ALBERTON NORTH – With the help of a volunteer, a reading corner was established in the aftercare area. It is the duty of the children to tidy up the reading corner at Ligstad every Friday afternoon. Usually the job was done with lots of continuous requests from the volunteers, sighs from the children, bribery etc.
Shortly after the schools re-opened for the third school term in 2014, Trix Schutte, the co-ordinator of the aftercare centre at Ligstad, was approached by an 11-year-old girl who attends the aftercare. She proposed that monitors needed to be appointed for the Library, and that it be their responsibility to keep the reading corner nice and tidy. She was given the task to discuss it with the other children and came back to Trix with four other girls, who signed up for Library duty under her leadership.
They presented their proposal on how the library needs to be run and was given the go-ahead, under the auspices of Trix, to roll out their plan.
According to Alida Jooste, social worker and project manager of Ligstad, it was a sight to see the enthusiasm of these girls who took ownership. They worked like an army of ants after homework time, giving up their play time and are devoting all their spare time in implementing their system. The reading corner area is neater than it has ever been, no continuous requests, sighs or bribery is necessary any longer as the Library monitors are taking pride in their little (but big for them) project.
The girls had the following to say when asked why they decided to get involved and to volunteer their services:
“I am a media centre monitor at Alberton Primary, and I wanted to start helping at the library to help the children who struggles with their Afrikaans and English reading. We only took 13 days to get everything in place for the library,” said Kea Sebotja, the founder of the newly established library.
“Kea chose me to help her with the library and I helped her to choose two other library monitors. I also would like to help the children who struggles with their reading,” said Tebogo Masemola.
“I was selected to be one of the monitors and I took responsibility for the cleaning of the library,” Ntokomalo Masemula proudly said.
“I saw Kea was doing something, and when she told me about her plans I started to help her with the planning. I know there are lots of children who are struggling with their languages, and I would like to help them with it,” was the comment of Lerato Aphane, the co-founder.
Itumeleng Choshi said she wanted to be part of the group and asked the girls if she can be part of the group. Now she can be part of a group that she can spend time with.
Trix Schutte stressed the fact that a year ago she would not have imagined this spontaneous and energetic reaction. The exact girls who are now forming the centre of this little project were somewhat un-cooperative and not interested to participate in group activities, not even mentioning the fact that they would have not taken the lead in such a thing. She attributes the change in attitude to a generous outpouring of love into the children’s lives by the staff and the volunteers of Ligstad, and truly believes that love makes anything possible.
Alida Jooste adds that this is community development and Ligstad’s motto to empower the community to take responsibility for itself, working on a micro level within our project. It excites her to see the power of internal motivation, when an individual in a community realises that there is people who believe in you and support you. She is so proud of the children and challenges the adults in the community and those already receiving services from Ligstad to be motivated by these children and their success. This is what happens when a community takes ownership of their projects.
When the children were asked how the community can assist them, they expressed the need for a children’s book from grade 1 to grade 7. The need for English books are currently greater than the need for Afrikaans books, but all donations in this regard will be appreciated. They would also like to make the area comfortable for the children to sit and read. Should anyone have items that might assist with this need it will be highly appreciated.
Members of the public who are interested to assist the children are welcome to contact Alida Jooste or Trix Schutte at 079 693 3666.
