Community Preschool Volunteer Project

VA32's Community Preschool Project has been partnering with local preschools for over 5 years. The schools that we work with change from time to time depending on where the biggest need is currently identified.

In 2016 we will be partnering with two local schools - the African Angels School foundation phase and Acacia Tree Nursery School.

About the Schools

Computer Geek Club 2015: Texas State University Volunteers

17 participants. 13 Texas Student University (TSU) teaching volunteers. Five days. A whole host of multi-media technology to get to grips with.

Now, five days may not seem a lot, but do not underestimate the powers of  TSU volunteers and their professor Lori Assaf. Following the success of Geek Club 2014 and prior to the arrival of the group, Lori and I discussed how to not only match but also extend and ignite passion in the abilities of our talented young geek clubbers. We wanted to engage not only the young people of Chintsa, but also get them thinking about their own community and how they interact with it. Last year, saw the same participants research their dream careers, along the way they met and interviewed guest local speakers about different careers - from Dr Madeleine Muller to our very own Thobs the tour guide. We ended up with some fantastic presentations.

Teaching English & Computer Skills in South Africa

 The final blog in our series of experiences shared by Texas State University teaching students who volunteered in the Wild Coast Schools for three weeks during July this year. This blog was written by Bri who volunteered at Bulugha School teaching computer literacy and English. Bulugha School has been receiving weekly computer lessons from VA32 volunteers since 2005. It is interesting to read about the difference in experiences from Bri and Emily (whose blog entitled "The Challenges of Volunteering in Rural South African Schools" can be read here), who completed the same projects but in different schools. The level of English speaking, creative thought and competency on the computer equipment is higher at Bulugha School where volunteer presence has been sustained and consistent, and makes teaching in Chefani School a bigger challenge where support is intermittent and the learners have not had as much exposure to technology or experience in the English language.

Volunteering in the African Angels School

As a follow on to our previous blog "The Best Part of Me", volunteer Brittney shares her thoughts and experiences teaching at the African Angels Independent School.

"My first day at African Angels I was a little reluctant to do anything with the classroom full of 1st graders… With a teacher in the room I wanted to help, but I didn’t want to step on any toes or disrespect her. However after I asked one question she opened up completely and told me to let her know if I had ANY plans for her class. I immediately lit up and started to think of a plan.

"The Best of Me" by African Angels Students

As a part of the Texas State University student blog series, Brittany put together a movie of the project "The Best of Me" which she worked on at the African Angels Independent School. Grade 1 learners were tasked with picking their favourite body part, describing what it was and why it was so important to them. Here's a hand selected few of their projects in a stunning movie by Brittany:

By Brittany

Volunteer on the Wild Coast Schools Project, South Africa

Teaching Student at Texas State University

The Challenges of Volunteering in Rural South African Schools

VA32 are lucky enough to partner with Texas State University who bring a group of teaching volunteers to Chintsa annually to support the Wild Coast Schools Project. The students volunteer in various rural schools including Bulugha School which is on the outskirts of Chintsa and gets consistent support from volunteers in their permanent computer lab, and Chefani School which receives intermittent support when volunteer numbers allow.

Learners at Chefani School

Volunteer teacher Emily took the time to share her experiences and the challenges that she faced while teaching at Chefani School. This is the first in a series of blogs and movies shared by the Texas State volunteer teachers:

Working in Chefani (a rural school on the Wild Coast of South Africa) was such a meaningful experience! In the beginning, it was quite apparent that the learners here were not too familiar with working with volunteers. This made the first few days quite difficult. I felt that a majority of the children were apprehensive of us being there and teaching them something new, which made it difficult to establish a connection with them. This improved, however, over the next few days as they became more comfortable with us even just being in their surroundings. What sealed the deal in establishing our relationship with these kids was playing games with them before we began our work. This allowed them to loosen up and become much more comfortable with us as a group and as individuals.

