Group Volunteers Aim to Make a Huge Impact on Chintsa

It's Winter again and here at VA32 we're loving having our first ISV Volunteer group here. This is the first of ten groups in total. Six groups will work on our well established initiatives based in community development; completing and maintaining upliftment projects in local rural schools and public spaces. The remaining four groups will pioneer our first group Sports Development initiatives  which aim to provide sporting workshops and skills training for the young learners of the wider Chintsa area. We can't wait!  And we're aiming high...

Community Development - Transforming Learning Environments (Groups 1 & 2)

The first two groups of volunteers will be based in the new African Angels Independent School and will be...

1. Building a computer lab
2. Transforming a derelict classroom into a combined library and music room
3. Transforming a derelict classroom into a Grade R classroom
4. Building a new, smaller scale jungle gym (for the Grade R kids!) :)
5. Building a fun filled bicycle track!

Our first group of volunteers are mainly from Canadian & US and have hit the Angels School with a bang! The sounds of power tools, the banging of hammers and the smell of varnish fill what used to be the staff room as bench tables are built along the walls where newly donated computers will soon stand.

The old staff room ready for
desks to be built along the walls

Desks being built in the new
computer lab

The bench-top desks in what is soon to be the
Angels computer lab - varnished and finished

Desks at the other side of the computer lab - ready for use

Further along the (external) corridor two large classrooms which were only in use for storage have been cleared out and cleaned, painted, shelves have been built and varnished ready to be installed - these classrooms will soon be the library/ music room and a stunning Grade R classroom.

The combined music room and library being painted

Our vollies hard at work painting the new library

A fun new paint job and cleaning up the floors in the
library and music room

The new Grade R classroom - a work in progress

Further down the property volunteers (with the help of Superman aka Miller), created a small scale jungle gym which will be used by the smallest learners of the school (the existing jungle gym is a little big for the small ones!). The volunteers also started digging trenches, planting tires and laying sebunga to begin creating the schools brand new bicycle track!

The beginnings of a jungle gym

The jungle gym is almost compete!

A curving trench to the right of the jungle gym
in prep of the bike track

Group 2 Completion

Some of these projects will run into Group 2's time here - they will help to install the computers in the lab, along with our technician, they will complete preparing the classrooms for use, and complete the bike track! Look out for photos of the work in progress on our facebook page.

And a few Highlights!

And we still managed to fit in some fun with Mama Tofu, a trip to the Morgans Bay cliffs and a giant dune walk!

Stunning Chintsa views :)

The giant dunes with our volunteers!

Amazing views from the Morgans Bay cliffs

Mama Tofu in her Cultural village

Jungle gym fun with the African Angels kids!

We want to say a massive thank you to the AWESOME volunteers from Group 1 who completed a huge amount of work in the 2 weeks that they stayed in Chintsa - have an amazing onward trip and come back to see us soon! :)

Denver & April