I get excited when I think of how Seed of Hope Community Development’s after school education program is evolving, developing, maturing.
In the early days, the idea was to provide a safe place for children to come after school – a kind of after-school care program where children could come, learn about Jesus, and get a hot meal. It was called, “Simunye Time,” “simunye” meaning, “we are one.” Often, there would be 80 or 90 kids from age 4 to 11 all in the same room, singing songs and dancing, and listening to bible stories. And it was good.
Over the last 18 months or so, we’ve been moving from this picture to an entirely new one: a leadership / discipleship program that starts at age 4 and goes through to, potentially, age 18.
Where we once had one class for ages 3 to 10, and another for ages 11 to 14, we now run 4 separate classes: an age 4/5, a 6-8, a 9-11, and a 12-14. From age 15, we run “Live Out Loud,” a leadership development class for selected grads of our age 4-14 program. Next year, we plan to add another class (and teacher) to further narrow the age range of the classes.
We’ve been developing a curriculum designed to nurture and grow young people of character who will be equipped to function as leaders in the community. The backbone of the curriculum is character development, married to an understanding (and hopefully personal acceptance of) the gospel, and general biblical literacy. We are also supporting learning in English, as future career options are very limited without a working knowledge of English. Health education is covered, including HIV and AIDS, as well as general life skills and decision-making. All topics are, of course, taught age-appropriately.
We’ve had a wonderful volunteer join us for this year from England. Meet Hannah Hawkins, a grade three teacher from London. She is helping me develop the curriculum this year, and is spending lots of time developing and coaching our teachers.
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The teachers at Seed of Hope don’t have any formal teacher training, and have only experienced mainly rote-style teaching in their own educational background. Hannah is a wonderful asset, whose always-encouraging demeanor is really helping our teachers be successful with their classes.
In addition to focusing on curriculum development and teacher development, we’ve had to create new classrooms in which to operate. Late last year and early this year, we renovated the upper “cafeteria” building. When the buildings we operate in were part of a Nazarene bible college, this building was where the meals were cooked and the students ate. We created 3 new classrooms from the old dining hall. Now, along with 2 rooms in the main building, we have enough classrooms to house what we like to call, “Simunye 2.0.”
With all these changes, we can see the children learning and becoming more confident in themselves. We are also seeing the powerful relationships developing between the children and their teachers. These relationships will impact them for the rest of their lives as they experience our staff truly caring for their growth and potential. It is exciting and I get truly inspired at the difference education and investment can make.
DW
(Click on a photo to enlarge)
