Project Report
| Jun 3, 2013
Ships Ahoy! Pirate Day
By Andy Eskeland | Ikhayalethmba coordinator
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Each Friday at Ikhayalethemba we host a “Fun Friday” activity for the children. This includes all sorts of activities ranging from baking to kite making to most recently, a pirate themed day. The look on the children’s faces was priceless as they walked into the classroom to see balloons, our own Ikhayalethemba jolly roger, and even a parrot. To add to the children’s excitement, each swashbuckling buccaneer was given an eye patch, a bandana, and a cardboard cut out of a hook or sword, even a mini sword for our smallest child.
We followed all this up with our usual story time, but with a pirate-y twist. We read a couple of the children’s favourite stories about pirates, and got all the kids to join in reciting them back. When the stories were done we played a game of pass the treasure, a pirate version of pass the parcel. All the kids were anxious to see what the treasure would be and who would get it. For the rest of the day we played games with our balloon decorations and built a fort, or perhaps it was a pirate ship, out of blankets and chairs.
It was an incredibly fun Friday for everyone involved.
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Mar 7, 2013
Playhouse at Ikhayalethemba
By Sophie Birkett | Charitable Trust manager
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Creative play is an important part of our programme at Ikhayalethemba Village. The great thing about creative play is that children develop their social skills; interacting, talking and sharing. This play is also so essential to the development of children's physical skills, language and problem solving. One of our key goals at Ikhayalethemba is for the children to develop strong English skills and through Creative play children have many opportunities to develop their English language.
When we had some financial donations for Ikhayalethemba just prior to Christmas, we decided to put it toward a playhouse for the children. A playhouse provides an opportunity for children to role play and to interact with each other in a positive way. It is a wonderful opportunity for children to engage in Creative play. We decided that the playhouse would be a Christmas present from Father Christmas.
There was great excitement at Ikhayalethemba when Father Christmas' present arrived early. The children looked on with anticipation as a van drove up and in the back were large wooden shapes. They sat as a group to watch their gift unfold. It wasn't long before the children could recognise that the shapes were going to make a playhouse. As the workers put the playhouse together the children sat attentively. Once they realised what it was going to be, they started planning what they could put in it. The carers were joking that they would put their own beds in there to sleep, much to the amusement of the children. Once the house was erected, the workers stained it and so the children had to wait to explore for an hour and a half whilst it dried. They did this well and managed to line up an array of things that they thought would be suitable to use inside the house. Already the children's creativity was kicking in!
Since that first day the children have loved their playhouse. They have developed all sorts of role play situations and it's lovely to see them play so cooperatively. It made a great stable for our Christmas Nativity and many of our class lessons have been done inside the playhouse.
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Dec 31, 2012
Mama Lumka - The Wheelbarrow Saint
By Sophie Birkett | Charitable Trust Manager
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Mama Lumka
Mama Lumka is affectionately known as “The Wheelbarrow Lady” or “The Wheelbarrow Saint”. She gained this title from the days when she used to walk through the township collecting children who had been abused and neglected, taking them to her own home to provide care. Some of the children she found were in dark rooms with a bucket for a toilet and food left for them on the floor.
Mama’s passion is for the children with disabilities. Her own son Jackson had severe disabilities and had lived a short life. This particularly inspired Mama to take in children with Special Needs.
By 2001 Mama Lumka was providing care for 16 children in her own home in Nomzamo, a township near Cape Town. In 2002 a group of business people acknowledged the wonderful work that Mama was doing and decided to support her. This is when the Nceduluntu Sanctuary Trust was established. In September 2004 the first 2 homes on the Sanctuary site were established. It was named Ikhayalethemba Village. Ikhayalethemba means Home of Hope. Since then Mama has been providing care for orphaned and vulnerable children at Ikhayalethemba Village, many of them with Physical and Intellectual disabilities.
Global Vision International (GVI) formed a partnership with Mama in August 2009. Since then volunteers from all over the world have been working at Ikhayalethemba Village. GVI volunteers provide educational programs for the children and have also worked with the children with Special Needs to provide therapy programs. Through the Christmas appeal with GlobalGivingUK, we would love to take the children on outings and access services such Riding for the Disabled or Swimming therapy. This would be a great experience for the children. Your donation can make this a reality.
![Devotion to her children]()
Devotion to her children
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