Education South Africa Project #9502

Start a Preschool for 60 Children in South Africa

by Even Ground

Project Report | Apr 7, 2024
Starting our Tenth Year / Donation Match

By Khethiwe Khuzwayo | Director, Siyabonga Centre

Siyabonga opened for the new school year on January 17. It was 10 years ago that we first opened the doors of our new center for the 2014 school year. We are so very thankful to all of you who have made it possible for us to continue to serve the young children and families in our community!

It was wonderful to see all our returning children, as well as welcome children coming to the Centre for the first time. We were able to accommodate more children this year because of the new classroom that we completed in October. (Last year our five-year-old students had class in a meeting room). We now have 114 children attending, the most we have ever had. Starting a new year is always a little challenging, with new children adjusting to a different routine and being away from family. This year we had the added difficulty of losing one of our teachers the week after we opened, without notice. Thankfully, we had a qualified, hard-working volunteer who was able to step in. Since then, things have gone smoothly and we are on track with the national curriculum framework, set by the Department of Education. We ended our first term on March 20 and completed progress reports for the guardians of each child.

Our last topic for the term was healthy living, which focused on hygiene (washing hands, brushing teeth, and bathing) and healthy food. After talking about the importance of eating plenty of fruits and vegetables and encouraging those who can afford it to bring healthier snacks, the older children got to plant beetroot, cabbage, green pepper, and mealie (corn) in our garden. As you can imagine, this last activity was a favorite for the children.

As always, your support is essential to continuing our programs at Siyabonga. And if you give this week, your gift can have an even bigger impact! Starting tonight at 9:00 pm PDT (12:00 am Monday EDT) through Friday, April 12, 8:59 pm PDT (11:59 pm EDT), all online donations of up to $50 will be matched at 50% by GlobalGiving for their Little By Little Campaign. Your generosity this week can help ensure we have the funds we need to continue our program for the rest of the school year.

Thank you again for everything you have done for Siyabonga over the years. We would not be able to provide the services we do without your support. You have truly helped to uplift the lives of the hundreds of children who have attended Siyabonga since it began.

With deep gratitude and best wishes,

Khethiwe

Permalink

Dec 24, 2023
THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

By Khethiwe Khuzwayo | Director, Siyabonga Centre

Dear Friends of Siyabonga,

As the year winds to a close, we are filled with gratitude. Amid endless challenges, your ongoing support brings hope to all of us at Siyabonga and to the families we serve. I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who has been part of our journey. Your partnership has been the driving force behind our mission.

As you may recall, this past year began with devastating rains that caused severe damage in our community, which had yet to recover from flooding the previous year. Our building and the homes of many of our families were impacted. Words cannot express how appreciative we are of your willingness to step up and provide us extra support this year. With your help, we were able to do all the required repairs, put on a new roof and gutters, and paint the building inside and out. We also rebuilt our play structure which was unsafe to use after the rains. Everything now looks as good as new. The staff and the children are so happy to be spending time here now! Additionally, we managed to complete the construction of another classroom which we had started before COVID. Our enrollment has increased from 60 to 100 children over the years, so we really needed more space.

Despite the tough beginning to the year, we managed to continue all our programs and activities throughout the year and to hold our annual events with our families. In June, they joined us to celebrate Youth Day and in September we celebrated Heritage Day. This month we had a graduation ceremony for the 29 children who are moving on to primary school. Family and other community members joined us to recognize the achievements of all our students and to see them perform.

Thank you again to all of you who helped us get through 2023 and made it possible for us to start a new year in a much better place. You make a difference!

I wish you all good health, love, peace, and joy in the coming year.

Warm Regards,

Khethiwe

Children Enjoying New Play Structure

Heritage Day Celebration

Graduation

Permalink

Sep 17, 2023
Siyabonga Update / Donation Match!

By Khethiwe Khuzwayo | Director, Siyabonga Centre

Welcome Spring!

Together with the Board, staff, and families of Siyabonga, I would like to thank everyone who contributed to replacing our failing roof and repairing the damage to the interior of the building caused by the flooding. I am happy to report that the repairs went very well, despite some delays in the completion of the work due to ongoing rain. We are so pleased that the work is now done -- the roof, gutters, and rooms look perfect! Everyone, including the children, were excited to be back in the newly painted classrooms. We are extremely grateful for the assistance you provided.

While we’ve completed the urgent roof repairs, we still have two more projects to complete to rectify the damage caused by the past two years of heavy rain and flooding. We still need to repaint the exterior of the building and to rebuild the play structure to make it safe for the children to use again. We are hoping we can raise the needed funds soon to enable us to complete this work in the next few months.

Despite the slight disruption caused by the construction, everything has been going smoothly at Siyabonga. To ensure the children are getting enough physical and social development, as well as the chance to play, we started a new activity a few months ago we are calling Fun Friday. Every Friday one of the teachers leads a different sports activity. The children play soccer, netball, participate in races, or do something unique that a teacher has planned for the day. As you can imagine, Friday has become one the children’s favorite days at the Centre.

On September 1, we welcomed spring with some special lessons and activities for the children. An outdoor picnic was planned and the families who were able to brought goodies to share. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate, and we ended up having our picnic in the classrooms. Still, the children really enjoyed the special day.

As always, your support is essential to continuing our programs at Siyabonga. And if you give this week, your gift can have an even bigger impact! Starting tonight at 9:00 pm PDT (12:00 am Monday EDT) through Friday, September 22, 8:59 pm PDT (11:59 pm EDT), all online donations of up to $50 will be matched at 50% by GlobalGiving for their Little by Little Campaign. Your generosity this week can help us raise the funds we need to rebuild our play structure and paint our building!

Thank you again for everything you have done for Siyabonga over the years. We would not be able to provide the services we offer to children and families in our community without your support. You have truly helped to uplift the hundreds of children who have attended Siyabonga since it began.

With deep gratitude and best wishes,

Khethiwe

Picnicking Indoors

Fun Friday!

Permalink

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ... 16 ›

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.