Reading Power Programme - progress report

Reporting Month: March & April 2011
Report by: Minky Makhubedu-Mashego

I find it a blessing to be helping the children with the READING POWER PROGRAMME. We are continuing to help them to read, write and understand English and our children are still very interested in the programme. We know that in due time our children will reap for life, and therefore we will not give up, we will press on.

New Home
It had not been easy to work in a garage at Amukelane Care Centre, where food was being prepared on a daily basis, as it was very hot and not a suitable place for learning. We were hoping for a miracle. Today we witnessed that miracle with the supprt of a group of 26 high school students accompanied by their 3 teachers who came all the way from Pinetree Secondary School in Vancouver, Canada, and were a real blessing to us. Within a period of two weeks they had renovated a building at Moduping Primary School for our usage. Now SizaBantwana is privileged to have a dedicated Reading Power Centre. They also provided us with plenty of books to start a library as well as clothes and toys for the children. We also appreciate the partnership between SizaBantwana and the principal of Moduping Primary School with the school governing body(SGB).

Challenges
We gave the children time to rest during the school holidays and it was also an opportunity for Precious, (Precious is an assistant facilitator in the reading programme) and I, to take a break. The reading power programme is very challenging as our children are not ecposed to hearing, reading and speaking English. It is our plan to eradicate this kind of disadvantages. As an example, I was helping a grade 8 girl with reading and understanding a story about a "daddy". I asked her if she knew the meaning of "daddy" in her own language and she told me that "daddy" meant "baboon". I just realized that there is a lot of basic and elementary work to be done. We encourage them to utter simple words and to read easy English story books. We also encourage children who are a bit more advanced in reading to use a dictionary for words that they do not understand.

Thank you Skukuza Primary
We are extremely grateful for the donation of books from Skukuza Primary School; about 295 books altogether.

We are facilitating the Reading Power Programme for all the children from our Amukelane project at Moduping Primary School. I am glad that our other children from the neighbouring school are comfortable to join us and to attend to their reading lessons at this school.

Keep on praying with us that this programme will be of transformation in the lives of our children. We rally appreciate all of your support. Your coming to visit us when you have time is, and will continue to be, of encouragement too.