ON Thursday, April 20, the local non-profit organisation, the Bhambayi Project, and Durban Girls’ College celebrated 10 years of partnership.

The Bhambayi Project runs a community-based orphan support model, which looks to re-story the lives of orphans and vulnerable children, through relationships and empowerment, enabling them to become courageous agents of change in the world. According to the Bhambayi Project founder and director, Mandy Pearson, there are over 200 children in their programmes. “We believe in, and practise what we call eye2eye giving, a two-way approach, where every person is both a giver and receiver, with dignity not being compromised by the ‘powerful’ giving to the perceived ‘powerless’,” said Pearson.

Durban Girls’ College has played an important role in the Bhambayi Project’s Friday afternoon Maths Club in Bhambayi, Inanda, since 2013.

“What you will find on a Friday afternoon are volunteers, mainly from DGC, teaching maths and the Neema Literacy Programme to grades R to 12 children. What you will also find are children from Bhambayi teaching the volunteers games and dance moves and an abundance of laughter and relationships growing between people whose lives ordinarily would not have crossed paths,” said Pearson.

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Pearson says that the benefit of these afternoons is staggering in its two-way giving. “Many a DGC pupil has shared that it is the highlight of their week – one going so far as to say she felt it had in some way saved her. The children in Bhambayi say that they have new friends and they are now good at maths. For a number of children, this has also led to their maths talent being identified and them being given bursaries for Inanda Seminary and St Nicholas. One of these individuals is now in her second year at UCT studying Civil Engineering and is a leader in her residence,” said Pearson.

The Bhambayi Project’s community-based orphan-support model supports orphans within their own communities and family structures, enabling far greater and deeper reach than the traditional orphanage model. “We are primarily focused on Bhambayi, a community in north Durban, and one of the most disadvantaged areas in South Africa,” said Pearson.

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The organisation also hosts The Stories of Hope evening, which is an opportunity for powerful stories of impact to be shared. The stories follow the themes of The Bhambayi Project’s HOPE Building Model which believes that how we see others and how we give has the ability to change our nation.

“H is for Honour rather than pity, O for long-term Outcomes rather than handouts, P for a focus on Potential, not lack, and E for empowerment rather than solving problems on the other’s behalf,” concluded Pearson.

To find out more about The Bhambayi Project and Stories of Hope evenings, please contact Zama on admin@bhambayiproject.co.za or visit their website: www.bhambayiproject.co.za.

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