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Three2Six newsletter - September 2023
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"We are stronger together" - Chichi, 14 year old learner
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Celebrating Heritage Day
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Heritage Day is a day we celebrate our cultures and embrace our traditions. Our values, morals and principles are all defined by our heritage. The numerous colours of our traditional outfits and diverse cultures represent our rainbow nation. We look back and remember where we come from and our roots which we could never be detached from.
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This Heritage Day the children at the Three2Six project acknowledged the various backgrounds they come from. They proudly put on their traditional attires and made speeches, defining what heritage means to them and what they love about it. What an amazing day of sharing it was.
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Dental care
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Oral health is a vital part of our general health and overall wellbeing. However, our community can face significant hurdles in accessing medical care because of their immigration status and lack of financial means. This is why the project offers health screenings where possible, for which it relies on its community of supporters.
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This month a team of wonderful dentists very kindly organised screenings with the children to take a closer look at their dental needs. The learners were also taught how to brush their teeth properly. One of the dentists helped students remember this by teaching them a song that they went on to repeating joyfully with their friends after the team left.
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Class project
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Music is a universal language that speaks to the soul, relaxes the mind, and calms the heart. Aside from the benefits music and musical instruments can have on an individual, what matters most is the enjoyment they bring to the player.
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“Energy and Sound”, a project for Natural Sciences, had the Grade 4s learn more about musical instruments, including how they need an input of energy to work and make a sound. The children got to try their hand at making their own instrument which they used in front of their peers with much excitement.
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A retreat is a means to withdraw, step back to look at one's way of living and thinking of rectifying where necessary. The grade 6 had an opportunity to be in a retreat facilitated by Sr. Connie and Mrs. Sithole in the school hall.
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Learners were very excited as they were given a chance to regain their spiritual strength through scripture, sharing life experiences and meditation. The theme of the retreat was “Othering and Belonging”. They learnt to respect one another and explored ways to celebrate unity in diversity.
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They also gave feedback on the overall retreat experience. One of the learners said, ‘it was so peaceful meeting Jesus and telling him all about my struggles and blessings.’ At the end of the retreat, the concept of Othering and Belonging was well understood.
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School outing
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Beyond the experience of learning in class, our students were given the opportunity to learn about the theatre discipline by participating in a production created by learners at Marist Brothers Linmeyer School.
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The theme of the “Jabu and the Giant Marula” play is the importance of embracing diversity. Going to this school production helped learners who are good performers to explore what they like and to find themselves. Our children were delighted to be a part of this great storytelling exercise with friends from another school.
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The positive impacts of girls’ education are many, from reducing the incidence of forced marriages and gender-based violence to boosting the economies and reducing inequalities. However, according to UNICEF, there are still 129 million girls out of school in the world. This is why the project makes it a point of honour to ensure access to education for girls from the refugee community in Johannesburg. But girl education is more than access to school, it’s about ensuring that they participate fully at school and are supported in their learning.
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With this in mind, Three2Six embarked on a research project to look at the potential gender disparities at the project and their impact on education. Our two volunteers, Marina and Mariana, took on this gender analysis and organised group discussions with our girls and mothers, as well as one-on-one interviews. These interactions allowed them to gather information on themes that included gender roles at home, safety of girls outside of school, the cultural expectations relating to boys and girls, and the level of participation of girls in their community and at home. The conclusions of this report will be used to improve the offering at the project and enhance gender equality where needed.
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Parent workshop and food support from partner
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As parenting can be very complex, mentoring can go a long way because parents do not always have it easy. Parenting comes with challenges and in the context of migration, it is worsened. Being unable to provide for your children as a parent due to unemployment and poverty is very distressing and can result in parents using wrong ways of communication towards their children which can push them away. It is therefore very important for parents to attend workshops for better understanding of their role in the lives of their children and of how to support their development at home.
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Our partner organisation, the Johannesburg Parent and Child Counselling Center (JPCCC) hosted a workshop with a group of our parents, where they were provided with counselling on how to communicate with and discipline children. As a form of additional support from our partner, food parcels were given to every parent who attended, to relieve them from stress at least for some time.
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Alumni day
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During our most recent alumni day, we welcomed the Spring season with reflections and setting new goals for the last quarter of the year. We began our session with a check-in activity where the alumni engaged with one another regarding events in their lives, their academics, and their mental state.
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We then proceeded to partake in a drama improv activity in which the pupils were given random objects and tasked with creating a sketch using these objects and incorporating dialogue. Our next activity was art-based, the pupils were instructed to draw various figures as a group. After this chaotic but overall enjoyable activity, we stepped out into the sun and expressed our gratitude for the various happenings in our lives as we ate our lunch. We played 30 seconds to close off our session. The pupils were highly competitive as they rigorously took turns guessing words and describing them to each other.
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Advocacy as a collective of organisations helps amplify a message and it creates connections between organisations for further partnerships. The project took part in important meetings this month with two different groups, the National Inter-Agency Working Group on Unaccompanied and Separated children and other vulnerable children (NIAWG), and the Protection Working Group (PWG).
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The first meeting brought together Save the Children South Africa, the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA), the South African Human Rights Commission and other organisations. Key advocacy priorities were set for the Working Group for next year which will be actioned jointly by its members.
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The second meeting was convened by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in partnership with the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, to strengthen the implementation of the National Action Plan to combat Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. Attendees included Lawyers for Human Rights, the Department of Social Development as well as the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, South African Police Services (SAPS), the Centre for Child Law, and the City of Johannesburg.
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The meeting aimed at coordinating responses countering xenophobia, intolerance, and racism in South Africa, especially in the run up to the national elections next year. Various panel discussions looked at the formal and local level mechanisms put in place in this field, the work that is currently being done and the best practices.
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Organisation representatives discussed in groups successful initiatives in terms of coordination, prevention and response to xenophobia which could be strengthened, and the first steps to take to respond to a xenophobic surge in a coordinated way. A follow-up workshop will be organised to develop contingency plans in case of incidents of anti-migrant sentiment and potential violence.
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Staff update
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The project always aims to give opportunities to its alumni for them to broaden their knowledge and to gain experience that will be useful in their lives going forward. This month Three2Six welcomed Messie Princese to its team as a communications intern. Messie was one of the project’s first learners in 2008, and she has since completed a degree in Logistics during which she studied marketing. She will be with us for the next few weeks. We wish her well in this role!
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"My experience at the Three2Six project as a communications intern has been nothing but amazing. Having a change of environment has never been easy but I guess change is constant. This enabled me to learn how to adapt to new surroundings and feel comfortable around a new circle of people. For the past month, I have just realized that I am a fast learner and I have been able to grasp new knowledge within my job role. Although it is challenging, I am loving the experience because it is pushing me to do my utmost best, making me realize how far my capabilities can take me. I am grateful for the opportunity given to me by Three2Six, I am hoping to become great in this position and looking forward to a remarkable experience."
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Each donation counts and helps us make a valuable change in the lives of our learners.
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