We had an early start Monday morning as our first visit was to Letcee in Greytown where we were keen to arrive in time to hear the melodic sound of the 7.30 am morning songs performed by the team at Letcee. This beautiful routine bonds the team together and blesses the week ahead. Sarah spent two years working at Letcee before joining GAGA and the love and respect the team hold for her was undeniable. There were shrieks of joy as she arrived and she was made to promise to return for a future visit when she told everyone of her future plans and introduced Claire as the new GAGA representative!
The team at Letcee run an impressive Early Childhood Development (ECD) programme, with facilities at the site in Greytown and numerous community projects, including toy libraries, SmartStart and Learning through Play. We were taken to visit a local Greytown project called "The Barracks" after the ex-Army huts which are now used as homes.
This area is in extreme poverty and has numerous social problems but the community has rallied around an ECD centre there and now there is a safe place for pre-school children to go, to have a hot meal and commence their early years education. This frees up their older siblings to be able to attend Primary or Secondary school, where previously they could not attend as they were responsible for caring for their younger siblings. Furthermore, the older children can go there after school, have a meal and have a quiet place to do their homework
or play football safely on the pitch laid out by a local Church. In the photo you can see the impressive veggie garden in the background. This provides fresh produce for the kitchen and the centre is staffed by women from CWP (a Government Programme to get people into work), volunteers from the local community as well as the team from Letcee.
After that visit we went out to a remote rural project and saw a static toy library (Letcee also have some mobile toy libraries) and the veggie garden there. This project is just getting off the ground, they have recently been given permission to occupy a disused building and the plans are in place to turn it into a community centre which can provide many of the facilities that are currently lacking.
After saying goodbye to Letcee, we drove back to Hillcrest for an initial visit to the Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust. The two Claire's (HACT's fundraising manager is also called Claire) toured the facilities at HACT, giving Claire an insight into the numerous activities HACT undertake to empower individuals and develop skills. There will be more from HACT as we return later in the visit.
The afternoon was rounded off by meeting with two of the students supported by the Sangobeg scholarship programme. It was wonderful to hear their stories, listen to their hopes for the future and learn about their experiences, juggling study, work life, motherhood and family commitments. The difference these scholarships make cannot be underestimated and these young women are real ground breakers, being the first in their families to hold a degree.
The day ended with a touch of domesticity for Claire and Sarah as we did a swift supermarket shop and headed up to our accommodation.... At least that was the plan, but a small hiccup with the backie had us a little flustered as neither of us could coax the engine into starting! However, a little patience (and looking in the car manual) resulted in a faultless technique and we were back on the road! Phew!
This area is in extreme poverty and has numerous social problems but the community has rallied around an ECD centre there and now there is a safe place for pre-school children to go, to have a hot meal and commence their early years education. This frees up their older siblings to be able to attend Primary or Secondary school, where previously they could not attend as they were responsible for caring for their younger siblings. Furthermore, the older children can go there after school, have a meal and have a quiet place to do their homework
After that visit we went out to a remote rural project and saw a static toy library (Letcee also have some mobile toy libraries) and the veggie garden there. This project is just getting off the ground, they have recently been given permission to occupy a disused building and the plans are in place to turn it into a community centre which can provide many of the facilities that are currently lacking.
After saying goodbye to Letcee, we drove back to Hillcrest for an initial visit to the Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust. The two Claire's (HACT's fundraising manager is also called Claire) toured the facilities at HACT, giving Claire an insight into the numerous activities HACT undertake to empower individuals and develop skills. There will be more from HACT as we return later in the visit.The afternoon was rounded off by meeting with two of the students supported by the Sangobeg scholarship programme. It was wonderful to hear their stories, listen to their hopes for the future and learn about their experiences, juggling study, work life, motherhood and family commitments. The difference these scholarships make cannot be underestimated and these young women are real ground breakers, being the first in their families to hold a degree.
The day ended with a touch of domesticity for Claire and Sarah as we did a swift supermarket shop and headed up to our accommodation.... At least that was the plan, but a small hiccup with the backie had us a little flustered as neither of us could coax the engine into starting! However, a little patience (and looking in the car manual) resulted in a faultless technique and we were back on the road! Phew!
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