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Three2Six newsletter - February 2023
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“Mistakes are proofs that you tried.” - Prince, 14
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Running for Three2Six - support her!
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Shireen Saacks, a teacher at our new host school, has taken up an amazing challenge. She will be running the Jerusalem Marathon this Friday and has kindly chosen Three2Six as a cause! She will raise funds for our project through this event and if you would like to donate, here is the page to do so: bit.ly/3mRRozF
Take a few seconds and contribute to the cause! All donations, whether locally or internationally made, are welcome. Payments can be made by card or by bank transfer.
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Saint Valentine's Day at the project
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This Valentine’s Day was full of love! Our children enjoyed the occasion with various activities filling their day. Some of our older grades shared food and drinks over a picnic at school, while our younger grades started the day with a dance activity to show their love and friendship. Our students also drew Valentine’s Day cards to take home or give to their friends.
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Retreat for our older students
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The Grade 7 children had their first retreat session at their new school, Dominican Convent, which lasted a whole day. The retreat is a spiritual renewal to strengthen their faith and understanding regarding God, self and others. Thanks to the school's Religious Education teacher for leading our children in this wonderful experience.
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To our children’s delight, our partner Judo for Peace has resumed classes at our new host school. Students from the project and our host school are learning together. Twice a week for this term, the Grade 4 and 5 learners gather to study the basics of self-defence and learn essential skills such as respect, honesty and friendship.
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Vaccination campaign
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The National Institute for Communicable Diseases in February declared a measles outbreak across the country. The Gauteng Department of Health has been visiting schools in the province to vaccinate children against this disease and prevent a surge. They also visited our host school and vaccinated those who had not been vaccinated at local clinics.
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Our Grade 5 children this month took up a major task, they measured the surface of the playground at their school. The mathematical measurement lesson tested their ability, comprehension and level of attainment, all while having fun. Learning outside the classroom always makes the experience more exciting and hands-on.
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Visit of partner organisation
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We visited the Smile Foundation at their offices to reconnect after the intervention held at the project last year. They hosted burn awareness talks with our children and made generous donations to them. We were also thrilled to share with them the exciting developments that have been taking place at the project recently. We look forward to further collaborating this year.
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Rain and thunder put a damper on our first alumni day of the year, but the former students who could make it had a great time. The plan for this alumni day was to welcome the students back for the new year and help them structure the academic year ahead. They were tasked with writing letters to themselves which centred around setting academic goals, and personal goals as well as checking in with themselves in terms of how they felt. The point of the exercise was to teach the students the importance of reflecting and looking back to better prepare for what lies ahead.
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The alumni created a step-by-step plan of how they would achieve the goals they had set for themselves. These letters are also intended to be a form of motivation and will be opened in July so that they can track their progress. They ended the session with a hilariously intense spelling bee game, where everyone - including the facilitators - forgot how to spell the word "broccoli".
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Advocacy update
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The project staff and children were thrilled to contribute to a report by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council. The team organized a session with our older students to discuss the theme of the report, which centred around inclusive social protection. We heard what the children had to say about it and the challenges that they face in their communities to live a safe, healthy, happy and fair childhood.
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Our students also came up with recommendations for governments regarding measures that can be implemented for all children to enjoy their right to social protection and security, and to be able to claim this right.
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Feedback from children all over the world and other stakeholders will be used by the UN Human Rights Office to compile this report on inclusive social protection. A child-friendly draft version of it will be made available for feedback before the report is finalised later this year. Stay tuned.
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Feature by partner organisation
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We are grateful to Marists of Champagnat for featuring an article on the recent changes that took place at the project. You can read up about it HERE.
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Each donation counts and helps us make a valuable change in the lives of our learners.
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