NEWSLETTER

A Welcome Note

Welcome to this first news update from Little Seeds Trust in 2006.

I want to start by introducing myself.  I joined Little Seeds at the beginning of this year as the Assistant Project Manager.

One of my areas of responsibility is communications, so I look forward to keeping you up to date with what is happening at Little Seeds through a quarterly "news update", either by email or post and regular updates to our website.

Please let me know if you have any problems accessing the information and any feedback would be appreciated.

Paul Braine

Student Profile

Betty Gumede (27) is a single mother with a daughter aged 7. She lives in a township called Mashishing in Lydenburg. Betty’s mother tongue is Zulu.

 In 1999 Betty came to do a Level 1 Training in Early Childhood Development (ECD). She paid for the course herself, even though she had a very limited income. In 2001 Betty returned to continue the training at Level 2. As Betty had shown such improvement and commitment in 2004/2005, Little Seeds decided to sponsor her to do the Level 4 Training in ECD.  

As a result of the training she is now working in a church based pre-school in Lydenburg for underprivileged children.  

Betty is dedicated and creative in her work and she has a very positive and encouraging outlook on life. These qualities enable her to work well with young children and to motivate her co-workers.

 She began teaching in a mud hut on a farm. Admitting two disabled children into her class was commendable, since pre-schools at that time would normally have turned away disabled children. The decision to integrate these two children into the class did wonders for all the children.

 There are many like Betty who are in training with Little Seeds; people on very low incomes without the resources to fund further training.

 If you would like to consider sponsoring a student please contact Paul Braine at the following email address admin@littleseeds.co.za You could consider this for you as an individual, your home group, or your church, or your business.

A word from Nigel and Heather 

We reached the end of 2005 with a sigh of relief and gratitude. It was a hard-working year for every member of the Little Seeds team. We are very proud of them. Almost everyone has been able somehow to study for new qualifications and this strengthens the organisation.  We have been granted a further 5-year period as an accredited training provider in Early Childhood Development and so we begin this year in an excellent position to be able to continue to serve the rural areas in the improvement of quality of teaching and child-care. Alongside organisations in the HIV/AIDS sector we are making progress to bring very practical help and encouragement to hundreds of AIDS orphans and their carers. This aspect of the work is so rewarding yet the needs are growing rapidly and outstrip the resources. Help us by all means to expand in this area.

 With our best regards,

Nigel and Heather Drury, Founders of Little Seeds

One of the groups receiving caregiver training in association with the Hands@work organization

An inspiring message
One of our trainers received this letter [which has been translated into English] from a teenager whose Grandmother was trained by Little Seeds in August 2005.

Dear Trainer,
I want to thank you for training my Grandmother. I am seeing some changes at home. My Grandmother has started teaching us what you have been teaching her. We are very thankful for the big change this has created in our home. My Grandmother told us that respect is very, very important. Our respect for granny is growing daily as we see the changes. We have also learnt to understand the stress our mistakes and behavior creates in our granny’s life. We are so grateful. We want to tell you that we are prepared to look after our granny and to show her more respect. The training you are doing is great and we wish for you to continue in this good work. Because the work you are doing with our Granny, whom we love very much, is not only changing her life but it is also changing ours.                                    From The Grandchildren, 5 August 2005

Cynthia is from the Masoyi area where Little Seeds is actively involved in various training projects. Cynthia lost her mother at a very early age and was adopted by a care giver. In many ways Cynthia grew up like many of the teenagers and so she can relate to many of the problems they are experiencing. 

Having lost one or both parents many teenagers living in areas like Masoyi face many difficulties on a daily basis. They have to care for younger brothers and sisters with little or no money to buy basic essentials such as food or clothes, and often having to live in temporary accommodation or a shack.

As Cynthia facilitates the course she tackles some of the most basic life skills and practical matters including managing the household finances, the rights and responsibilities of children, nutrition and hygiene, communication and relationships with the siblings that they care for, as well as relationships with the opposite sex.
                                                                  Counselling practice in a training session

As the course progresses the training also deals with the very sensitive issues involved with grieving for lost parents and family members. The course also allows for the young people to share any problems that they are experiencing. While the facilitators do not have all the answers they will try to assist them as much as possible, giving counsel and guidance.

Cynthia told me about many incidents in which the young people have opened up to one another as they share about the emotional turmoil they have experienced as a result of losing their parents and the hardships they experience.

The training for Teenage Heads of Households that Little Seeds offers does make a difference in the lives of individuals. It brings inner healing, it restores self worth, and it gives hope for the future.

Words of thanks

ETDP SETA

AusAID
 To AusAID for sponsoring the 20 learners in the Masoyi area who graduated with National Certificates in Early Childhood Development Level 4, plus the 20 ECD practitioners in the current Lydenburg group.

Red Cross
Thanks to the Red Cross who gave a generous donation of toys that were distributed by Little Seeds to the children at Mganduzweni Edu-care Centre.

Individual Donors
Some private donations enabled us to sponsor a number of students at Level 1 ECD – Basic Certificate – which give such a useful foundation to pre-school teaching.

 Many thanks to all those who have partnered with Little Seeds in this past year. We will be mentioning other valuable partners in future newsletters. Why not join with them to ensure growth in our mission in 2006?

Best wishes from, Nigel, Heather, Deborah, Tina, Lettah, Paul, Gertrude and Cynthia.

“…and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” 2 Corinthians 9:6

 Little Seeds is committed to sowing into the lives of the young

2005 Successes 

Early Childhood Development (ECD): 

We had 219 Pre-School practitioners engaged in training courses, of whom the following graduated:-

24            Basic Certificate in ECD
67            National Certificate in ECD

 Services to home-based care and orphan care organisations: 

103          Women through Psycho-Social                 Support courses 1 or 2
86            Adults in other psycho-social support training courses and workshops, including home-based care personnel, coordinators and volunteers 

173          Adult care-givers / foster parents in 2-week and 4-week training courses

 105       Teenage Heads of Households (Orphans) training of 2 weeks on life-skills, basic parenting skills; Psycho-Social Support, understanding emotions. 

Other training included Assessor training for personnel of other organisations, and ‘Coach Learners’ course presented to 74 people. 

2006 Plans and Needs 

Early Childhood Development: 

We will be training 20 teachers from the Alliance Church in South Africa, and completing the training of 21 teachers in the Lydenburg area.        

We want to train other groups of teachers in neighbouring and nearby countries in Southern Africa, where people are waiting for training: specifically in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique. We need success in funding proposals for this.  

More groups funded in South Africa: again we need success in proposals to agencies and government funding.  

In Psycho-Social Support courses:

 We have arranged the training of about 120 care-givers (foster parents) and about 60 teenage orphans. 

We want to be able to extend this training to another 100 care-givers, and up to 1000 orphaned youth. 

We are planning to set up support structures very soon for the teenagers and have regular input to those who are selected by the home-based care organisations for our training.  This is a very important area of need.

STATISTICS