Sponsor's update from Bulawayo
25/09/2008
Update for child sponsors from Winter 2007
Dear sponsor,
The SOS Children’s Villages Bulawayo is very delighted to once again write to you updating you about our village and all the facilities in Bulawayo location.
Presently the Village is home to 166 children and 41 youth after receiving four additional babies in the last two months. The latest baby girl was so tiny that she could fit into a shoe box, but thanks to the Lord and your donations, she has turned out to be such a jovial bouncy baby full of life and energy.
Our city is experiencing water shortages, but the village was fortunate to acquire another borehole. We have since started an irrigation garden which has all types of vegetables which will soon find their way to our children’s tables in a few months time.
Two of our youths will be getting married in August and December 2007 respectively. We are frantically preparing for a big wedding party for one of our female youth, Sithembile. All her brothers and sisters are very excited as some of them will be part of the wedding procession!
The Village has also found accommodation for six of our youth in the community. They are very excited that they will be semi-independent for the first time.
To relieve stress and fatigue, our mothers and the children are involved in social games which include netball and volleyball during the weekends. The games bring excitement and a sense of unity between them as they compete for the fun of it!
The Village continues to offer staff development refresher courses for all co-workers on subjects such as HIV/AIDS awareness, neglect of children, child protection, sex education and nutrition. This is done to make sure that all our members of staff are up to date with issues that affect our children.
As a way of improving educational achievement for children, we have a vibrant study programme that is jointly monitored by our mothers and the Village Educator. We hope this will help improve their pass rate at school.
THE SOCIAL CENTRE
The programme has expanded to Nguboyenja (Satellite Programme) and the enrolment is now at 1700.
The community centre has continued to be a success with 22 guardians and 58 beneficiaries being engaged in gardening, this has helped improve their nutrition. In sport, 22 boys have registered with the Zimbabwe Football Association in division 3. This has helped to market them to teams in the premier soccer league. As we write, 4 youths from the community have secured places in two teams which are in the super league where they are fully employed and are reasonably remunerated.
Coming to health matters, in addition to the payment of medical bills, a household with ill children or guardians is issued with a home based kit and a caregiver is trained. This gives them the capacity to take care of the sick as they are better equipped to do this.
For accommodation needs, SOS Social Centre, Bulawayo has partnered with Chelmsford Estate Registration in acquisition of birth certificates and death certificates by beneficiaries who are in need of that support. This will help especially the child headed families, access their estate.
As a source of livelihood, Social Centre trains parents / guardians in basic management skills on how to run their projects. The programme also provides, “start up material” to income-generating projects. The projects include making of peanut butter, candles, soap, funeral gowns and uniforms. Some are engaged in knitting, doing special occasion decorations, gardening and vending. 66 households with total of 132 beneficiaries are engaged in these income generating projects and this has helped the community to be self reliant.
THE SOS NURSERY SCHOOL
The SOS Nursery school has maintained an enrolment of 170 children which is our full capacity. We have continued to offer stimulation programmes to toddlers and babies. Of the 170 children, 18 are from the Village. The other 18 are on the Family Strengthening Programme being supported by the SOS KDI Scholarship.
During the holidays, the nursery school held extra programmes for 30 children who attend nursery schools in the community which is serviced by the SOS Social Centre. The nursery school sees its role as offering that extra for these children who otherwise just get the basic in early childhood education.
Training Colleges within the city use the Kindergarten as an attachment centre for students training to become Early Childhood Development Educators, this enriches our educators as we are kept abreast with current trends in our work as we frequently consult with the colleges.
The Day of the African Child was celebrated by inviting a representative from Child Line to talk to children on child abuse in the hope of empowering children with information to protect themselves.
We wind the year with a workshop for nursery school educators within Bulawayo. We hope to cover such topics as HIV AIDS in the nursery school, child protection act, child abuse, discipline and child development and planning.
THE SOS PRIMARY SCHOOL
The school was awarded 2 certificates of merit for outstanding academic performance by the Ministry of Education as well as the Chairman of the Board of Governors of SOS Children Zimbabwe.
In a Marimba competition held at the Zimbabwe Academy of music recently, our school orchestra took part, emerging the overall winners after beating all participating schools and a trophy was brought home. In sport, our hockey teams both boys and girls did the school proud by winning all their matches and brought all the trophies home. Fundraising was a great success this term. Civvies days and cake sales brought in a steady income to augment our meagre resources.
Generally all our children are healthy and fine and all this could not be possible without your valuable sponsorship.
D. Dube
Village Director
Relevant Countries: Zimbabwe.