PROJECT OVERVIEW
WHAT YOU'LL GAIN FROM DOING THIS PROJECT:
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An exciting, never-to-be-forgotten adventure into
Africa and the many diverse cultures in South Africa
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The enormous satisfaction of helping disadvantaged children and
knowing that you made a difference to them.
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New skills, more confidence, a greater understanding
of a different culture, invaluable personal and professional
development.
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An entry on your CV or résumé that will put you head
and shoulders above most others in the job market
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And best of all ... an unforgettable experience!
The
significance of your placement and past successes:
The village
is a very traditional one which is still governed by the Traditional Leaders or
Tribal system. It is a very poor community with a population of approximately
6,000 people. There is one Primary school in the Village, eMakhosini Primary,
which is the main focus of our programme.
In addition
to eMakhosini Primary, we would also like to extend the programme to the village
secondary school, Senzagakon, in order to ensure that the standard of education
brought by the volunteer programme continues as pupils grow older.
A further
outreach programme involves a tiny missionary school situated inside the
eMakhosini Ophathe Heritage Park protected area. This little school –
KwaDingane Primary, has to be closed due to it’s location inside the boundaries
of the Park. We are
currently assisting in raising funds to build sufficient classrooms at
eMakhosini Primary to allow the pupils from KwaDingane to attend the village
school.
Your
contribution to this project, both in terms of your time and your placement fee,
is therefore of huge significance. We have already renovated an old building
which is now the school library and have also been instrumental in setting up a
computer room at eMakhosini Primary.
WORK CONTENT:
Both
Cultural Studies and Environmental Education are part of the South
African curriculum. You
will be involved with local schools and children and part of your work will be
to encourage them to think about and discuss
all aspects of cultural and
natural heritage and the importance of preserving it.
You can encourage the kids
to talk and think about these issues. You will get guidance from your supervisor
and access to materials he uses. This would hopefully get the children to start
thinking about their family history and where they come from and get them to ask
questions about legends in their family.
It will also help them take
note of the importance of the natural environment they live in and take
for granted – how special this is and that it is the most important asset for
their community – the area is economically very poor and the South African
government has identified tourism as the only means of economic upliftment in
this region.
Your teaching will be
focused on the standard conversational English or any other subject that
you have knowledge in, and tour interaction will teach life skills like
numeracy and English literacy.
TEACHING
COMPUTERS AND IT:
The schools you will be working with are also currently in
the process of acquiring computers and a computer teacher. Even the most basic
computer literacy skills are lacking here - anything from using Windows
to the technical aspects of keeping equipment dust free. They are hungry for
computer knowledge!
COACHING
SPORTS:
If you'd like to also coach sports during the school's Life
Orientation lessons, you'll be able to do so. You can combine this
with teaching the children other subjects.
The schools need help with sports and physical
education activities. They currently play Soccer and Netball, but
are also very interested in starting the cricket and hockey
for boys and girls alike
If you enjoy a challenge, you
can help us create a sports programme starting from scratch, because the school
doesn't currently have any equipment.
They
have a field that has been donated to the school for use as a sports field,
but it currently a dirt/clay track. However,
because of the weather and lack of water, they can't plant grass successfully,
so Travellers (via their charitable arm of the Bridge The Gap Trust), will be
assisting in providing and raising funds to lay down some astro turf and
possibly some hard courts for the
netball.
Life orientation forms part of the SA
curriculum and encompasses sports, arts, music or drama, depending on the
teacher’s preference. You will be acting as the sports teacher at the school and
either working with other volunteers or by yourself. You’ll coach a variety of
ages between 6 and 14 years and your working hours will usually be from around
8am – 2pm.
Teachers are keen to offer the children the
opportunity to learn to play sports rather than just kicking a ball around at
lunch time. As part of your placement you will be running coaching workshops
with the teachers every Wednesday to show them how to coach sports. As they have never been shown how to coach
sports properly, they are very keen to learn so that they can gain the skills
and feel more confident about taking sports sessions.A typical class at the school is between 30 – 60
and as part of the Life Orientation classes you will be given around 20 of the
children from a class for a number of periods during the day. Here you can coach
sports and even simple things, such as how to hold a cricket bat, how to bowl,
how to throw and kick a rugby ball properly… an opportunity they have not really
had before.
