World Play Day 28th May 2010

Friday the 28th of May 2010 is World Play Day. World Play Day was instituted by the International Toy Library Association in 1999 and has been celebrated in over 30 countries every year since then. This year, the theme is Creating a culture of play. Creating this culture includes giving children the time to play, understanding that children learn through play and that play is a crucial part of normal development. Adults are encouraged to provide safe spaces to play, take time to play with a child, and make sure that the whole family play together often. We should also make sure that traditional games are passed down to the new generation

Last week LETCEE put out an appeal to the schools and residents of Umvoti to help children play this World Play Day by donating educational toys to LETCEE, Sikhulakahle and Sibathanda Abantwana's Toy Libraries. Today we receive our first donation of puzzles, another reason to smile!

What's next for Mbuba Toy Library?

Now that the container has arrived, LETCEE and the Sikhulakahle Committee are making plans for the next phase of the project. This involves laying a concrete slab in front of the Toy Library, building a ramp up into the library so that children with disabilities can also access the library, placing a roof over the top to provide shade, putting up shelves and painting the container. So much work....but the reward will be seeing how much joy and fun the children of the community get out of using the Toy Library.

Mbuba Toy Library begins to take shape...

It was with much excitement today that we headed out to Mbuba to witness the delivery of the container that is to serve as the Sikhulakahle Toy Library. We met the truck about 15 kilometres outside of Greytown and led the driver to the Mbuba Community Hall where the Toy Library is to be situated. There was much curiosity as the truck was positioned and the container moved by crane onto the concrete stands that had been built for it. As I stood back and watched the children's excitement as to what was going on it made me realise once more what an impact this Toy Library can have on the Mbuba community. It made me smile...

Soccer Friday

Getting ready for 2010 World Cup Soccer- we are learning the Diski Dance. What fun!

Laughter, sharing and fun: together as one :-)

Friday afternoon was 'catch-up time' for the LETCEE team. We met over lunch, for a sandwich and story time. Everyone has been very busy and we've been traveling all over- across the province, the country- even overseas! It was a chance for everyone to share their experiences. With much laughter we heard many interesting stories of things which happened. Everyone really enjoyed the chance to hear what is happening within the organisation and just how much we have been stretching our wings.
Being so busy, it is so easy to miss out on these times together, and the opportunity to learn from others experiences, we hope that this will be the first of many get-togethers, so we can make sure we stay on the same page... and remain a close-knit family.

The team who went to Ingwavuma shared a fun game, which we all played. With much laughter and enjoyment it certainly meant leaving for the weekend on a high note...

The Dream is slowly becoming reality...

In January this year LETCEE received the amazing news that the Toy Library for Mbuba had been fully funded and that we could now begin the process the Mbuba community has been dreaming about over the past 2 years!!

We got off to a slow start....meeting with the committee, obtaining permission to occupy land from the Inkosi and waiting for the committee to identify people in the community to do the building work.

Last week Bracken Timbers levelled the area for us, thanks Andrew :) and just yesterday the materials for the stands on which the Toy Library will be positioned, were delivered. Building starts on Monday!

136 Students trained last week!

Last week (12-17 April) was an incredibly busy one for the LETCEE training team!
Not only did we have a module of Level 4 training happening at our centre in Greytown;
we also had 5 of our team venture off to Ingwavuma.
We were asked by Ingwavuma Orphan Care centre to conduct training for 110 Family Support Members.
Our team each trained a group of FST's in the basics of Early Childhood Development, covering topics like why we need Early Childhood Interventions, child development, children's rights, child management and learning through play . For some of the women, it was the first time they were receiving any form of training.

We recieved positive feedback...
What have you learnt that will be most useful in you work?
"All what I learnt will help me to improve the knowledge of those children" -Zodwa

"I have learnt about the rights of children and their needs. This is important. ... About abuse and to listen to the child if he or she wants to tell you something." -Thulile
What did you learn this week, that you will now change in the way you do your work?
"I change the way which I see the family, I will respect them. " -Goodness
"I will listen to their problems, be polite, giving them a smile."
"I have learnt a lot of things that will change in my work, listening to the kids and make sure of their rights." -David
Other comments?
"The course was good and our facilitator was easily approachable. I hope we will have another training." - Thabsile
"More training like this will be of great value to the FST's" -Hlengiwe
"Because LETCEE is an organisation that has strong programmes in social and community development, we ask you to come again to help us. We like to develop our communities."