Fisantekraal Holiday Club...a group leader's point of view!

At the recent holiday club we had a number of first time group leaders. The team turned out to be our dream team as they gave it a go. Some were youth from Fisantekraal and The Father's House and one adult woman from The Father's House. She shares some of her experience with us...

I had no idea it would be so much fun. The community hall echoed with shrieks of laughter, games and lots of kids. As a conservative, quiet fifty-something woman, I am used to playing it safe; yet here I was, wrapped in black plastic, face smothered in menthol shaving foam and on my knees in front of a hundred yelling kids. And it was fun. All of little Trevor’s marshmallows were bang on target. The winner would be the person with the most marshmallows on their face, but sadly none of mine seemed to stick. Lano had caught some in his open mouth (was that allowed?) and Elmien was having some success too. Being adventurous can be risky – my eyelids were stinging from the foam – but fortunately it didn’t get any worse. The Red team screamed their support: I could endure the discomfort! After half an hour (no, it was only five minutes) Hermione announced the winners: the red team! Because we’d “followed the instructions to the letter.” Thanks, Hermione!

My skin felt incredibly smooth after the facial. Somehow this stunt broke the ice for me - I made friends and learned how to break-dance on my stomach.

The Fisantekraal Holiday Club is all about having fun, and Barbara is very good at ensuring that not only the children have a great time, but the leaders do too! We met in the minor hall of the Father’s House Christian Fellowship for training that Friday before the club began; a handful of FHCF youth and some older volunteers. Once the taxi load of Fisantekraal teenagers poured through the double doors Barbara had us all in a circle playing “Jump in, jump out, introduce yourself!” That was probably the hardest thing I had to do: I was completely out of my comfort zone but gritting my teeth I introduced myself and a few of my favourite things. Chocolate and pizza, I think. Gosh, I felt I’d climbed Mt Kilimanjaro. What had started with preparing crafts with some women at church the week before had graduated into actually volunteering to be a leader at the week-long club. Lynette was very good. She said, come along, try it, see how you go…

My youngest child had bravely flown to Europe to be an au pair the previous week and it was my chance to do something I’ve wanted to do for years, but lacked the courage. And I’m so glad I did go to Fisantekraal. In fact, I enjoyed myself so much, I found myself asking Barbara if I could help at the after-school club on Wednesdays… 

Invest in our future - one youth at a time

In our work we come across young men & women - teenagers who clearly have leadership skills that with the right opportunities could be developed. There are many such youngsters in our country, in every community. Youngsters capable of rising above their difficult circumstances - whatever those may look like, to become strong leaders in their communities or in some field of study or work that opens up to them.  All they need is someone - a group of someones, ready to give them the time & encouragement they need to grow. Mentors, if you will, who create the right sort of environment for individuals to blossom...for each INDIVIDUAL to blossom! Because it really is about the individual child - even within leadership development programs it is always about creating space for each child to grow according to his or her gifting.      Perhaps you know of such children, perhaps you have mentored or are mentoring such children? Perhaps you are already investing in the future of a specific child, or specific children? Perhaps you are investing in organisations whose business it is to develop leaders?

We would like to introduce to you a young man with clear leadership qualities. His name is Wilbur Willemse, he is a 17 year old Grade 9 student from Darling. 

When we ran Parenting as Discipleship workshops at the Darling Outreach Foundation's "Ons Nessie" Centre we saw Wilbur's leadership qualities.  Others have recognised Wibur's potential and he has been selected to go to Germany with the Sondeza Initiative: EuroCamp for kids.  In Germany he would be part of a group of youngsters from 20 countries participating in a leadership development, cultural exchange program. The aim of the initiative is to promote a greater understanding of cultural diversity and racial tolerance as well as to establish international friendships.  All of which are important for a budding South African leader.

However, in order to go Wilbur has to raise R14 800 and we would like your help with that. To read more about Wilbur click here and to find out how to contribute click here

  

Here is Wilbur (in blue) taking part in the Parenting as Discipleship workshops we ran in Darling last year. 

              

Brain storming "our dreams"

Life choices activity

             

                 Presenting "our dreams" to the parents

A game that teaches about value

Internship goes local

Who knew that German students working with kids, and recruiting other overseas volunteers to join them week after week, would have such an impact?

Watching students from Germany, some not much older than themselves, give their time and energy to come and work with kids in South Africa AND without being paid...in fact paying to come...sparked lots of discussion among the youth in Fisantekraal.

These youth are not strangers to the idea of giving time and energy into the community - they've helped us with camps and kids clubs inside and outside Fisantekraal since 2010. But this, for them, was a whole new ball game. And for one young man it helped him figure out what he was going to do after Matric.

Marno, or Lano as he is known, lives in Fisantekraal with his mother & sisters.  He was part of the youth forum and drama group.  As the year progressed he spoke more and more of taking a 'gap year' because he wasn't sure what he wanted to do.  Since he wasn't sure of which direction to head, he decided not to go study something just for the sake of studying.  A wise move considering the cost of further education.

After watching him over the year and hearing his heart for vulnerable children, we decided to talk to him and his mother about him taking his gap year as an intern with us. We began the conversation around November; explaining that we had no funds from which to pay him.  But, we could help him figure out his study path, give him whatever training we had access to, and give him lots of opportunities to explore working in different aspects of the work we do with kids. And, we would try to find money to at least give him some pocket money.  In December he finished Grade 12 and passed reasonably well.

At the beginning of January we went to talk to him and his mom again and Lano joined our team. Our first local intern!  The first task we did togther was to visit the Dept of Education to help Lano register to redo 3 of his subjects this year to give him a better aggregate result.  We discovered that he could do supplementary exams in Feb/March to see if he could improve the marks. So, he signed up for these and has been studying diligently as part of his internship.  If he is still hopeful of even better marks he will register for the year end exams too.

On top of his studies Lano has taken part in the Steps to Abundant Life training course and was with us at the HSRC's launch of guidelines for counselling and testing children.  It was fascinating having him there - hearing the perspective of one of SA's "born frees" who has gone through the school system.  Among other 'duties' he is a group leader at the kids clubs, will be part of the i am special school team and will help plan & coordinate the June Super Club.

We are really blessed to have Lano on the team, and are grateful to his mom for giving us this privilege. We'll keep you posted!