Education South Africa Project #7495

Educate a South African Child Experiencing Poverty

by Christel House International

Educate a South African Child Experiencing Poverty

Project Report | Jan 9, 2024
Blankets & booties - knitted with love!

By Paul Montgomery | Director of Marketing and Content Management

Students create wool-warm items for babies.

The girls in Grade 7 at Christel House South Africa were eager to do something for their community. They considered many options and landed on hand knitting blankets, booties, and hats for babies. Their service-learning project engaged the entire school.

To get started, the girls needed to purchase wool and knitting needles shares Celeste Fredericks, teacher/librarian/coach for the students. “The noble intention of this project had me hooked,” she says. To buy materials, the school approved a “Civvies Day,” allowing students to wear casual clothes for a small donation. “This effort gave the girls the initial funds to start the project,” says Fredericks. The next challenge for the students – learning how to knit! The team decided to create baby blankets (squares of 30 stitches, 30 rows, and 9 squares per blanket.) This gave everyone a chance to contribute to the blankets. The kids learned quickly. “We knitted furiously during break times,” says Fredericks. Parents and teachers joined the effort, making caps and booties, and teaching the girls and some boys how to knit. Running out of wool, the entire Grade 7 class joined the project to host a school Market Day, successfully selling treats and items to buy more materials. In total, 12 blankets, several caps, and plenty of booties were knitted. “Knitting is not easy, but it’s such fun,” one of the girls said. “I’m proud to see my knitted squares in a blanket!” The knit packages are being distributed to a local maternity ward. Despite the challenges, Fredericks says student enthusiasm never dimmed. “I am so incredibly proud of their accomplishments and how they got the whole school community to participate in this project.”

Permalink

Sep 18, 2023
Meet the student leaders at Christel House South Africa

By Paul Montgomery | Director of Marketing and Content Management

May 30, 2023
Youth Bridge launches to combat unemployment

By Paul Montgomery | DIrector of Marketing and Content Management

Students work with mentors in Youth Bridge classes

Youth unemployment has been described as a ticking time bomb in South Africa. "We have 9.2 million unemployed youth," says Adri Marais, CEO, Christel House South Africa. The school's new Youth Bridge program provides a pathway to help job-seekers.

Youth Bridge supports unemployed youth (15 to 35-year-olds) and helps them bridge the gap between their undiscovered ambitions and abilities and the career opportunities that await them. It draws on lessons from Christel House South Africa's successful efforts over the past 22 years to support vulnerable youth to secure gainful employment.

The school engaged with experts on how to create sustainable and viable solutions around our new Youth Bridge Initiative. Key themes include the perceived disconnect and mismatch of expectations between the youth and the South African industry, potential strategies that businesses and entrepreneurs can implement to generate new employment opportunities, how youth who come from vulnerable communities can be better supported and, most importantly, how a character-based, career-focused approach will support young work-seekers in their career journey.

The program provides unemployed youth the opportunity to engage in a 6-month program that includes full-time intensive contact sessions, bolstered by 4.5 months of longitudinal support and mentorship. Participants receive character development lessons, computer training, financial literacy education, career etiquette, establishing a career path and a psychometric assessment to assist in finding their passion. Mentors connect graduates to further education opportunities to improve their skills and employability and eventually match them with potential employers.

“Youth Bridge recognises the challenges that the emerging workforce faces in not only securing employment opportunities but also in maintaining positions that offer growth potential for career advancement. Our role is to act as the unifying force, which brings our partners and youth together for a common purpose – to make a meaningful impact in the lives of the next generation,” said Ayanda Mvandaba, Managing Partner of the program.

Links:

Watch a video about the Christel House Youth Bridge program.

Permalink

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ... 18 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.