Tshilidzini Special School

Classroom for visually impaired children

Jenna Praschma, Sector Manager for TVEP’s Access to Justice and Trauma Services, brought us to the Tshilidzini Special School, located in the village of Shayandima. Tshildzini Special School, created in 1971, is a boarding school for hearing, visual and/or physically disabled children, many of whom are from impoverished families unable to afford specialized treatment. The school is currently at capacity with 483 learners.

While we were quite impressed by the well groomed grounds, dedicated staff and well behaved students, we were dismayed to hear that the school receives government support of only R15/day for each student which equals $1.81 per student per day. Keep in mind that this is a boarding school which not only houses the students but feeds them 3 meals a day AND educates them. Most of us in the US couldn’t buy breakfast for that amount of money.

The students and teachers alike welcomed us into the classrooms and demonstrated resourceful learning/teaching techniques with the limited supplies available to them. Mr. Luies, Deputy Principal, admitted that he has physical therapy equipment languishing in a storeroom for lack of qualified personnel to operate it. We witnessed visually impaired students pounding away on antiquated Braille typewriters and no specialized auditory equipment for the auditory impaired. Updated equipment and specialized professionals (OT/PT/SLP/TVI/O&M) are non-existent. School supplies are meager.

It came as no surprise to us that the school was unfamiliar with what various worldwide community service organizations such as the Peace Corps have to offer. The school personnel are stretched thin and simply have no time nor resources to access this information. Hope for Limpopo will make an effort to network with TSS but unfortunately we are also stretched thin at this time.

If you know of service organizations which might be willing to fund raise for TSS or if you have the capability to research grants and are able to complete the grant application then please contact us. Unfortunately we are unable to apply for these grants ourselves at this time but would be more than happy to assist you with the necessary information.

Sad News from VMS

 

Left to Right: Community Outreach Coordinator Khathu, Nancy,
Teacher Constance (K-1), Jo Ann, VMS Principle Florence 

Sadly, we just received news from Sue-Anne, Director of Vhutshilo Mountain School, informing us that our dear friend and colleague, Constance Muthivhi, has just suffered a serious debilitating stroke. Our latest news was that she has typical left side paralysis, slurred speech and the loss of sight in one eye. VMS is making every effort to continue to keep her on full salary since she is the sole support for her family. In the meantime, Sue-Anne is scrambling to provide adequate instructional supervision for her K-1 students. A huge “Thank you!” to an anonymous donor who has sent a donation specifically for Constance’s multiple needs.

South African Adventures and more

Forgive us for being so tardy in sharing our latest South African adventures. We returned with a full plate of new ideas, new needs, and new projects to complete. We are very excited to say that we will be doing a ‘soft launch’ of a new social networking project that Meryl and Laura from Verndale, a Boston full service digital agency, have been helping us to complete. Very exciting stuff which will be ready to preview in the next couple of months. We’ll keep you posted!

In the meantime, we’d like to share more of the 2011 trip experiences that we weren’t able to communicate from South Africa. Although the main road to the Vhutshilo Mountain School from Thathe Vendo (where we were staying) was washed out, we managed to travel the bumpy, dirt, back roads to school every day. We spent much of our time in teacher Constance’s K-1 and preschool teacher Dorah’s classes modeling lessons and assessing critical teaching needs. Teachers from the Indian Brook School in Plymouth, Massachusetts generously donated many of their personal teaching supplies which we put to immediate use in the classroom. Thanks to our generous Hope for Limpopo donors we were able to purchase additional instructional materials while in a distant South African city enabling us to round out specific lesson objectives. We were fortunate to have American teachers Amy and Tricia join us this trip for they pitched right in organizing lessons, teaching classes and training VMS teachers.  Read about teacher, Amy Baldwin, in VMS K-1 classroom.  It was such fun to see our own school materials on the walls of all three classrooms knowing that we left the VMS teachers comfortable using them in their instruction.

ZoZo Project

Thursday July 28th

One of our main goals was realized today. Jenna Praschma, Sector Manager for TVEP’s Access to Justice and Trauma Services, brought us to see the ZoZo Project or the Wendy House as it is sometimes called. Through the generosity of the Paul Newman Foundation, we were able to construct a small building that will serve as a combined waiting room/counseling center for young children and teenagers who have been physically and/or sexually abused and are awaiting their court appearance. The 'Wendy House' guarantees that these child-victims will have a safe area in which to wait rather than in a crowded common area with the perpetrator and his family/friends.

We were gratified to see this little wooden structure fully constructed awaiting electricity. Our next project will be to fence in a small yard ensuring the safety of the children. We’ve also asked Jenna to provide us with estimates for the necessary furniture and toys needed to complete this worthwhile project.