HOMEWORK – All Out Africa

Meet The Volunteers- Ward Quik

All Out Afica — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 13:50:11 +0000

Where are you from?

Hi, my name is Ward, I am 16 years old and I’m from the Netherlands.

What project did you sign up for?

I signed up for Kruger to Coast (4 weeks) trip. Whereas in Eswatini I signed up for the sports development program. At the beginning of the day we participated with the warm-up which most of the time ended up with people dancing. After the warm-up we (the volunteers) helped setting up small sport courses for the kids to participate in. And most of the times we participated as well. After every sports session we had plenty of free time, to just play with the kids. At around 2 a clock we went to homework club, where we helped kids around the age of 9-17 with their homework and sometimes strategic insight by playing games.

What do you do for a living?

I just finished my high school, and now I will be studying, while having a side job at a supermarket.

What does volunteering mean to you?

Volunteering to me means helping people who need help without getting payed. It’s about being there for people without asking something in return.

Reason for choosing All Out Africa?

I chose All Out Africa because, the trip (Kruger to Coast) had everything I wanted. They gave me the opportunity to do a safari, volunteering work and a week Mozambique. It was the best perfect trip ever and everything was well organised.

Your experience as a volunteer, did it had any positive impact on your life?

It really had a positive impact on my life. I learned to appreciate the luxury we have in the Netherlands, but I also learned to appreciate the way of living in the Southern of Africa. It really gave me an insight of how people live in really poor countries. Overall I am really glad I chose to go on this adventure and I will certainly do it again (if I have the money for it ).

Click here if you would like to know more about our SPORTS DEVELOPMENT

The Homework Club

All Out Afica — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 14:19:30 +0000

“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you will help them to become what they are capable of becoming” Goethe. The homework club is an initiative that All Out Africa set up help out the less underprivileged primary school learners. It is basically a free volunteer based service, providing academic assistance to students in need. As a tertiary student myself, I have gone through primary and high school level of education and this initiative is a first of its kind. Generally , we are used to extra lessons at our schools, sadly, are at a fee. The homework club takes place 3 days in a week (Tuesday to Thursday), in three different places. These places are Ezulwini, Mlindazwe and Lobamba. The sessions take about 2 hours to run each day.

The informal study group initiative conducted by All Out Africa has been beneficial to the students since 2015. This may include creating a great platform of dynamic learning and more importantly, sharing and helping one another. Basically, it is a two way communication platform in such a way that the learner receives help from the tutor (volunteer). Also the tutor gets the opportunity to engage more with the learner (student), as this is in most cases a one on one session. Interestingly, the homework club does not only focus on just helping the students with their homework. It creates a platform for the learners to make friends and also learn to work together as a group.

A Big thank you to our dedicated team of volunteers, student and All Out Africa staff members in coordinating such a worthwhile after school activity. This has been a eye opening experience for me and a lesson learnt. It shows that we should all strive to ensure that students and learners do not struggle with their fundamental education, which include difficult subjects or topics. Those that struggle with their subjects, a pathway should be created and a responsibility for us to explain in ways they will understand.

Written by Nokwetsemba Penelope Lukhele (Marketing Intern 2019)

HOMEWORK CLUB

All Out Afica — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 09:09:20 +0000

I clearly remember a question being asked in September 2015, what were our former Neighbourhood Care Points (NCP) children doing of late”. “Of late” I wondered? Our conservation was furthered with interest on what our community children that had been previously supported by All Out Africa were doing!! What was their current enrollment at primary school and children progress?

Although, I was fairly new in my position at All Out Africa, having joined the organization in May 2015, these questions needed answering;

• Have our NCP children ever enrolled for primary school education?

• What level of education/grade were/are they doing?

• How are they doing in school in terms of grades, attendance rate, etc?

For a number of days, a lot of things were going through my mind on how these questions couldbe answered in a more practical and physical environment. More so how could one monitor a sponsored child progress at school on a monthly or perhaps a weekly basis.

I honestly did not know where to start. I geared up myself to face this challenge and I startedgathering some information as part of a resource mobilization approach in getting an activity up and running, that would simply indicate a child’s learning, ability and progress at school.

What made it worse for me was that I had no teaching experience in any particular formwhatsoever. In any case my heart felt that perhaps if I set up a sustainable pilot outreach programas an afternoon program/activity for our sponsored children, is could possibly answer most of the questioned asked.

I knew back than I would encounter a few problems, mainly getting some of our children in one room to interact with, to basically find out their challenges at school, and perhaps even further challenges they faced at home or at community, because all this would later affect theiradulthood.

After liaising with our project partners. I informed them of an idea, in setting up a “homework club” for some of All Out Africa sponsored children. A list of 16 sponsored primary school children was submitted to two head teachers.

I have to admit, the first few sessions of the first initial homework club was scary, especially because students were new to this and had no idea on how to react to this to such an initiative. Having an afternoon activity dedicated to them, to improve or strengthen their English, Math and a bit of science skills was just overwhelming for all parties, including myself. I was more amazed on how the attendance rate was consistent throughout the weeks and months since club was set up!!!

Due to the success of the first pilot project of the homework club, a second club was rolled out in August 2016, where 15 primary school students from Ezulwini community school started attending this club. Then earlier this year a third “homework club” was introduced, with another 12 students.

I felt that every problem had a solution. As an organization we have not only achieved one of our goals, in meeting and providing sustainable projects with the communities in which we work. Our 3 times per week “homework club” had quickly became another success at All Out Africa, Eswatini. Not only have we provided answers to all these questions. “Early Childhood Education and Development” has continued to strive in a child’s everyday life by opening these clubs. It’s truly been a rewarding experience for me to see this initiative grow. This, in part I hope, shall ensure that a child gets into the habit of doing homework at home on an everyday basis in addition to attending a club once a week.

Written by Tjengisa Dlamini – Social Projects Manager