Content tagged with Outreach

Erica Burger, from Jabulani: Rural Health Foundation did a presentation on the work that Jabulani has been doing. All Jabulani programmes support Montessori principles and are all interlinked to serve the community. In the Zithulele village, Jabulani has created the following initiatives: General hospital support which hosts an ARV and TB programme, making chronic medication more accessible. Community based inclusive development which includes home visits where families are trained to work with cerebral palsy people and children with special needs. The livelihood supports people with disability, enabling these people to provide for their families by teaching them skills that can result in job creation or employment. ECD in the home, assists parents by enabling them to be involved with practical life activities through home visits. Montessori training in ECD centres ensures quality, holistic education for the community. The Jump Start initiative provides developmental skills for men who couldn’t complete their schooling, with mentorship provided by older men who teach skills and offer support. Erica concluded with the statement, ‘attitudes are contagious, is your attitude worth catching?’

Helen Mohan Elias started off her presentation, Conviction: Community Rooted in Education with a prayer offering. Helen explained that after the 5th EsF Assembly held in Hyderabad, India in 2016, the Hyderabad participants were moved to come together to find a way to make a difference. She spoke of the orphanage that was adopted by the Telengana Minority Residential Educational Institutions Society. Helen described how when she first met the children they were in poor physical condition, with skin lesions, dirty clothing and dirty bodies. The day before the school opened, the children were all taken for hair cuts, bathed and provided with clean clothes and new shoes. In spite of the media attention, the children appeared starved for education and at once entered the environment and began to explore the material within the environment, completely oblivious to the media hype that was taking place. So absorbed were these children that they did not even appear to notice the teachers in the environment. Helen spoke of how challenging it was in the first month, with nobody willing to work with the children. The children would often come across as abusive and violent, using abusive and foul language at first. It became obvious that although the children had received physical nourishment, they were sorely lacking in psychic nourishment. With perseverance, the teachers noticed that after a month, the children were ready to begin receiving presentations of the materials in the environment. Within two months of the school opening, the district wanted to showcase the school and show the difference. Helen was initially concerned as the children had not been working with material for sufficient time and although she could clearly see the changes in each child, she was worried that these changes would not be satisfactory. To her surprise, the officials were so shocked by the drastic changes that they witnessed in the children, at first not believing that these were the same children. The huge change was not only in appearance, but in happiness and confidence too. Helen shared the action plan for minority residential schools, with the focus being on setting up an elementary environment and training teachers. Helen left us with the thought that often we mistake education for reading, writing and responding when in a group, forgetting that education is also about peace and building up a peaceful community.