Read, Set, Study!
As six of our teenagers are in the throngs of writing their first set of Matric exams. Our Child & Family Coordinator, Sharon, has been putting in double time to help see them through successfully! With a total of four weeks of writing, we are striving to teach the students how to balance their time. This has come as a challenge to some. However, many have risen to the occasion and are pulling late nights trying to understand the work at hand.
Throughout the year, the students have expressed how many of their classes have over 50 students in them, with an age range of 16 to 21-year-olds. Additionally, there are often insufficient textbooks to go around and many students lack the funds to purchase them themselves. Several students struggle as the classes are taught in a language different from that of their own. So the obstacles they face at school are not easy ones. At home, they don’t always have access to electricity to study at night or they reside in informal settlements where the local shebeens are noisy at night. Simple things, like solar-powered lights to study by at night, earphones to block out some noise, or a quiet home to host them for the weekend to study in peace goes a long, long way to help the children succeed at their exams.
In talking through their upcoming English paper on parts of speech, I asked the matriculants what nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc were. They did not know. If you can read and write in English then you can help tutor our students! Send us an email at info@hlanganani.org or call/WhatsApp us at 0639859028 to see how you can donate school books and/or funds for educational purposes or help a child read!
Feed A Child
Hlanganani is blessed to be the recent recipient of food donated through the nonprofit Feed a Child (feedachild.co.za). Their vision is to eradicate poverty sustainably and to take God’s hope to the nations.
It is estimated that almost 10% of the South African population are children (representing all ethnical groups) living below the poverty line and in circumstances beyond their control. When the Hlanganani children have healthy balanced meals their overall lives are improved, they can concentrate at school, take their antiretroviral therapy (ART), sleep better, and be happy children! Over the past month, we have received more than 660 kgs of food; cereal, fruits, vegetables, flour, bread, tc from Feed A Child. This is such a huge blessing to all of our children and the families that care for them.
Every little bit helps to keep their tummies full and a smile on their faces!
My Kingdom For Toilet Paper
To most of us toilet paper, is just that…toilet paper. We don’t think about it much, except of course when we are the unfortunate recipient of an empty roll with no other in sight! However, to our Hlanganani children, the 200+ sheets on a toilet paper roll represent self-respect, knowing that their basic needs are being met and that they are worthy of such dignity.
It also symbolizes the chance for them to be entrepreneurs; the ability to make pocket money by selling the rolls (they purchase for a nominal fee) to others within their communities. This teaches them how to budget their funds, confidence to market their “goods” and how to spend it wisely. The small fee they spend to purchase the bundles of toilet paper is then saved for their end-of-year holiday party, something they all get to enjoy.
The sale of toilet paper rolls and tissue boxes has afforded our teenagers the ability to purchase clothes, toiletries, school books, airtime, and even helped them save up for a cell phone. It has put food on their table when resources are sparse. In the world of Hlanganani toilet paper is a precious gift used for so much more than just the toilet. So, next time you grab a handful of toilet paper, consider how you may be of help to a teenager desiring to earn some pocket money!
The above is all made possible by the ongoing kind and generous donations from Twinsaver Group (Pty) Ltd, for which we are truly grateful!
Some fun toilet paper facts:
- The average toilet paper roll lasts approximately five days in an average household.
- Consumers use approximately 8 – 9 sheets of paper per use.
- It takes about 384 trees to make the toilet paper that one individual uses within their lifetime.
- The average person uses 100 rolls of toilet paper annually (over 20,000 sheets).
- The daily production of toilet paper is about 83,048,116 rolls per day.
- Toilet paper is often used for making dresses.