Pre-School Volunteering Experience | Chintsa

My name is Tracy Rocero. I'm from Toronto, Canada and the reason why I wanted to volunteer at first was to make a difference in my life and change the life of others. That soon changed and made a huge impact on me when I first stepped into the the preschool in Chintsa.

When I first started out in the classroom I was very nervous but excited to know that I'd be doing something that I know how to do on a day to day basis (I am a teacher in Canada). Then, realizing I'm entering not just a classroom but a community - that was all new to me.

Volunteering with VA32 in Chintsa, South Africa

One week after I arrived in this beautiful village named Chinsta, on the Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, I already wanted to change my flight to stay longer.  The Volunteer Africa 32 degrees South (VA32) staff is awesome, they are always happy and fun to hang out with.  They make you feel comfortable and at home right away from your first day. Chinsta is just an amazing place with plenty of different fun activities, crazy views, an unbelievable beach and the Inkwenkwezi game reserve just 10 minutes away.

ertasten den Lehrerberuf in Suedafrika

Von Marina und Miriam

Seit nun gut vier Monaten sind wir im unglaublichen Chintsa. Wir koennen uns zu den gluecklichen Studentinnen der Universitaet Nuernberg zaehlen, die die Chance ergattert haben, in Suedafrika unterrichten zu duerfen. Das wurde uns durch die Partnerschaft der drei Saeulen Buccaneers, Volunteer Africa 32 und der Friedrich Alexander Universitaet Nuernberg ermoeglicht. Einen herzlichen Gruss hierfuer an Dr. Poschardt, der in dieser Hinsicht Grossartiges geleistet hat. Cheers Poschardt!

 In Nuernberg studieren wir Lehramt auf Grundschule. Schon nach dem Abitur wollten wir beide uns keine Chance fuer einen Auslandsaufenthalt entgehen lassen. Und hier sind wir. Jeden Tag gibt uns das Unterrichten einen besonderen Moment, den wir wohl nie vergessen werden und uns vor allem im spaeteren Berufsleben nicht nur in einer Hinsicht weiterhelfen wird.

Student Teaching Abroad in South Africa

A group of Texas State University teaching
students at one of our partner Wild Coast Schools

For the past few years Volunteer Africa 32 Degrees South (VA32) has been working to form partnerships with several US and UK universities to offer student teachers, psychologists, social scientists and other professions, the opportunity to extend and develop their skills through hands-on experience teaching on the VA32 Wild Coast Schools Education Projects. Using our experience working with universities including Texas State (US), Nuremburg (Germany), Marburg (Holland), York (UK) and Pacific Lutheran (US), this program has been fine-tuned to suit the specific needs of students and professors and to become an instrumental aspect of students professional development in their chosen field.

2014 sees the official launch of the new Students Teaching Abroad Project which places groups of students in the rural classrooms of the Wild Coast to deliver computer literacy and English language support to young South African learners. These objectives support the aims of VA32's long standing Wild Coast education initiatives while also developing the skills of students in teaching and classroom management, resource development and more.

What's the Xhosa Word for Drama?

A Lesson in Translation and a Whole New Experience on the Wild Coast Schools Project in South Africa

By Charlotte

Last term I started drama club at Chintsa East. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. For several weeks I tramped up to drama to discover, a few, (if any) children. When I asked one child whether they would prefer drama or sports, they said “sports!”

Despite a shaky start, drama club took off in time
for us to put on a short play at the end
of the school term 

My light bulb moment came in the form of our friend and local hero lovely Phumla Pakamile. Her xhosa translations proved the catalyst to explaining... what drama actually is! The children hadn't understood it properly before. This is something that I had taken for granted, being from the UK and having studied Drama and Theatre at the University of Kent...I just didn't think that the children wouldn't know what it was yet. 

Awonke's Grahamstown Science Fair Blog

Awonke with volunteer Nino

Recently there was a National Science Fest. held in the creative little town of Grahamstown. The grade 4 learners from African Angels Independent School took this opportunity to get involved in a bit of science and a lot of fun! Having been taking part in some computer classes at school Awonke wanted to write about his time in Grahamstown for the vlog - here goes!

