Lows Creek
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Apologies to all those who applied to the Lows Creek School and Orphanage Project 2008. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, the project can not go ahead as planned this year. We would like to thank Sophie Jardim, our hostess at Esperado Farm, and her family for all the kindness and support they have shown Tenteleni volunteers over the past six years, and wish them all the best in their future endeavours.
South Africa Project Management Team, February 2008
Lows Creek School and Orphanage Project
The Lows Creek School and Orphanage Project is aimed at supporting one school and one children’s home in Lows Creek. Volunteers will spend their mornings assisting in a local combined School (ages 5-18) and their afternoons and evenings in the children’s home giving the children the individual attention that they lack and initiating informal activities and play. This is a live-in placement with volunteers both assisting and living at the children’s home. Volunteers will travel to their placement school from Monday to Friday via the local school bus. The project would suit individuals who are interested in a more intense experience and are comfortable living and working in a small group.
Lows Creek
(Louwscreek)
Lows Creek is a rural
area with a number of farms interspersed with small settlements
inhabited mainly by farm-workers. A few shops are available locally
but most amenities are to be found in Barberton, a mining town
located approximately 40km from Lows Creek.
Placements
Esperado Farm
Esperado Farm is built on a large piece of farmland, the majority of which is scrubby bush-land. The orphanage was established in 1995 by Sophie Jardim. It currently houses approximately 15 orphans (many orphaned by AIDS) aged between 8 and 18. There are two main buildings, which house Sophie, her family and the children. The farm is also shared with a medley of dogs, pigs, goats and chickens. Volunteers will be accommodated at Esperado Farm and their work there, outside school hours, will be of a purely non-formal nature. Volunteers will provide extra tuition, organise extra-curricular activities and provide individual care and attention.
Louieville Combined School
Louieville Combined School is situated in a rural area in Lows Creek and surrounded by mountains. The surrounding community is very disparate with some pupils travelling 15km to get to school. A number of the older children from Esperado Farm attend this school.
South African township schools, suffering from the legacy of apartheid, are under-resourced, under-staffed and over-crowded. Teachers are forced to contend with the relatively new Outcomes Based Education system and curriculum for which they are unprepared, and lack the materials to facilitate effectively.
Volunteers act as teaching assistants within the placement schools. The aim of the volunteers is to inject imagination and enthusiasm into education; provide the basis for cultural exchange; support youth issues including HIV and AIDS awareness (where requested); provide invaluable English language tuition (pupils sit exams in English despite this not being their mother tongue); utilise small group learning techniques to target those children falling behind in class; and share skills, ideas and experiences.
Though Tenteleni does not expect volunteers to teach
independently some organisations do request it. However, by
encouraging volunteer-staff partnerships, volunteers will have a
more sustainable impact. After school volunteers will aim to
initiate or assist with existing extra-curricular activities such
as sport, music, art and drama.The placements are as follows:
·
Louieville Combined School – lower phase (2 volunteers)
·
Louieville Combined School – upper phase (2 volunteers)
“This project has been one of the most positively challenging
experiences of our lives, and one that will stay with us,
because of the beautiful people and place we have encountered,
for a very long time.”
Low’s Creek Volunteer, 2005