The winter school holiday programme is now in its full swing and I can’t believe that we have already completed the first week. Time really flies when you have fun and we had loads of educational fun this past week.
Well, almost all educational fun….we could not escape our responsibility to cheer for Bafana Bafana on Wednesday evening! This event was preceded by a most enjoyable football coaching clinic which was facilitated by Ambassadors in Sport together with about 30 students from Taylor University in the USA. They spent their Wednesday afternoon teaching our youth different football techniques on our sport field.
We also heard the stories of sheer determination and hard work from two exceptional players Adam and James Chambers (they played against Frank Lampard and others) who were visiting from the UK and shared their gift with our youth. Mr van Essen, our local mayor, also joined in on the fun and could not leave home before he joined in on doing the Waka Waka dance! This day was ended off with all of us watching the game between Bafana Bafana and Uruguay which was projected onto a big screen on the farm. Not even the disappointing score in the end could wipe the broad smiles and laughter of happiness from the faces of our youth.
About 100 school-going youth between the ages of 14 and 18 years spent their mornings learning more about how to read and understand the questions that they are expected to answer in their exam papers and school assignments, which career is most suitable for each one of them by using the PACE Careers assessment computer tool, the importance of having a personal goal and vision and an introduction to human rights with a specific focus on children’s rights. They also received the opportunity to visit PPC Cement Factory in Riebeek West where they learned more about the practical aspect of engineering and accounting.
As part of the servant leadership concept which is the core of POP’s youth project, the young people spent their afternoons helping more than 135 primary school children to improve their literacy and numeracy skills. It was absolutely incredible to witness just how compassionate and sincere the older youth reacted towards the young ones who were clearly struggling to write their names, do simple maths and read a fairy tale. One of the older youth took her job as a “teacher” so seriously that she rocked up with a pair of hand-made glasses that covered her whole face!
At night when I reflected about every day’s experience during the past week my eyes were filled with tears of joy and thanks giving because even though our work might seem small and like a drop in the ocean compared to the immense needs in our rural communities it was good to know that every single one of the 235 POP children had a smile on their face and full tummies for at least one week so far during this school holiday. I appreciated this even more on Friday when a 15-year old teenage girl broke into tears when she thanked us for feeding her this past week because they had no food at home.
Thank you to the Swartland Municipality, West Coast District Municipality, PPC in Riebeek West, Western Cape Department of Education, Brenda Robb, Lions Club in Newlands, Lady Mary Jephcott, Joanna and Richard Moreau and Victoria in Hong Kong, Simon Occleshaw, The South African Human Rights Commission, Street Law Project of UWC Legal Aid Clinic, Ambassadors in Sport together with Taylor University in the USA and Adam and James Chambers, the PACE Careers Programme and our wonderful POP staff and volunteers for helping to make the first week of this winter holiday programme possible, enjoyable and very valuable for our very precious rural children and youth.
The second week of the school holiday programme starts from Monday, 21 June 2010 till Friday, 25 June 2010. Please keep reading our blog to get further updates on our arts and culture week during which our children and youth will get a chance to make the flags of the 32 countries who are competing in the 2010 soccer world cup, learn some of their national anthems, languages, dances, music and food. This will be loads of fun and you can join us by sending us your comments please. Thanks for all your support.
Till next week.
Ingrid
We received a pleasant visit from our POP supporters Jan and Franka Dekker from Holland who visited us in 2007 for the first time with their family, John and Charlotte van Zyl who live in South Africa and this past week they came back to see how things have developed since then. They were delighted to see the progress made by POP and enjoyed thoroughly. 