Checking in the the Wild Coast Schools & Preschools Volunteer Program

2013 End of Term Assembly

Last term ended with a BANG in Chintsa!

Volunteer Matthias helping the learners to
organise their presentations in assembly

A celebration assembly at Chintsa East school was filled with songs, prezi presentations and certificates. This term we focused on Human Rights for our older learners in the Wild Coast Schools computer labs and Friendship and Responsibility for the younger learners in the foundation phase and preschool.

The end of term assembly also marked the end of Nuremburg volunteer Matthias’ last day teaching in Chintsa, having taught at the school for five months. It was a sad day for everybody at the school. It was also Maria’s last day at Bulugha.

Volunteering in Chintsa, South Africa by Lydia

Hi everyone!

I am writing a short blog about my time in Chinsta, South Africa, and the different experiences I've had in the schools I have been to and all the wonderful things that I have been doing whilst volunteering with VA32.

Community Pre-School Project: Bulugha Pre-School

I have been volunteering on the Community Pre-school Project in all of the schools that VA32 are involved with; my first two weeks were at Bulugha farm school, working with children from the age of 4-6. I had a very fulfilling time doing lots of activities with them to decorate their classroom in order to make it colourful, making it a more welcoming learning space. We made a butterfly wall where all the children coloured and decorated their own butterflies: part of the spring time butterfly project!

Children in Bulugha Pre-school with their work
books

We later decorated the rest of the classroom, allowing the children to get artistic, and very, very messy!
The children really like singing and dancing so we made some shakers out of cups and stones and encouraged the children to produce different sounds and rhythms. The children in the pre-school don’t speak a lot of English but flash cards work really well. I concentrated on teaching fruit and spring time vocabulary and the children picked it up so quickly.

Volunteers Holiday Club in Chintsa

Half term holiday fun!

Schools were on holiday earlier this month for one week. With the help of Wild Coast Schools volunteer Amy, we took over Chintsa East school with our fun activities and games for the week.

Making musical instruments from recycled stuff

MONDAY... hosted an eclectic mix of activities for everyone. Kick starting the day was musical instrument making. We recycled old water bottles, and filled them with different materials. I explained how different materials make different sounds and the children had great fun experimenting outside! We also decorated our water bottles using paper and felt-tip pens. Once everybody had finished, we taught the young holiday clubbers how to make the musical instruments really quiet and really loud, before moving on to rhythms!

Next stop we iced our own biscuits, with sweets, which was a tasty treat. The children then chose to get sticky with mosaic making or energetic with drama games. The holiday clubbers left us happy and tired out at the end of the morning.

Volunteering at the Orphanage: Greensleeves Home of Safety

Volunteers running outdoor activities with the kids at Greensleeves and the colourful parachute

Wednesday afternoons can only mean one thing - an afternoon at the orphanage "Greensleeves Home of Safety". With children coming from difficult backgrounds, Greensleeves is a loving place of safety for 26 orphaned children. Every week we head on down there with the volunteers and some fun activities "up our sleeves"!

As soon as the Volunteer Africa bus enters its gates, we see beaming faces and little legs running as fast as they can towards us! Just giving our time and attention, means a lot.

Combining computer literacy, with fun activities and homework help, there is never a dull moment. Adding in the countless cuddles and laughs... it ends up being the volunteer’s favourite day of the week.

What a Load of Rubbish!

An Update from the Wild Coast Schools Volunteer Project

We have been having a whole load of litter fun with our young learners. The topic for this school term has been My School Environment and we have been learning about litter; where it belongs and the different types of litter that we make. We decided to explore recycling one week, by making our own monsters out of rubbish!

Texas State Teaching Students Volunteer in Chintsa

The TSU volunteer teaching team on Cintsa beach

Three weeks; ten teachers; four projects; two schools. And only three to four contact hours for each group per week! But the creation of fantastic digital stories and poems using Microsoft Powerpoint were achieved at both Bulugha and Chintsa East School, with the help of Texas State University.