changing communities through sport for 500 kids

INTRODUCTION

Greetings to you, we thank you for your support.  We bring you this report for the period of April to July 2024.  We had a wonderful period and time with the children. 

FEEDING PROGRAM

The children had a great time at the children’s festival, an event that took place on Saturday 13 April 2024.  The children turned out in their numbers.  It was packed with lots of activities, with presentations from the children, games, donations of clothes which were shared among all the children and the mobile library donation of books by Mr. Chiviya, which kickstarted our mobile library The Restructuring of the children’s program has proved to be successful with main emphasis on character building lessons aimed at adding value to the children’s lives.

The cooks have continued to prepare delicious and satisfying meals for the children. We still hope all things being equal, to provide increments to the allowances we have been giving them in appreciation of their dedication, hard work and service sincerely appreciated. I commend the cooking staff for their dedication to cooking, feeding, cleaning, and doing laundry for the children.  There is a need for resources for the junior leaders to fully be able to take on their roles of storytelling for children’s lesson times visuals, worksheets, more colors to cover the large group of children, musical instruments to help liven the singing sessions, more equipment for games etc.  We have managed to purchase a whiteboard for teaching purposes and a box of markers and dusters. We appreciate this development. The Children’s work has been facing challenges where resources are concerned.  This has been a limiting factor as we work with the children who need these resources.

In May we sent out flyers and indemnity forms for and holding a life skills camp for the children.  We are excited and look forward to having an enjoyable time with children of all ages from grade 2 up to under 17 girls and boys.  We sorted teams and placed children in teams in preparation for the August sports day which has now been changed to be held after an overnight life skills camp at the Habitation of Hope campsite.  The camp is expected to take in 65 children including leaders from Friday 16 May 2024 to Saturday 17 May 2024.  We are working on the indemnity form, and the camp flier to advertise to well-wishers through the junior leaders.  We need to fundraise U$1550.00 by 7 August 2024.

LAUNDRY THURSDAY

The provision of clothes washing for the children is still ongoing to ensure high standards of hygiene are being maintained. We have not been able to save for pads for the girls. We need to reinvigorate our fundraising efforts.

SPORTS

We were able to work with Mr. Michael from Operation Mobilization and the team as we tried to strengthen our sporting side of things for the children.  He sent Mr. Simon to train our junior leaders on Saturday, 18 May.  We are still working towards acquiring other sporting materials like Skittles, tug-of-war rope, etc. The team-colored bean/sandbags for the children’s races are completed.

SCHOOL AND SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

In April a meeting was held with the 30 children that are in the school-sponsored program. The meeting was to address critical issues about the children’s delivery in school.  Issues of children not taking school seriously despite the efforts being made to sponsor the children. Children were encouraged to work diligently towards their schoolwork to communicate what they need at school in terms of books to make amends for not being serious with their academic studies and change their behavior for the better in the future.  The children were urged to put more effort and ability into applying themselves in their studies.

CONSTRUCTION

The organization is struggling financially due to a lack of funding to run the various projects at hand such as the construction of the orphanage building, horticulture, and day-to-day operations. It is of paramount importance that the financial situation of the organization be rescued. We hope for financial breakthrough soon to finance and support the work that so needs financial input urgently to ensure housing of the orphaned and vulnerable children and stability.  We continue to make efforts to reach out to donors through our online websites through various postings of events.       

RELOCATION PROGRAM

In May, the Testaram community where our program is based was met by the relevant authorities responsible for the vacating of residents in the area to make way for the construction of roads and the building of the Cyber City.  They were asked to comply with the officers on the ground when they go to bulldoze their way to proceed with their construction.  This is rather sad as there are no plans from the Authorities for any relocation of the residents to any other residential areas.  As a result, we are under pressure to sort out an alternative place for the critically affected children. We need to move to Darwendale where we are building an orphanage for orphaned and vulnerable children which is still not completed. The construction as stated above has stalled. This is just the first of at least 5 more buildings needed to house the children. We need help to complete the structure and embark on the rest of them before the children are stranded on the roadsides. 

We need to be ready because the authorities do not have a set time to shut down the settlement.

The children’s program, meanwhile, continues unabated.  The children are filled with excitement as we prepare for the upcoming August life skills camp and sports.  Looking back on where we started with the Children’s ministry, I see that it has made great progress.  It is rather a pity that this will all come to an end soon and we lose touch with the children we have been working with

CLOTHING DONATION

The children received bags of donated clothes. as well as adult clothes. The second batch was for adults. The later batch was a welcomed gesture by the feeding program team.  The feeding program staff distributed among themselves and junior leaders and gave some to community members.

DIGITAL LITERACY AND MOBILE LIBRARY

A collection of books kickstarted our mobile library.  The introduction of the Mobile Library could not have come at a better time to ensure a culture of reading in the community, aid the school children’s academics, and introduce their supervised studies.  This is hoped to help the children concentrate on their studies.

Internet literacy has stalled due to the unavailability of the internet signal in the area and broken-down tablets. This needs to be restarted with fresh strong and durable internet gadgets.

CONCLUSION

Despite financial hardships and setbacks, Harvesters in Sport Trust Children’s Program continues to forge ahead to better the lives of orphaned and vulnerable children with whatever resources we have available. We are grateful for the provisions received regularly to date.