at the Jujurha Education Centre.

By December the first community planning meetings had been held, all three villages had chosen their preschool sites and Homechoice, a new funding partner, had very generously offered financial support for the project!

It was decided that the first site to be developed would be in Mgojweni Village. As soon as the Jujuhra Preschool teachers got back to work in January this year, detailed planning began in earnest: the Mgojweni community chose the teaching, gardening, cleaning and other staff that will be employed at their Preschool. Peter and Nomfundo, who run the Community Work Programme  (the CWP, which is funded through government’s Expanded Public Works Programme)  at the BI, developed the budgets for running costs and Xolisa, one of the teachers at Jujurha Preschool began to put together the onsite training and Preschool set-up programmes for the new teachers.

So it’s been all systems go and there is plenty to do to get ready! At this stage we hope that the Mgojweni Preschool will open its doors by 1st June this year. If all goes well, we will then be able to move onto sites at Tshezi Village and then Folokwe.

New window frames being carried into the hut donated by the community for the Preschool

Participants from the CWP leveling what will be the Preschool play area

Hairdressers for Nqileni village February 6, 2012

Nqileni village is soon to be home to its own hair salon. The idea of opening a hair salon in Nqileni follows on the success of Masizakhe Hair Salon in Mgojweni village. The entrepreneurs, Moses Khanyisile Gashe and Noma-indiya Qondovu, are young and energetic individuals born and bred in Nqileni village.

Moses Gashe - one of the new hairstylists

Moses and Noma-indiya have been working non stop cleaning the place, putting up mirrors and chairs and making storage shelves. They have been shuttling to and from Mthatha (the closest city to Nqileni) to buy the different items needed for setting up the hair salon. The hard work has paid off because the rondavel has been transformed into a clean and beautiful hair salon.

Getting set-up

 

Another point scored for the Bulungula Incubator Microenterprise project is that the entrepreneurs from Masizakhe Hair Salon, the first hair salon that the project set-up will train these aspirant hairdressers. Buyelwa, the owner and hairstylist at Masizakhe Hair Salon has been in operation for a year now and she now has the experience and expertise to train the new hair dressers  (see previous blogs about Masizakhe’s set-up).

Buyelwa at Masizakhe Hair Salon

Essential Oils Cooperative spreads its wings February 3, 2012

The Bulungula Essential Oils Cooperative is taking its business to a higher level by adding soap making into its existing activities. The core business of the cooperative is still the selling of dried lemongrass for tea production and essential oils distillation. Teething problems affecting the lemongrass plants such as the compromised quality of the dried lemongrass and inconsistent production levels led the cooperative to decide on diversifying the products. The soap production process is relatively easy to learn and the returns are favourable.

The expertise of Rose, Karen (from the Agricultural Research Council) and Launa Arntzen (of Sacred Nature) was sourced to train the cooperative members in distilling and soap making. The cooperative produces organic and glycerin ranges of products. Lemongrass oils are the main flavouring ingredient but there are various other oils such as rose geranium and rosemary.

Soap Production

In addition to soap making, the cooperative also produces bath salts, sugar scrubs, lemongrass flavoured rooibos tea and lip balm. The products are sold as individual units or as gift baskets in traditional reed baskets made by the cooperative members. The Bulungula Essential Oils Cooperative’s soaps and related products are the top selling items at the Siyakhula Shop (at Bulungula Lodge). Different markets are being explored for the products as the cooperative cannot solely rely on the shop sales. Establishments such as hotels, BnBs, backpacker lodges and supermarkets are being courted as potential markets.

So next time you visit Nqileni or get to a soap aisle, make sure you look for the ‘Made in Bulungula’ soaps.