I was so happy to be visiting 1000 Hills Community Helpers today! Wow, this is a remarkable project and it's always a joy to visit but I had no idea what was in store for me today! As I drew up the guys were busy with the school buses, washing them after the morning school run. As the parking area was so busy I left my keys and, taking my heavy bag I went into the campus. As I walked through I could see that there were scores of people waiting for the baby clinic (Tuesday is always a great day to visit as you are guaranteed to see so many cute babies!).
My first stop was the office to sign in and say hi to the team who work so hard behind the scenes! Then I went in search of Dawn, the formidable founder of this whole project, she was busy in the back kitchen overseeing the distribution of the food parcels going out to the community this morning. We went through to the office and had a good catch up about the latest news from GAGA UK and all that was happening at 1000 HCH.
Zandi joined us to give some information about the newest project, Cindi (Children in Distress) that they have taken on. https://www.cindi.org.za/
This project is in collaboration with USAID and it aims to focus on children who are affected by HIV AIDS. 1000 Hills are working with the CINDI programme to affect social and behavioural change, starting with groups aged 10 to 14 and 15 to 18 who are either HIV positive status or have family members who are. The aim is to create awareness and a support network to ensure that families and friendship groups can openly discuss the impacts of their HIV status, understand the need for keeping up with their medication and understand how to manage their HIV status. Some of the sessions are mixed and some are single sex to allow for open and frank discussion, without embarrassment or holding back.
Then Karin joined from the clinic and I was able to handover the bounty of dressings we had brought from the Bidford Pharmacy. The clinic staff were so grateful for the dressings, they had just reached a critical low in their stock and our donation was so well timed. It's quite something to see that items that we may just throw away or stick in the back of a cupboard have such immense value here. More of this later in the visit.
I then had the joy of a tour of the grounds and saw the new classrooms that have been built since January. The demand for quality, affordable early years education is unwavering in this province, and the quality of the provision at 1000 Hills Community Helpers is unmatched. It is such a delight to meet the children and staff here!
By now, it was lunch time and I got stuck in serving up lunch to the children from the nearby Primary school who came across for a nutritious hot meal, today it was rice with pilchard stew followed by apples. The team in the kitchen work so hard, they are all volunteers from the community (only the head chef is on the staff) and in return for their labour they can send their children to the creche or preschool and have a breakfast and lunch at the centre. This is the winning formula of 1000 Hills Community Helpers, it is exactly that, the community helping each other.
A prime example of this is their garden. The produce from the garden supplements the kitchen, and, like the kitchen staff the gardeners are volunteers. I met Christian who told me his story. He had been unsure what to do leaving school but was interested in agriculture. He was able to join a municipality agriculture scheme and complete the training but at the end there was no money to take it forward and get a plot of land. So he went to 1000 Hills Community Helpers and spoke to Dawn, she said he could volunteer to develop their veggie patch. So Christian took charge of the volunteer gardeners and put his knowledge to use. Well, the results speak for themselves....
Spinach and cauliflower ready to pick, not to mention carrots and a potato crop coming along. Everything is organic, the gauze covering the growing area protects from bugs and birds, and the irrigation comes from the small dam nearby. The kitchen waste is composted to enrich the soil and the only problem is the snails.... Christian has become an important member of the 1000 Hills team and he is now having training as part of the Cindi project to become one of the facilitators.
I can't let you go without showing that GAGA really does get stuck in when we are over here.... because after lunch, as we all know, is the inevitable washing up...
My first stop was the office to sign in and say hi to the team who work so hard behind the scenes! Then I went in search of Dawn, the formidable founder of this whole project, she was busy in the back kitchen overseeing the distribution of the food parcels going out to the community this morning. We went through to the office and had a good catch up about the latest news from GAGA UK and all that was happening at 1000 HCH.
Zandi joined us to give some information about the newest project, Cindi (Children in Distress) that they have taken on. https://www.cindi.org.za/
This project is in collaboration with USAID and it aims to focus on children who are affected by HIV AIDS. 1000 Hills are working with the CINDI programme to affect social and behavioural change, starting with groups aged 10 to 14 and 15 to 18 who are either HIV positive status or have family members who are. The aim is to create awareness and a support network to ensure that families and friendship groups can openly discuss the impacts of their HIV status, understand the need for keeping up with their medication and understand how to manage their HIV status. Some of the sessions are mixed and some are single sex to allow for open and frank discussion, without embarrassment or holding back.
Then Karin joined from the clinic and I was able to handover the bounty of dressings we had brought from the Bidford Pharmacy. The clinic staff were so grateful for the dressings, they had just reached a critical low in their stock and our donation was so well timed. It's quite something to see that items that we may just throw away or stick in the back of a cupboard have such immense value here. More of this later in the visit.
I then had the joy of a tour of the grounds and saw the new classrooms that have been built since January. The demand for quality, affordable early years education is unwavering in this province, and the quality of the provision at 1000 Hills Community Helpers is unmatched. It is such a delight to meet the children and staff here!
By now, it was lunch time and I got stuck in serving up lunch to the children from the nearby Primary school who came across for a nutritious hot meal, today it was rice with pilchard stew followed by apples. The team in the kitchen work so hard, they are all volunteers from the community (only the head chef is on the staff) and in return for their labour they can send their children to the creche or preschool and have a breakfast and lunch at the centre. This is the winning formula of 1000 Hills Community Helpers, it is exactly that, the community helping each other.
A prime example of this is their garden. The produce from the garden supplements the kitchen, and, like the kitchen staff the gardeners are volunteers. I met Christian who told me his story. He had been unsure what to do leaving school but was interested in agriculture. He was able to join a municipality agriculture scheme and complete the training but at the end there was no money to take it forward and get a plot of land. So he went to 1000 Hills Community Helpers and spoke to Dawn, she said he could volunteer to develop their veggie patch. So Christian took charge of the volunteer gardeners and put his knowledge to use. Well, the results speak for themselves....
Spinach and cauliflower ready to pick, not to mention carrots and a potato crop coming along. Everything is organic, the gauze covering the growing area protects from bugs and birds, and the irrigation comes from the small dam nearby. The kitchen waste is composted to enrich the soil and the only problem is the snails.... Christian has become an important member of the 1000 Hills team and he is now having training as part of the Cindi project to become one of the facilitators.
I can't let you go without showing that GAGA really does get stuck in when we are over here.... because after lunch, as we all know, is the inevitable washing up...
Catch up tomorrow!
On one of my visits to SA to see my family I had the privilege of seeing the 1000 Hills community. It was a wonderful experience to see. Dawn is such a marvelous woman with her tireless efforts helping the people to help themselves.
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