NEMATO CHANGE A LIFE

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Holiday activities Holiday is time for fun. Members who have been working hard get spoiled with nice activities like going to the beach and visiting places. We went to Grahamstown where we visited the only Camera Obscura in the Southern Hemisphere. Another trip was to the Addo Elephant Park, where we were very lucky to see many animals, including lions, despite the hot weather. Also work needs to be done: cleaning, fixing, bookkeeping and so on.

Maths class We offer an afterschool class five times per week, with a numeracy programme for grade 1 to 6 and a maths programme for grade 7 to 9. With our attendance, progress and test registers, we are able to monitor impact in detail. It's looking good: our pre and post term maths tests showed an average improvement of 131%. The secret of our system is that we don't work in fixed grades, but all learners in our maths programme start each subject at level one, reinforcing the basics, and work their way up to level three, The levels make sure each learner studies at the right level, and also pushes them to work hard to pass to the next level. Click here to download our report

ECD Graduation (6 December) The first Early Childhood Development course for preschool teachers ended with a nice graduation event. The Level 2 course was in the very capable hands of Early Inspiration from Port Elizabeth and funded by The Learning Trust from Cape Town. It gave 13 preschool teachers from disadvantaged township preschools in Port Alfred and Bathurst the chance to improve their knowledge and skills in raising young children in the crucial early stages of their development. We had a passionate group of teachers trained in the course, with a 100% pass rate and strong improvements made at the pre schools. Nontsebenzo Radu received the ECD Practitioner of the Year Award at the graduation event. It’s looking promising that in 2017 a next group of teachers will get a chance to do the Level 2 course, and hopefully the Level 4 course in 2018.

Odwa working for Maureen Quin We invited our maintenance volunteer Odwa earlier in the year to join us on a trip to Alexandria to the sculpture garden of Maureen Quin. The visit became a success beyond expectation. Our members were fascinated by the work of the old lady and couldn’t stop asking her questions. Odwa asked her, when she needs help, to think of him. So she did, and they form a great team, making a new sculpture! For our other volunteer Thulani we also found a learning opportunity. He is helping a local engineer to make pineapple processing equipment for a farm.

Donations Twinsaver and Biddulphs International donated us a large number of boxes with tissues and toilet paper. It's great, because toilet paper is a luxury we normally don't enjoy. We happily shared the donation with other youth empowerment organisations and the nappies went to preschools in the townships of Port Alfred and Bathurst. We also received a large amount of FutureLife porridge, with all the nutritions the body needs. The donation was facilitated by the Eastern Cape Academy of Sport.

NACCW Youth Camp (14-16 October) Five Nemato members participated in the Youth Forum Camp of the National Association of Child Care Workers (NACCW). The theme of the camp was: The Way of the Peacefull Warrior. The aim of the camp was to help young people with skills to manage conflict and anger. The guys did ice breaker activities because not everyone was familiar with one another. There was a lot of group work, where our members had to work with people that were new to them. Their presentation of the group work gave them the opportunity to practice public speaking.

Table Manners (23 September) Stenden South Africa offer us a lesson in table manners. Tiyani Valoyi did some great teaching and we had a very nice time. Our thanks to Mzameli Dikeni for organising it.

Visiting Maureen Quin (11 July) We visited Maureen Quin, one of South Africa's foremost sculptors. She lives in Alexandria, close to Port Alfred. It was an amazing experience to hear the passion of the energetic old lady when she talks about her work and how she makes it. Her work is full of emotion and touched our hearts. Seeing her work was a very exciting experience for all of us.

Youth Day celebrations (26 June) Provincial Youth Day celebrations took place in Port Alfred. We assisted with the organisation of the fun run and our international gymnasts did a show for the provincial minister of sport and the premier of the Eastern Cape province.

Nemato Change a Life Centre (June) The preparations for the building of the Nemato Change a Life Centre have started. The building of the frame takes place in Port Elizabeth. As soon as the municipality has approved the building plans, building will start at our place in Nelson Mandela Township.

10th Birthday (16 June) It's ten years ago, on Youth Day June 16 4006, that Minister Stofile officially opened Nemato Rowing Club. We have come a long way! We celebrated our ten years with a great lunch, a gigantic cake and awards with great prizes donated by Alexander van Assendelft, Lesley Lambert, the Port Alfred Rotary, Jan Blom, Sports n All, Rhodes University Rowing Club, and Brett Malila. Siphamandla Baku won the most important award: the Member of the Year Award. It came with a tablet donated by Alexander van Assendelft.

NMMU Open Day (7 May) We organised a trip to the Open Day of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NNMU) in Port Elizabeth. We had enough space in our minibus so we could also invite youth who are not in our programme. It's one of those important events that most disadvantaged rural youth are excluded from. It's great that we could offer youngsters this opportunity.

TADS (19-22 April) Nemato Change a Life as represented at the Transformation and Development through Sport (TADS) conference by Jan Blom. The event was organised by the Sport for Social Change Network Southern Africa and the Department of Sport and Recreation, and took place in Johannesburg. We had great speakers, workshops and site visits. Probably the UNICEF presentation will have the most impact on the on the direction our organisation will be going. Their guidelines for "Problem Free, Fully Prepared and Fully Engaged" youth are great to rethink our programme.

Nemato Spar cake (8 April) Nemato Spar has become a keen supporter of the Nemato Change a Life. We get discount for our groceries and Spar made this incredibly large cake. The cake sold very quickly and all income was donated to us. Thanks a lot Nemato Spar for your support!

Scifest (6 March) Now that we have our own transport it has become easy and affordable to make trips. Today we went to the Science Festival (Scifest) in Grahamstown. We visited the main venue, the Monument, and started the day with a fascinating laser show. In a lecture we learnt that with a fuel cell you can drive your car on hydrogen, that you can make from water. Also interesting was the news about the SKA radio telescope, the fastest car in the world, and much more.

ECD Forum at Social Development (23 February) Our Nemato ECD Forum, with representatives from pre-schools from the townships of Port Alfred and Bathurst, had the first meeting at the Department of Social Development. That is the department that assist pre-schools. The department welcomed the initiative of the forum and will help pre-schools to register to qualify for funding.

Dambuza Open Day (19 Febuary) We organised an Open Day at Dambuza Primany School. A large crowd of learners participated in the event. We offered fencing, handball and rowing. The day was a great success and overwhelmed us a bit with a large number of new members.

ECD course (started 16 February) To help the disadvantaged pre-schools in the townships of Port Alfred and Bathurst to improve their Early Childhood Development (ECD) programmes, we started the Nemato ECD Forum. In a very short time the forum started having a real impact. We are very excited that 12 teachers from township pre-schools are now doing the Level Two ECD Teacher Course. It's the first time this course is offered locally in Port Alfred, and it's for free. The award winning ECD organisation Early Inspiration is giving the course and it's funded by The Learning Trust.

Special trip (6-8 January) For a selected group of members who had a high attendance and did a lot of activities last year, we organised a special trip in the holiday. For three days we went to the beautiful Karoo. On the first day we visited the Mountain Zebra Park. Despite the hot weather we were lucky to see many animals including lions. We spent the nights in the tiny village of Nieu Bethesda. On a farm close by we saw rock paintings by Khoi and Bushmen up to 7000 years old and hundreds of fossils found on the farm, all about 250 million years old. That's from before the time of the dinosaurs. The Owl House in Nieu Bethesda shows how you can create your own new world if you follow your dreams and don't listen to what others say. On the third day, on the way back home, we enjoyed the far views and amazing rock formations at the Valley of Desolation near Graaff-Reinet.