Lamontville celebrations

Lamontville is one of the townships outside Durban. The Community Outreach Program Trust (COPT) has built a centre there, which is used for a number of activities:

• Africaid, an HIV prevention program, which includes a soccer program for kids
• a crèche (day care), which allows parents to work without having to leave small children at home
• a reading class, to improve reading skills in English for kids age 7-13
• a weekly Bible class
• Sunday school and Sunday worship service

Following a recent fire in the township that left 40 families without shelter, the centre also provided temporary shelter to many of the families.

The Trust is the financial entity for the 2010 initiative of the South African Christadelphians, and will also continue on beyond 2010. They receive corporate contributions, donations from local brethren, and donations from overseas. The money is used to operate the Bible Education Centres, various programs, and the community centres such as the one in Lamontville. This multi-ecclesia effort could be a model for ecclesias in other parts of the world to use.

We were privileged to particiate in two end-of-term events at the centre last weekend.

On Friday, twelve girls from the reading class gave a display of their reading abilities to our small group of 8 onlookers. Many more children had participated in the reading program - perhaps the end of the school term caused the rest to be elsewhere for the day. Brother David White kicked things off, observing the tremendous progress the students had made. Most were three years behind their age level at the start of the term, and by the end they had closed much of the gap. Skill in reading English will have a major bearing on access to further education and to good jobs after they are out of school. Sister Christy Beyers has been leading the group, assisted by other volunteers, and with help from Bro David, who is a retired school teacher. Christy and David called the students up one by one. Each read a selection from one of their favorite books, and then was presented with their well-deserved certificates. Unfortunately we had forgotten our camera - some others took pictures, and we hope to get some from them.

Then, on Saturday we returned to Lamontville for the end-of-term and "graduation" party for the crèche kids. This time we had our camera! Sister Rose Mhlongo lives on site and operates the crèche, with assistance from volunteers, especially Sis Amy McClure from Australia, and also Sis Hyacinth Harvey from Jamaica. The party was quite an event. The parents were seated, then the children entered to music using a dance/march step. There were speeches, presentation of certificates to each child, photos, and a huge meal prepared by Rusi, a truly remarkable woman who does the cooking for the crèche. Four of the kids are graduating, and will start primary school next term - for these there were caps and gowns! After the meal, the kids did some traditional Zulu dancing while the adults sang the songs and Rusi accompanied them on a hand-made cowhide drum. Then dessert, and of course cleanup -- all in all it was quite a production! A lot of fun for the participants, and a lot of work for Rose, Amy and the other volunteers. We were glad to have been part of it.