Invest in your community’s children with HeronBridge College’s outreach programme
NIETGEDACHT – You have the power to change a child's life. Become a volunteer with the Lesedi Outreach Programme and give children the tools to face their futures.
Children have a lot to learn both inside the classroom and out. Will you give a few hours out of your month to teach them?
The Lesedi Outreach Programme is calling all volunteers willing to give their time and passion to help develop disadvantaged children to volunteer at the non-profit organisation on Saturdays.
Based at the HeronBridge College campus in Nietgedacht, Lesedi volunteers work with about 160 children from grades 4 to 11 from nearby informal settlements, both to help them achieve success at school and to develop 21st-century skills the children can carry with them into the future.
Children who attend the programme come from the surrounding disadvantaged areas of Cosmo City, Diepsloot, Lion Park and Thabo Mbeki informal settlement.
“Lesedi is basically run by volunteers and works to educate children through project-based learning around their curriculum,” explained Maryna Boddenberg of the organisation.
“We’re very inspired by the quote from educational philosopher John Dewey, who said ‘give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results’.
“Our children have to work on projects that teach them 21st -century skills like cooperation, critical thinking and ability to use language to communicate their ideas to others.”
Lesedi is currently run by about 30 volunteers and has a waiting list of about 200 other children who want the opportunity to learn too. Boddenberg said it needs all the volunteers it can get – but stresses that previous teaching experience is not a requirement to volunteer and that it’s not asking for hours and hours of your time. “Of our current volunteers, all of them also work full time in professions such as mining engineering, the accrual sciences or in medicine. These are not people who sit at home all day with nothing to do, they just think it’s important to give their time and energy so the community can benefit.
“We teach our children every Saturday from 9.30am until 12.30pm, and volunteers can choose to give their time between one and four Saturdays of the month.”
The curriculum will be provided but volunteers need to be willing and able to do the work of not only designing creative ways for the children to learn but also to provide mentorship to their charges.
“People only need to have the passion to make a difference for these children through relationships.
Our programme is a vehicle for influence on these children and we need people willing to encourage, love and respect Lesedi participants.
“These lessons are what we want the children to take away from this experience and is almost more important than just the schoolwork.”
Anyone willing to volunteer is welcome to visit the Lesedi Outreach website. Financial donations, as well as donations of stationery and learning resources, are also welcome.
Details: www.lesedioutreach.org.za
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