Wednesday

Wednesday....what a treat!

Wednesday morning, we met at the Boland school for Autism with Christelle, the school psychologist, to discuss some of our observations and brainstorm on ways to increase communication and sensory activities throughout the day. It's always fun to brainstorm with others especially overseas yet it requires some creativity and "out of the box" thinking due to difference in resources and manpower.

That night, we went back to participate in their fundraiser: A Christmas Concert. HOW FUN! The staff and children reenacted the Christmas story. It was full of humor and excitement, and of course, many unexpected moments (the mic was stolen on a quite a few occasions for some "ad lib"). This concert was the highlight of the day. Parents were able to come see their children's hard work as well as shop for some items that would benefit the school.

Thank you, Boland, for inviting us out to this event. 

Christelle, Joey, Jaco, and Amorei, you are my heroes!

Keep on, you inspire us and most importantly, you instill hope and inspiration into and love "our" children!

For American supporters, you pulled together an extra R1000 at the last minute to add to our R8000 that we wired before left. This is around $1000 USD. I wish you could have experienced the giving, but know that you are appreciated from waaaaaaaaaay over here by many little faces, staff, and parents. 

Enjoy some pictures from the evening:

Too grateful for words

Danielle

Tuesday....

What did we do on Tuesday? The best thing ever....loved on a ton of kiddos who have been infected or affected with HIV.

We spent the entire day at Bowy House. Bowy House is a home for children with HIV or who caretakers have HIV and have been unable to care for them. They live in the home in which they are fed, stimulated and given their medicines. A staff member takes them to appointments and visits. They are also given time to reintegrate with family members when possible during their continuous stay at Bowy House. Some children stay 3 weeks while some may stay 3 months or 3 years. The house cares for children as infants up to 5 years.

Health programs include:

• medical care
• nutritional and hygiene care
• educational and special needs care
• family care
• home based care 

Since 2002, 105 children have been impacted through Bowy House.

We were able to be present on the day the OT was there so Candice was able to see OT in South Africa and find out more in that area.

We played outside with them, read to them, helped to feed them, and assisted the caretakers in rounding them up and "putting them where they need to go." I was lovingly poked, prodded, and patted by many hands. Of course our hair was a hit so we had many hands in it at all times. I think I left with my very own "afro."

Here are some pictures of the inside of the home. We did not take pictures of the kids due to confidentiality and we know, you are sorely missing out on some cuteness.

 play area - we spent most of our day here

 outside patio area with tin overhead

"big" boys room

 "big" girls room

 toddler room

the babies room

What a wonderful way to spend a day!

xoxo,

Danielle

Monday

Wow, I need to catch up! I'll post more about the weekend later, and I'll start with Monday!

Monday, we met at the coffee shop with Aletia, the new CEO of Monte Christo Miqlat. I remember Aletia from the food center from previous years so it is nice to see her in this new position. We met for a lovely breakfast (as you'll see pictures, of course), and she gave us an overview of the organization as it is now since it has gone through some recent changes with the merging of Miqlat & Monte Christo Ministries. 

For those of you who are not familiar with Monte Christo Miqlat, they have five strategic focus areas: Bowy House (our Tuesday spot), Food center (they are now feeding 9000 children across 4 regions), community centers in Mbekweni + Paarl East (while promoting social entrepreneurship), the homeless, and the coffee shop. The mission includes sustainably helping and empowering those in the community who are in need. They focus on partnerships to share resources and work together to fulfill the mission.

They are doing an amazing job here. Check out just a few of the stats from last year (2011):

• 65 homeless put in jobs each month
• 275 homeless fed per month
• 889,200 meals served
• 68,400 school holiday meals served
• 2,500 children coached and fed weekly

Then, we went on a tour of the area with Francisco, who is always energetic and a load of fun! There is never a dull moment with Francisco around. We started in the mountains overlooking the valley to get an aerial view while hearing some of the history as we looked onto the various communities. We drove around to the locations of the focus areas for the organization and heard from leaders regarding the daily activities of the facilities, target populations, and community information and demographics.

To me driving through, several times I was overwhelmed with the enormity of some of the problems and how each "area" has several interwoven factors that make isolating and combating them difficult. I'm always reminded of the starfish story and the need to start small and grassroots. 

