Child sponsorship update from Mbabane
13/09/2007
Update from June 2007
Dear Friends/Sponsors
The SOS Mbabane village children, youth and staff once again greet you friends and supporters. The year is fast getting almost halfway through so are the facility activities. The year begun well with children and youth relaxed after the festive season. Some children returning from their respective relatives were beaming with stories to tell their mothers and friends in and out of school.
Through out the year 2006, the SOS Children’s Village Mbabane was providing care to one hundred and seventeen children. This showed an excess of seven children to the village compliment. It is envisaged that this situation will be eased during the course of the year 2007 as two more family houses will be in place. Eleven SOS mothers and six assistant mothers look after these children. Of the above children, eight are still at home as babies ranging from nine months to thirteen months and one who is two and a half years now. Nine are at kindergarten whilst seventy-seven are at the primary school and one is at a special slow learner’s school. There is a child who has a hearing problem and is on treatment. The Doctor has now recommended that he be operated on after two years if the condition does not improve.
Twelve children from the primary school who had learning challenges were at the beginning of the year transferred to the Literacy class with the recommendation of the teachers. Since joining the program at the beginning of the year, most of the children’s self-esteem and confidence have been enhanced hence the improvement in their academic performance. The literacy program continues well, producing children that re-integrate back to normal school stream. This is in some cases after two, three or four years depending on the academic performance of the child. The full program is four years. It gives a more dedicated approach to individual children and helps even slow learners to cope.
Study sessions continue for the village children and the youth. Grade sevens who write an external examination at the end of the year, participate in afternoon group discussions and occasional assistance from different volunteers. Reading and writing classes have also been started for children who are not coping well, they seem to be enjoying it and doing well. These classes take place on Tuesday evenings with the help of Waterford kaMhlaba community service students. Arrangements are being made with some Mathematics teachers willing to assist children with difficulty in the subject. After the final year examinations last year some of the children changed schools as we strive to spread them into as many schools for a healthy competition and interaction.
Three of our youth have started tertiary education at a local Vocational Training Institute where two are doing a Diploma in Accounting and one a Diploma in Secretarial and Business Studies. One is in Tshwane University in Pretoria where he is pursuing a degree in Information Technology. Three others went to Namibia in January 2007, for a two-year Diploma in Hotel Catering and Hospitality while another started a Hotel Catering course locally after he strongly felt he has a passion for catering. On the other hand another has started a one-year course in Sports Administration with a local institution. One of the youth who completed a two-year Diploma in Hotel Catering from Namibia at the end of 2006, has secured a job with a local college. Although she is still on probation, it is hoped that she will eventually be confirmed and re-integrated.
The unemployment rate is high in Swaziland and the SOS youth is therefore no exception in this situation. However, management assist where it can to secure jobs for the SOS youths from friends of SOS and utilising the Board of Governors network.
Two youths were re-integrated due to misconduct and are staying with relatives. One has gone back to school and the other is still deciding what she wants to do. They have both been assured of SOS Children’s Village’s support. Two other re-integrated youth got married, one had a tradition wedding and we were all excited at SOS village. The youth held a cultural talk’s forum which was aimed at instilling culture and discipline. They liked it so much, such that they requested to have more of these talks in the future.
The SOS community clinic continues providing primary health care to both community members, village children and the youth. The Nurse visits the village family houses to monitor the well being of children, nutrition and cleanliness of the houses. The Social Worker attended a workshop on child survival and shared the deliberations with the Nurse and together they are making plans to implement some of the possible recommendations. One of our mothers went to the HGATC for the Basic Mother’s Training course. One of our long serving Youth Leaders has resigned after ten years and has been replaced.
In our endeavour to raise funds, SOS had a national fundraising event during the Easter holidays. It started with a sponsored walk, an awareness campaign with fun games and ended with an Easter Bunny Fete on 31 March 2007. Staff members, board members, children and members of the public participated in both the walk and the fete. It was so much fun and the children have not closed their mouths about the activities. During the fete, raffle tickets were sold with beautiful prizes and some were worn by SOS children and members of staff. We would like to thank you for making a better life for the children at the SOS Children’s Villages.
R.S Sihlongonyane
Village Director
Sponsor's update from Nhlangano
Update from June 2007
Dear Friends and Sponsors,
The Nhlangano SOS Children’s Village would like to again take this opportunity to thank all generous donors, sponsors and friends for their continued support. The Village is very grateful for your contributions and had it not been for your continued support we would not be able to care for the children in our village. This year, Swaziland has been hit by the worst ever drought. Almost all the maize fields which provide the staple food of the Swazi community got dry before even putting up the cobs. Rains only came in the last few months and will not in any way help as all the maize fields are already dry. In terms of food the country will indeed suffer. This is Swaziland’s worst drought stricken year since 1992. The country will need to be rescued out of this year’s hunger otherwise a lot of the children’s relatives and the very poor families will not make it through to 2008. This is going to affect a lot of the rural communities where most of the SOS children come from and have relatives staying there. It looks very certain that SOS is going to be called upon to provide some relief support to almost all the surrounding communities.
