Road Safety Day

On Friday the 27th August, African Impact ran it's first ever road safety lesson at pre-school. The lesson was spilt into three different sections, focusing on areas that the volunteers had noticed there were concerns, including:

• Crossing the road,




• Where to walk,




• Not using the road as a playground!

For the 'Crossing the road' activity the children were taught five basic steps using flashcards and 'do as I do'. 1= Listen, 2= Look left, 3= Look right, 4= Look left and 5. Ok......now walk. The volunteers created a road using skipping ropes and the children had to pretend to cross the road using the five basic steps.

For the 'Where to walk' activity the volunteers drew a road scene on the blackboard with clear pavements. Using stick on cars, bikes, motorbikes and pedestrians, we asked the children to put them in the correct place.

For the 'Not using the road as a playground' activity, the volunteers created another road using skipping ropes and demonstrated how you should and should not behave on the roads and pavements. Including: sitting/ lying on the road, chasing each other, chasing vehicles and picking up fruit. We had made a car, which we used on the 'road' to model the correct behaviour. Using the same activity and several of our pupils, we showed the rest of the school our correct road safety behaviour. The children really enjoyed the demonstration and were beeping constantly! Also in the second session we sang our fantastic song, which was a 'mash up' of 'The Wheels and the Bus' and several other songs the children know well. It was such fun!

Overall it was a hugely successful morning and the teaching points were re-enforced in real life by four volunteers who walked home with most of the class...and not one of them chased the truck!!!

The blog was written by Danielle Bailey, who also suggested the lesson needed to be taught and planned it along with Laura Barton. It was a well planned lesson and will be repeated every two months in the future to keep up the safe road behaviour. Thank you Danielle and Laura!

Water Awareness Day....What A Success!

What an amazing day......on Friday 20th August we held a Water Awareness Day at Pre-school. Around seventy members from the local community came along to learn about water hygiene and health. This fantastic attendence was due to the volunteer's hard work planning and making leaflets, which were handed out the day before during a 'walkabout' around Mahake. The volunteers worked in four groups to plan and make resources for an informative and fun stand, each on a different aspect of water awareness. They kept it visual and fun, with lots of demonstations and also free samples of soap. Everybody had such a fanatastic morning and at the end a lady thanked the volunteers for putting on the event for the community. She explained that although they already knew they should wash their hands properly with soap, many people do not and that it was interesting to find out about the diseases and how to prevent them. She also expressed her general appreciation for our Water Awareness Day. Below are the volunteer's summaries of their information stands.

• Handwashing (written by Danielle Bailey, Heledd Owain and Nina Baur):

The aim of our stall was to educate the community on when and why they should wash their hands and the consequences of not using soap. On our stand the group were shown a series of prompt cards with different activities on e.g. administering first aid or going to the toilet. They were then asked to decide whether they should wash their hands, before, after or both. We had a bowl of soap and water and asked them to wash their hands if they thought the answer was yes, but they were a little shy. Once the prompt cards were completed we explained the diseases that they could catch if they didn't use soap, which caused a few surprised faces. At the end we gave out free soap, but the demand was so high we had to cut them into smaller pieces.

• Drink Water, Clean Water (written by Johanna Oblund, Megan Jones and Maroeska Van Oosten):

We wanted to inform about the importance of drinking water so we had one poster with 'Why' it's important and also 'How to know I'm drinking enough' facts. The second poster was about safe/clean water, informing about how to make sure the water is safe to drink. We divided this poster into three parts: water from the river, the pump and rainwater. The third poster explained why clean water is so important; informing about diseases and again emphasising checking the water source and what to do if they're unsure the water is safe. We also illustrated how much a person should drink each day by using the male and female puppets. Deolinda did a fantastic job translating for us and everybody seemed very interested in the information we provided.

• Storing Your Water (written by Katie Hood, Emilie Mesmans and Laura Barton):

We aimed to explain how to keep your water clean in a container and safe from contamination. The main message was 'Keep it clean and keep it covered'. We gave some examples of daily activities such as: farming, using the toilet and playing, and explained how you should always wash your hands with soap and water. We also showed a clean bucket with a lid, explaining how an open bucket risks the water getting dirty and contaminated, leading to illness. The visitors seemed very interested in the advice and the morning was very successful.

• Cleaning With Water And Soap (written by Catriona Currie, Kelly Bolhuis and Ilona Elferie):

Our Water Awareness Day stand was a great success. We used colourful posters, visual aids and props to explain the best ways to clean your body, teeth and house. We explained that you should always use clean water and soap, toothpaste or washing up liquid. The group were very attentive and engaged in discussions about whether you could use soap and washing up liquid interchangeably. The group seemed to appreciate the advice we gave.

The morning was a huge success and thank you very much to everyone involved!

Care's Support

We have been very lucky over the last few months in having incredible support from CARE International. CARE have been incredibly generous in the diverse areas which they have helped Escholinha de Boa Esperanca.

Since March with the help of volunteers and the dedicated work of Lourenco an area of land has been cleared at preschool. Last month the land was leveled and CARE organized for local carpenters and builders to come and construct the playground. As you can see from the photographs the children have loved playing on the seesaw, slide and swings.

