From the US side, I collected so many donations through parents at work. Every year, the parents from my work, Cornerstone Therapies, are generous enough to bring anything I’m taking that year for donation. This year was the same as always, with many parents soliciting information about donations, before I even posted the needs. It has become a “yearly” project for many—including parents who no longer come to Cornerstone. Plus, this year it was close to their hearts as well. The majority of my clients fall somewhere on the Autism Spectrum Disorder and in CA we are lucky enough to have therapy services funded through Regional Center at no charge to the parents. This year, parents brought school and art supplies for Boland including paint, crayons, construction paper, scissors, play-do, and wind-up toys (+ a lot of other things).
Boland School is new so government funding does not yet exist. The school, including the teacher’s salary, runs on donations. They now meet in rooms in a church in Paarl. I met the teacher, Alicia, a few days before the team went to the school. The greatest need was for the 2 classrooms to be painted so we met at a local paint store to pick out the colors together.
When we drove up to the school, I was filled with excitement. This was my “niche.” Three of the four enrolled children were on site (one was out sick) and greeted us at the gate. One of the boys, the “social butterfly and ham,” took me to the first room. My eyes immediately filled with tears at the size and look of the rooms. We had our work cut out for us! Two of the church’s rooms are used as classrooms– the “blue” class and the “orange” class which were a drab neutral shade with run down wood furniture in the rooms serving as dividers which divided each class into 2 sections. Each section was for a different purpose—work, exercise, eating, etc.
The team quickly began working on the blue room. I recalled how Alicia really wanted some bulletin boards for teaching and posting visual schedules so a couple of us headed to a local office store in search of those. We found the perfect boards in differing sizes, and the store gave us a discount on them. When we returned, the blue room was finished and we began the orange room. We finished about 5pm and headed out tired but satisfied.
We were lucky enough to have Luba serving with us on this day. Many of you know Luba from previous trips. For those who don’t, Luba is a former MCM staff member that I initially met in 2007 and look forward to catching up with every year I’m back. He has an amazing heart and unbelievable insights to share.
On a final note: The school has a website with a wish list of items, including those we took with us. They also need funding for another teacher. Please visit: http://www.bolandautism.org.za/wishlist for more information on how you may be able to help.
Here are some pictures from the day: (sorry, the pix got all out of order during the upload)
lunch break -- we tried McDonald's -- its the same grease all the way over there!
painting the orange room
painting the blue room
the orange room BEFORE
the blue room BEFORE
orange class AFTER
blue class AFTER
some of the donations from the parents at Cornerstone
We replaced the worn out backpack hooks with this cute ones
Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) in Afrikaans. I teach this system to some of my kids at work!
Luba
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