By Weekend Ngubane | Executive Director, Siyabonga
Dear Friends,
In January, we began our fifth year at Siyabonga. The staff and I were excited to welcome back our returning students and to meet the new children who have joined our program. We are really looking forward to a new year and to working together with our Board and the community to improve our early childhood education program. We also our eager to see the changes the year may bring for Siyabonga. As I begin my first full year at the Centre, I wanted to reach out personally to all the people who have made Siyabonga possible. I am truly humbled by the caring and generosity of so many people. On behalf of the Board, the staff, the children and the community, I say THANK YOU for keeping these needy children in mind. Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to all of you.
I am confident that 2016 will be a year of change at Siyabonga Centre. I am no longer calling it “Siyabonga Early Childhood Development Centre” because we envisage it becoming an “Educational Centre” for everyone in the community. Your ongoing support of our program has prompted us to widen our horizons. Our first step towards creating an education centre will be to establish an after-school program that will assist the children in the nearby primary schools to meet the challenges they will face, and to address their other needs that our schools do not have the resources to respond to. The after-school program will not only benefit those children who had been with us at Siyabonga, ensuring their continued educational success as they move forward, but also will assist more children in need. Our goal will be to improve their academic results and to assist them to achieve success into the future. As part of this program, we hope to have our own mini-library, so all of our students will have access to books and other learning materials. This is important as many of the students find it difficult to pay for transportation to the closest library. We also hope to add computers and Internet access, so all the local students, including the tertiary students, can benefit from the resources here. It would be so exciting to introduce our little ones to computing as early as possible and to encourage older students to volunteer to help, allowing them to get some work experience.
Once the after-school program is established, we hope to add a third pillar to our education centre. Under Apartheid, many of our older local residents were denied the opportunity to gain an education. Even after Apartheid ended, local schools, particularly in the rural areas, lacked the resources to provide a quality education. The completion rate for secondary school in the area remains extremely low (well below 50%). Consequently, there is a very high rate of illiteracy among the parents and guardians of our students. To address the needs of the adults in the community, we hope to add an Adult Basic Education and Training course. By offering adults basic education, many doors will open for those who attend. They will not only be in a position to assist their children in their learning, but will also have the ability to access more employment opportunities.
I am looking forward to a new beginning, with ideas being shared among all the relevant stakeholders who have and who continue to make significant contributions towards the growth of Siyabonga. I am pleased to have you all on board.
Thank you again for all your support.
Weekend Ngubane
Executive Director, Siyabonga
By Helen Towle | Asst. Project Director
By Helen Towle | Assistant Director - Thembanathi
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