During this time the other children in the class
will be covering other subjects in the class such as music and drama. This will
help the teacher as they will be able to spend more time assisting smaller
groups of children , which is a lot more effective. The same applies to you
coaching with smaller groups.The children at the school have natural sporting
abilities, but don’t receive the opportunity to put them into practice in a
structured and organised way.
This is where you can really make a difference! The school, through Travellers Sports donations,
has some equipment available for you to use during coaching, but extra donations
are always welcome as the school’s annual budget is nowhere near enough to
afford sporting equipment.
To do this placement you’ll need to be flexible
with your coaching as sometimes things might not happen as planned. You will
have to be patient with the children as receiving well structured sport coaching
is a new concept to them. The coaching drills will be basic to begin with, but
they will quickly pick it all up with their natural ability.
All the
kids are so keen to play sports, and there are so many amazing athletes among
both the boys and girls. It's so refreshing to see every kid wanting to play,
there are no kids with sick notes wanting to get out of PE! The kids just roll
up there trousers kick off their shoes and they are ready to play. Vic
Weinberg (Travellers Sports volunteer)
The schools would
really appreciate it if you have the skills and can assist with coaching sports to the children
while you're doing your teaching programme.
TEACHING
MUSIC & DRAMA:
If you have talents in Music or Drama, you can help to pass
these on to the children.
"Jessica
Leygues is leaving the school today and when I arrived yesterday, she was
surrounded by children who were leaving their addresses for her. She had a
pocket full of letters and pictures and a very definite heavy heart. Jessica had
spent rather a lot of time in teaching the children some drama and the final
production was to be held today.
The children all gathered after lessons to put
on their last rehearsal so it was fortunate that I had chosen yesterday to
visit. It was a joy to see just how much effort Jessica had put in to this
little production and the children were delighted to perform. The finale was
amazing, with both Jessica and Victor joining the children in some very
energetic dancing. Jessica has spoken about coming back to the school next year
and we would be delighted to have her - she's been amazing."
Christine Hydes, Travellers
Your work on this placement will contribute substantially to developing
structured programmes in teaching, Music & Drama, Sports and IT - you'll be
helping to give the children access to knowledge they don't get now - you can
help change their lives forever!
The classes
are quite large, with an average of around 50 pupils per class, with a maximum
of 63. They run with youngsters from around 5½ years (Grade R) to about 15 years
old (Grade 7) and teach the usual curriculum subjects as well as human and
social sciences, technology and three languages: Zulu, Afrikaans and English.In the
junior schools,
English is
taught in Zulu and is done by translating words and phrases. This means that
many of the children don't reach the standard required for the subject. Thus,
when they get to high school where everything is taught in English, they find it
very difficult to learn their other subjects.
This is
where you, the volunteer, will be able to play a big part. By exposing the
children to conversational English and helping them to build up the confidence
to use the language in the classroom, on the playing fields or in
extracurricular activities, you'll be helping them to cope better with learning
all their subjects in high school..The
children are so eager to talk to people from different countries and they HAVE
to speak English to be able to converse. This is the best way to learn any new
language and has proven a great success in all of our school projects.
Teaching Arrangements:
On your first day of teaching you will be taken to the school and introduced
to the Principal, the teaching staff and pupils. You will be made very welcome
by all!
You'll have weekends free and this will
also allow some time for travelling and sight seeing. If you would like more
time to travel during, or after your teaching, this can be arranged.
"On
the weekends we explored the various sites of historical significance – one of
the most impressive being the “Spirit of eMakhosini” - a gigantic bronze beerpot
surrounded by 7 large titanium horns. Previous Travellers volunteers helped
erect this monument to the seven Zulu kings buried in the valley.
We also
visited the world famous Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park approximately 40minutes away. We
were lucky enough to see buffalo; several white rhino’s and even an elephant
bull! At game capture centre we had a really good hamburger for lunch and even
got to see some white rhino’s up close in the capture pens awaiting the upcoming
game auction."
Teaching is not available during
school holidays, so if you're planning to participate in a
placement, please take the above school term dates
into account when planning the timing of your project. On the other hand, if
a holiday falls during your proposed placement, you
could use this time to do any independent travelling
and sightseeing.
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