CARE have also donated five beautiful wooden tables and twenty chairs. Now with a brand new roof on the main building at preschool (paid for through our Sponsor a Child scheme) we no longer have to worry about rainy days disrupting lessons and materials and resources being effected by the water and the new tables and chairs being damaged.

We have always provided the children with daily rice (cooked for by a volunteer or Lourenco) which has been supplemented with the vegetables grown at the preschool farm. Now with the support of CARE the children have ePap (a vitamin and nutrient powder) which is added to hot water. When the water is cool enough to drink fresh fruit juice is added as well as oil and sugar. This ePap constitutes to the daily allowance a child needs daily for growth and development. This is given to the children on arrival at Preschool and goes down really well!

A New Roof on the Preschool!

For years now we have had constant problems with the roof at Preschool leaking. Although many attempts have been made to patch the offending areas rain still seemed to seep through into the school. This caused extensive disruption to lessons as the water flooded the main classroom.

Now I am so thrilled to say that we have a brand new roof! This was paid for by the general funds of our Sponsor a Child scheme. The new roof brings with it many benefits including the obvious lack of disruption to classes. Volunteers can now paint the interior of the preschool (something that is already well under way) without having to repaint in a few months time to cover the water damage. CARE have been very kind in donating some beautiful wooden tables and chairs which we can store without the worry of them becoming damaged by the water.

Esperanca’s Children’s’ House

Last month saw the completion of a house which the volunteers built for the children of Esperanca; our teacher who tragically died last November.

The house was built for the eldest three of her six children who live with their father Alfredo. The younger children live out of town in the countryside with their grandmother. Before the house was built the children were sharing in a house with their uncle and auntie.

The volunteers greatly enjoyed seeing how the house came together under the leadership of master builder Eddie. When it was completed Deolinda and Zelia, Esperanca’s colleagues from the preschool came to see the end result.

This project was kindly supported by Michael Poppel who has given very generously to African Impact Mozambique. Thank you Michael.

HIV Project Impacts the Secondary School!

June has been a very exciting month for the HIV/AIDs awareness project! Owing to a strong working relationship with Laura, a Peace Corp Volunteer, we were able to deliver a series of four teaching session promoting HIV/AIDs awareness at a local secondary school. We worked with a class of forty students aged between seventeen and eighteen years old which provided us with an excellent opportunity to work directly with our target audience.

As the content of the sessions was of a highly personal nature we began by agreeing a set of rules to which we would all adhere to throughout our time together. The students expressed the importance of trusting and respecting one another and ensuring that all information discussed in the sessions remained confidential.

At the outset, we created a list detailing any questions the students had about HIV/AIDs in view of answering them over the coming sessions. The class were very proactive and showed great interest in furthering their understanding of HIV/AIDs. Many of the questions concerned fundamental issues regarding transmission of the HIV virus. Accordingly, this exercise was very positive as it reinforced the importance of conducting such workshops.

In our first session we introduced the topic of HIV/AIDs by presenting information about the prevalence rate of people infected with the virus in Vilanculos. This elicited a mixed response from the class with many surprised by the high infection rate. We played a game whereby students were asked to write a statement they had heard about HIV/AIDs and indicated whether they thought it was a true or false. This task raised some common misconceptions about the virus and led to discussions of relationship issues such as the importance of being faithful. It was really rewarding to see the students considering the social context in which the information we were giving them was operate.

In the second session we focused on the differing ways in which the HIV virus can be transmitted. Through the use of role play, illustrated flashcards and a DVD presentation we discussed the range of possible transmission methods. The class had many questions and really engaged with the material. We then explained the biology of the virus to ensure the students understood the effect the HIV cells have on the human body. In particular, one student expressed his surprise at the aggressive nature of the virus. This was a very satisfying moment as the class were really comprehending the severity of contracting HIV and consequently the importance of protecting against it.

In the third session we focused on treatment of HVI and discussed the important things to remember once someone has begun taking medication. We used true or false games and group discussion to reinforce the crucial requirements associated with controlling the virus. We also used diagrams to show the speed at which HIV can spread as a result of unprotected sex.

In the final session we conducted a quiz and referred back to the set of questions from the first session. Much to our delight the students were themselves now able to answer those. This was extremely rewarding as it showed their knowledge and awareness of the HIV virus had really developed.

It was a pleasure to have worked with such a welcoming, bright group of students and this session marked the end of a truly fantastic experience.

Written by Laura Robinson from England who volunteered for one month from June-July 2010

Keeping Fit and Having Fun on Sports Day

This past Thursday we had a 'Sports Day' at the Pre-school. We planned a day of fun and games for the entire school and it was a great success! We spilt the children into eight different coloured teams, which were each led by a volunteer. We began the morning with an extended 'do as I do' gym session, to get the children warmed up and stretched out! There were four different events, a wheelbarrow race, egg and spoon race, skipping rope/army crawl challenge and a water relay. After the morning session we spilt the school into two groups and they enjoyed a game of soccer or a circle game with some beach balls. It was a fun day and all the children had a blast!

Written by Kelliann Devine, who with another fab volunteer Laura Robinson, planned the morning.

(Sorry we have been having problems uploading photos....they will be put up as soon as possible!)