I had to send a child away!

The work in Gelvandale has been growing this last month ­ no actually you can't call it growing, it must be called exploding. We are only 2 tutors now working with 24 children and it is becoming impossible. This past week we had to divide the children into three groups. A Tuesday group, a Wednesday group and a both days group. Even with that arrangement in place, we will still have 15 children to work with on a day. So this week some kids came for Maths help and I had to send them away. It is heartbreaking! Unless we get more tutors, we will not be able to receive any more children. The four new kids that we did accept this week are all Gr 4 or higher with a very limited ability to read. If they do not receive help now, what will happen to them? What kind of education will they receive? I am afraid that there aren't positive answers to these questions. If you have an hour once a week to give, PLEASE contact me. On a more positive note. We took 7 2nd Graders on a camp to Jeffreys bay last weekend at the Global Challenge house. The kids were from Gelvandale, Shaudervile and Kensington. They had so much fun and there were plenty of opportunity to develop and learn new things. Thanks to the donor that made this camp possible!

Sophakama 2014 First Semester Update

2014 for Sophakama started with a bang. In the first quarter I trained 8 new tutors who got involved in the four places of service that Sophakama has been working at for a year or longer already. Thus, our workforce has been increases. Just before the end of the first quarter on 17 March 2014 we had an informal meeting for all the tutors at Lily Groenewald's house. Even though only a few of our 14 tutors could attend (because of their busy schedules), we had a lovely evening of sharing and encouraging each other. It was good to hear from one another what the things were that we were struggling with and also to hear the success stories. We also challenged one another to keep steadfast in our commitment to teach children reading and mathematics, because the task is really huge. Louise Greyling from Diaz Primary School and Anna Marie Tereblance of Acvv Poplar Ave also encouraged us by telling us about the positive impact they can already see in the children and school. Thank you, to each one that attended and a special thanks to Lily for receiving us in her home. The second quarter is starting a little slow with all the public holidays, but we'll be running on most engines starting this week. In two week's time we are having a camp for the younger kids of Acvv. We will be going to Jeffreys Bay – hopefully the weather will still be warm enough for a swim or at least some games on the beach. Well, that's all my news for now!