Posts

Showing posts from June, 2017

The White House

Image
'It's full of the most important and special people in the world'... Today we headed off to the White House. The girls helped out with breakfast and lunch and chatted to some of the residents and gogos (grannies) who were there for the lunch club. Helping out in the kitchen... Katie and Tabitha serving up breakfast... Today, there was no gas so the staff had to hunt for wood for a fire. We managed to negotiate with a neighbour to hand over some wood... Feeding more than 80 people requires a big pot!...  Lunch time for the grannies... Mos and Esther watching one of the gogos hard at work with some beading (which she then sells at Woza Moya with Hillcrest AIDS Centre)...

A busy few days...

Image
It's been a busy few days... On Friday we all headed to  HOLAH  - some of us helped out at their amazing Hop Shop, and others headed in to a nearby community to take out donations to local creches. It was great to see Kim and Leanne and hear all the baby home stories and successes. We headed up to Hluhluwe for the weekend, so the Leeds group could see the sites (and some animals!) Today the Leeds group delivered healthy eating lessons in Grade R at  1000 Hills Community Helpers  and then headed to  Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust  to hear about their work (and for shopping time at  Woza Moya & Friends ) . Sarah joined them and had a chance to talk with Dawn at 1000 Hills and hear about all the goings on at the centre, and then meet Candace, the new CEO at HACT. She then headed to First Step Right for a meeting with the teachers, and then to  Rotary Club of Westville  who have recently supported the school with book donations. Busy busy!! Our technical difficulties continue

University of Leeds Takeover

Image
Today the blog post comes from Katie and Lizzie... Hi! We’re Lizzie and Katie, two of the 6 students currently in South Africa with GAGA UK. The trip was organised though the Food Science department at the University of Leeds. We each sent in an application of why we wanted to be chosen to come to South Africa and just a few months later we were all meeting at the airport with our suitcases packed! Time flew! The flight was long but was great for getting to know the rest of the group a bit better. When we finally arrived, we had an early night ready to start exploring South Africa the next day. Our first day at a project was  Tuesday , where we had our first visit to First Step Right school. The children were all so welcoming and as soon as we open the doors of the cars we were met with floods of students wanting hugs. We spent the first day getting a feel for the running of the school and chatting with the teachers, before returning home for a night of lesson planni

Two days of healthy eating classes and getting to know SA...

Image
We had an early start on Wednesday to be up and ready at the school as the Leeds volunteers had healthy eating classes first thing with Grade R, at First Step Right School. Laura, who works at the university and is leading the group, took the first class as an example for the students. She has done a lot of teaching before, and was able to give them lots of top tips on delivering nutrition classes to different aged children. (Picture to right - a quick handwashing lesson)  (Picture to left - Laura sharing various fruits and vegetables for the children to taste)  The volunteers will be posting a blog piece later in the trip and telling you more about their experiences and what they've been up to. Me and Laura headed off to 1000 Hills to see everyone there and also get some plans together for the following week.   (Dawn was recently awarded with a Living Legends award and this piece tells us a little more about her)  My day finished with a meeting with W

It's great to be back!

Image
Today we headed to First Step Right. The warmth, hugs, smiles, laughter, and 'hello, how are you?'s always fill  you with joy when you arrive at the school. You can't help but smile and jump around with the children when they greet you. For me, I'm now starting to get to know the children and seeing them grow over the past two years of working at GAGA, is just wonderful. It's also sad as I realised it will be the last time I see some of the older children who will be heading off to new schools at the end of this year. The Leeds students got stuck in straight away. They spread out across the school and in pairs, popped in to different classes to get to know some of the teachers and the children, as well as just generally finding out more about life in SA. Lots of questions!! Laura, Gael and I spent some time planning the next couple of days, to ensure they can be as much help as possible. In the afternoon the girls did sports classes with grade 1 - the

And we've arrived!!

Image
After leaving Birmingham airport on Saturday evening and flying via Dubai the whole group have now met up and arrived safely and a lovely incident free journey. Joining me on the trip this time are 6 self-funded volunteers from the University of Leeds' School of Food Science and Nutrition. There's also Laura, an old friend of mine, who works at the University and is here to guide the group. There's Esther, Mos, Lizzie, Tabitha and two Katie's - mostly, the girls didn't know each other prior to the trip so it's lovely to get to know each other better in these first few days. We arrived late in the afternoon in Durban on Sunday and stopped at a little backpackers close to the airport. We were able to find a good spot for an introduction to Durban's great curries for dinner. We then had a really good rest to prepare ourselves for the week ahead. Today we spent the morning close to Ballito, with a big food shop and a walk by the beach. We then headed to t