Apart from the above bad news, the children started the year in high spirits as most of them were from visiting relatives during the Christmas holidays. This enabled a larger number of the children to make a difference between the poor country lives lived by their relatives and the quality life that is offered to them by SOS. From the individual reports written by the children to the Social Worker on how they spent their Christmas holidays, it was evident that most children only enjoyed the country life because it was for a short period.
The Village provides quality care and support to fifty-one girls and fifty boys, this first half of the year. The children are growing very well and evident to this is the large number of boys and girls who are now getting ready to move to the Youth Home. Children are assisted through the one to one Child Development Process (CDP) to ensure that they are developing holistically. The Village continues to receive and keep a long list of needy children that apply to be admitted into the Village but due to the limited openings and the very tight budget constrains only the one eighteen months old boy, which was by that time a very sick child was admitted. This admission was done to save this boy’s life and also enable his sick mother who was at that time already admitted in one of the region’s hospitals to recover. Both the child and his mother are now well again, with the child already learning to walk.
We also had a case of child abandonment where a mother dumped her baby in the forest near a football ground called King Sobhuza’s Memorial Stadium. She was found, arrested, convicted and the sentence was suspended, as she was a first time offender. The maternal grandmother promised to take care of the baby who was then released into her custody. The mother was counseled and encouraged to take care of her own child.
The three boys and four girls who sat for their final primary examination in December 2006 all passed with one boy and one girl obtaining first class passes whilst the rest got second-class passes. Two girls and three boys who sat for their junior certificate examination passed as well with one girl getting a first class pass, three boys got second class passes and one girl got a third class pass. This year seven children, five boys and two girls doing grade seven which is the last primary school class before going into their secondary education. There are eight youths and two village boys who will be sitting for their external junior certificate secondary examination this year.
Four girls were integrated to the youth facility in February. This year there are eighteen youths made up of eight girls and ten boys. Nine youths are doing their secondary education. Six are in high school, one is doing the International Baccalaureate course at Waterford kaMhlaba and one is in second year of his degree in Science with the university of Swaziland Another one of the youth, who completed his high school education from last year is currently upgrading his English to be able to enter the Swaziland colleges next year. Eighty-five village children are attending primary school, eleven are in secondary school, and three are attending the kindergarten while one-toddler and a newly admitted baby are still at home. Sadly, we lost an almost two-year-old boy in February 2007 through death after he accidentally swallowed a marble which choked him. The child was rushed to hospital and attempts were made by the hospital to save him but he could not be saved.
Study and reading sessions have been strengthened and now held from Monday to Thursdays. On Fridays the staff, SOS Mothers, youths and village children have village sports games which include soccer, netball, volleyball, rugby, ummiso and sibhaca which are our cultural dances. The Ministry of Education has given the village primary school textbooks from grade one to grade seven to strengthen the reading and studying programmes.
Six SOS Mothers and other members of staff were recognised during the village’s end of year party and were awarded certificates for completing five years with the organisation. We received two visitors from Germany who sponsor the Nhlangano Village. They brought gifts for the children. A businesswoman in Nhlangano who supports the village donated Christmas presents for all the village children. Children aged three to fourteen years also received gifts from UNICEF and the Swaziland Church Forum. The children really had beautiful presents and you should have been here to see their excitement. They were all smiling with excitement and one of them was heard saying, “I wish every day was Christmas” A gentleman from Korea visited the village to perform, amuse and share jokes with the children. They were all smiles through out the performance and were giggling and asking each other “How does he do all that, I want to do it too”
It is SOS’s aim to expose and educate Mothers on issues related to their work hence two of them attended training on eating healthily and home base care. Five Assistant Mothers and two Mothers went for a study tour to New Life Homes for Children to see what they do well with their children, exchanged ideas and share experiences.
We encourage SOS children’s relatives to visit the children and help us obtain legal papers for the children. So far we have managed to take thirty-three birth certificates for the village children. This exercise is going to continue until all the Village children and youths have got their individual birth certificates which will enable them to get all the other necessary legal documents like travel documents.
All the above Village and childcare activities have been made possible through the support of our very caring friends, donors and sponsors. On behalf of the SOS children, youth and the village team we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued generous support.
Sipho D. Dlamini
Village Director
Relevant Countries: Swaziland.