Did you know that it is very important for left-handed children to be given left-handed scissors and right-handed children be given right-handed scissors when they are learning to cut? The blades on the scissors are joined differently for left and right-handed scissors, and using the correct ones helps children learn to both cut more accurately and to keep their hand in the correct position. Thanks to the amazing sponsorship from The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, each of our kiddies was given the correct handed scissors in their Learn at Home activity box to practise with at home.
As we distribute our Learn at Home activity boxes to each of the 720 children in the 18 creches who are in our program this year, every child will also receive their own isiZulu book from Book Dash. Some children took a while to choose which book they wanted, and this little one wanted to sit and read his immediately!
Thank you to Book Dash (bookdash.org) and all their donors for enabling us to continue to promote early literacy.
What an incredible day! The months of hard work that our team has put in culminated in the first delivery of the Learn at Home activity boxes this morning. Each of the 720 children who should be in our creche programme at the moment is receiving their own activity box, which contains a number of carefully selected toys to develop a wide range of vital preschool skills. There is also a booklet in isiZulu for the parents/caregivers to explain how to set up the over 60 different learning activities and games, and how these will help their child’s holistic development. As everything is made from household packaging, if any of the toys get lost or broken, the parents can easily replace them. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all our donors – both corporate and individual – who have continued to support us during these challenging times. It is you who have made this possible.
Packing 720 boxes.Writing each child’s name on their box.Parent signs for her child’s activity box.Child chooses the lid kid (doll) that they want to adopt.Practitioners assist with issuing of the correct handed scissors, scrap paper, magazine and beanie for each child.
We haven’t got a big enough office to have the whole team safely together at the same time, so we haven’t all been together as a team since Covid-19 caused our country to go into lockdown on the 27th March. We met up today for a social distancing picnic at the park, and it was wonderful to catch up with everyone and touch base again.
Our first kiddie-sized mobile handwashing station has arrived!
Most of the crèches we work with do not have access to running water where children can wash their hands. The practitioners usually fill a bucket and all the children use the same water. These stations will not only allow each child to each wash their hands with clean water, the tube on the right for liquid soap will also prevent the need for them to share a bar of soap. They will dry their hands with paper towel which can then be burnt, further reducing the risk of cross-infection. It has a push-valve tap, so the water only runs while the child is pushing it up with the back of their hand, meaning that only about 100ml of clean water is needed for each child. The waste water runs into the other container below, so that this washing station can be used both indoors and outdoors, and the grey water can be used for the vegetable garden.
We have four of these already sponsored. If you would like add to the contributions to put one of these in our other 14 creches – any amount will help – simply scan our Zapper code or email us on info@singakwenza.co.za for banking details. Thank you to designer and manufacturer, Ingonyama Nicon, for giving us an NGO discount. Including 5 litres of liquid soap and 1500m of paper towel, each station costs us R2 250 plus vat.