Here are some pictures from the day:

 

with Aletia

 view of the valley

 Francisco & Candice

 garden planted at Lukhanyo

 

 beads made by community women

 sewing project available for women in the community

 a few of the community heroes

  

class for community adults to learn basic skills to help with everyday living

That's a brief overview of our Monday introduction to Monte Christo Miqlat! 

Please go their website for more information!

Danielle

A visit to the autism school

On Friday, Candice and I headed off to the Boland School for Autism to see how we may be of service. To be honest, I went in with an inflated ego. I have some good years of autism experience under my belt as an SLP in the USA and I am half way through my behavior analyst classes. Candice is an OT and just top notch in all things OT (in my humble opinion). Together, us, as a self-proclaimed dream team could go in and give many suggestions and drop off our supplies that many of you graciously donated. Piece of cake.

One of the teachers, Jaco, picked us up at our guesthouse and briefed us on the way. I had been to the school before in 2010 to paint it so I was a little familiar with the children and the school site. They rent a few rooms from a church so the school is housed within the church building. Now, we immediately loved Jaco. He has this bubbly personality and you know immediately that you'd never grow tired of working with him. You can also see how much he loves his job as he describes the school and the children.

Friday is a slow and easy day at the school so we arrived just as the children were finishing a baking project with another teacher, Joey. When the children finished baking and eating lunch, they went outside to play which gave us a chance to sit down and speak with Joey + Jaco and in turn begin to think through our suggestions.

These teachers are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I was humbled by the sheer emotion that exudes as they describe each child. I was almost devoured by love, if you could imagine it being so tangible. They love their jobs. The children love them. You can see it. You can feel it.

[insert repetitive sounds of glass shattering as my ego fell into a million pieces]

As I listened and watched their interactions with each other and the children, I wanted to shrink down in my seat with feelings of inadequacy. I was humbled.

I hope that we will be able to help them with some practical suggestions. Many of the suggestions could require manpower that they just do not have right now. We will go back next week to meet with the school psychologist and debrief a bit. 

Here's the other bit of it. Much of what I saw that was needed does not require some fancy degree or extra letters behind your name or even a trip out here to do something. It just requires donations. 

I have looked up their website in the past year several times and have seen "fundraisers." We were also invited to one next week for the children's concert. I thought to myself, "this is a lot of fundraisers." Now, if you are accustomed to doing fundraisers, you know they are not fun. They are stressful and they take time away from your life when they are due. Imagine doing them OFTEN because your school depends on it? Then, when you think about the reality of it, imagine doing them because your salary depends on it?!?! For me, I need security of knowing that my paycheck is coming. I need to know that I have supplies to use to do the best I can with my job. I have the luxury of depending on parents to purchase most needed or dire supplies. Not here. The school is not yet government funded so they rely on donations to pay teachers and provide what is needed for the school. The children are able to come there at a lower rate than other places. Many cannot afford private schools and even government schools have years-long waiting lists. 

I just looked at all the lovely little faces in the school and imagined them not having anywhere to go. Tuition is R600 per month which to us at the moment is ~$70. Many families barely have that and they surely do not have more than that to go elsewhere. 

The school needs our help!

For those that donated supplies, the teachers were very grateful. Please know that just an item or two here and there brought so much appreciation.  When was the last time YOU were stoked over glue??! 

We are hoping to do more while we are here. If we get any additional financial donations while we are here, then we are going to buy some supplies. We noticed that there are a few rooms that have yet to have blinds placed. This area can get HOT in the summer so I know the children must barely be able to stand being in the class with no air conditioning, the heat, and the sun in their eyes (remember that some children with autism have certain sensitivities anyway). We would love to make sure that blinds are purchased to cover those windows. 

Thank you for what you have done so far for this school and please let me know if you have any additional questions or would like to assist. THIS is a great place to put your bucks.

Here are some pictures from the day:

 a couple of the windows that need blinds

 the "orange room" [1 of 2 classrooms]

 the "blue room" [below]

 a volunteer comes in during the week, bringing her own supplies, and makes crafts with the kids

This small area is where they do their baking -- all of the children were squeezed in to participate

 Joey, Candice, Danielle, Jaco

 computer room [I do not think this room is up and working yet]

 things we don't always think of : we donate large items like printers which is GREAT but then we forget that it costs $$ to purchase cartridges...

 again, large items that still require supplies such as dry erase markers (which we brought) and the sheets

If you wanna help, donate to my gofundme account here.

For more information on the school, you can visit the website.

Grateful,
Danielle