By Ray Schone | Project Leader
Dear Friend of YOUPSA,
The children here have been thriving in YOUPSA's weekly programmes. For children to flourish, they need a safe environment, opportunities, stable and inspiring relationships. Most children that attend our programmes come from vulnerable backgrounds and violent homes, and YOUPSA's workshops are the only place where they can experience safety, support, inspiration and care.
Your support over the past year has meant the world to these children. Thank You! Our Literacy & Creative Youth Empowerment programme is ongoing. So we kindly ask you to please consider continuing your support for these children.
Recently an American organisation called Givology recorded a podcast with Co-Founder Alexis Salaman, an interview about what YOUPSA does. Here is the link to it, we hope you enjoy listening to her inspiring story: bit.ly/2jVMT77.
YOUPSA invited Woodridge College, a high calibre private school in the region, to reach out to the disadvantaged children and share some of their love and skills with them. The joy and connection was immense for everyone!
Through YOUPSA's partnership with the book organisations Book Dash and FunDza, we are fortunate to receive many beautiful books that we can distribute to children and youth. As there are no books for the children and youth in the Gamtoos Valley, this is a great upliftment for them. During South African National Book Week, we distributed over 800 books in isiXhosa, Afrikaans and English language. The kids were so excited, they could not believe that they now own their very own book!
Maths is an important part of YOUPSA's Creative Youth Empowerment workshops. We feel that having basic maths skills is vital for a successful daily life and for participating in a democratic society. At every grade level the majority of children are counting on their fingers when we first meet them, even Grade 9 youth. Unfortunately they have never had an opportunity to make friends with maths. We teach maths in a way that is fun and engages a child's natural curiosity. When we first start maths with them they are fearful, but they soon see that maths can be real fun, and that they can even be good at it!
We have been doing many art projects with the children. One of the projects was creating beautiful lions! First all of the children practiced drawing the basic outline of a lion, drawing 6 lions freely, without erasing or caring about being perfect. Then once everyone felt confident, they drew a larger lion on an A4 sheet of paper, colored it and cut out the mane. What a delight it was for the children to express their individuality and bring together what their friends had created - a beautiful pride of lions!
Just as we feel excited and fulfilled by giving these vulnerable children the conditions to flourish, so likewise we hope your giving brings you a similar feeling of great joy and satisfaction.
Please consider making a donation to support this important work!
We'd love to hear from you.
With warm regards,
the YOUPSA Team
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