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How We Can Help Now and Post-Lockdown

How We Can Help Now and Post-Lockdown
EduFunHeader
18 April 2020

Hello Visitor,


The world as we know it has certainly changed since the last time we saw any of our regular volunteers and since our last newsletter went out.


In the words of President Cyril Ramaphosa: 

“Our country finds itself not only confronted by a virus that has infected more than a quarter of a million people around the globe, but also by the prospects of  deep economic recession that will cause business to close and many people to lose their jobs. …. In the days and weeks and months ahead, our resolve, our resourcefulness and our unity as a nation will be tested as never before.  

I call on all of us, one and all, to play our part.
 
To be courageous, to be patient, and above all, to show compassion.

Let us not despair as we are a nation at one, and we will surely prevail.” 


Thank you to our volunteers and supporters who continue to show compassion and "resourcefulness" in the way that you have shared crucial  information and updates about various government and private initiatives that one can apply to for food and other essential services to be sent to the most vulnerable.  We've also had a lot of people sharing free education resources, mobile phone data packages that are available at reduced fees for people in various areas, recipes to boost the immune system etc. and we have been assimilating and passing this information on where applicable. 

Many of you who have checked in with us have been experiencing your own challenges over this time - worrying about home schooling your own kids, trying to work from home. Some of our expat volunteers have been separated from their spouses and children and some have chosen to be repatriated. 

Despite all these personal setbacks, fears and unknowns, our wonderful local and international community still check in and want to lend a "helping hand" even if it’s through a virtual platform or from a distance. 


We address the following in this Newsletter
  1. Overview of the current situation in Diepsloot as reported by our very own Nopinki.
  2. How you can Help Edu Fun continue to help some of our DCS families with the immediate need for food this weekend via "Virtual Vouchers" for Shoprite that we will be purchasing.  Please donate if you can.  
  3. An opportunity to "Login & Learn during Lockdown" - any of our volunteers are welcome to sign up for Read for Africa's Online Phono-Graphix course at no charge. 
  4. Some Post-Lockdown plans to start thinking about in terms of giving additional support on-site or online in the near future.
  5. We say thank you to our "lockdown superhero"!

1. Current Reality in Diepsloot

With the school being closed and since many of the DCS teachers do not live in Diepsloot, we have had no real co-ordinated way of getting in touch with ALL the children or families of Diepsloot Combined School and have been focusing our efforts on helping DCS learners – past and present on a case by case basis and on a small scale in the hope that all the advertised government initiatives would kick in and infiltrate into Diepsloot and that all of our DCS families would benefit via these platforms. 

Nopinki continues to play the role of our "correspondent on the ground" and keeps updating us with the situation in Diepsloot and lets us know who is in need of help. Sadly she has confirmed for us that that people have been queuing since 4am on days that food parcels have been promised, only to be turned away by lunch time and told “not today” which has been disheartening.
 
    
 
As you can see in the photos - people have been hanging around waiting
for promised food parcels and very little social
distancing taking place.  


It’s difficult for any community to remain “patient” and to “not despair” when this is what is happening. 


2. How we can help - donations needed

With things getting increasingly tense and desperate in Diepsloot we were pleased to establish that Shoprite were offering virtual vouchers, which we have tested with Nopinki to make sure that the Shoprite at Diepsloot Mall is set up to use them.
 


These are safe, both as a “cashless” transaction as well as “hands-free” as you just use the pin sent via text and don’t have to use the key pad or a card. This voucher is arranged via credit card which also means that no one needs to physically purchase or hand over money/food. 
 

Nopinki after her successful transaction at Shoprite


This is the immediate way in which we are helping learners from Diepsloot Combined School – past or present. We have a small network of students who are in touch with us and when they make contact and express their needs, we’ve managed to send a bit of money, however budgets are tight so we won’t be able to sustain this as we can’t allocate too many funds to an “unbudgeted item”.  

Nopinki has demonstrated huge amounts of courage and compassion and continues to check on families and identify DCS families in need. Whilst we won’t be able to help every DCS family we will at least be able to make a small contribution to those who we have telephone numbers for and who Nopinki is coming in to contact with or hearing about. At the moment we have about 12 to 15 families who are in desperate need who we are helping immediately.  We will give each of these family R300 as a start and hoping to raise the R5000 to cover this amount over the next few days at least. 

So - one of the most immediate and significant ways in which YOU can make a contribution is by donating money to Edu Fun so that we can continue to purchase these virtual vouchers as and when needed. 


Click here to make a credit card donation on the South African PAYFAST Platform.  In the section that says "leave an appreciation message", please type "Lockdown Support" as a reference. Email info@edufunsa.co.za if you require a tax certificate.



 


Or, alternatively, you can make a donation on the Global Giving platform here. Where people who pay tax in the Sates or in the UK can get a tax rebate. 
 



We will continue to use any funding that comes in over this period to help families in need in this manner, but also keep expanding on this database so that when we hear about government or private initiatives earmarked for Diepsloot we can at least include specific families and locations as this type of support will be needed over the next two weeks and long after lockdown especially with the “Phasing in Approach” that has been proposed as part of the department of basic education's “draft post Covid-19 lockdown recovery plan”, which we elaborate on further below. 



3. Free Phono-Graphix Online Course offered to all our volunteers

In terms of your own sanity and learning – if any of our volunteers would like to use this lockdown period to do our Phono-Graphix course online in your own time at your leisure  - please let me know. 

This will enhance your knowledge of the programme, will keep your mind stimulated and obviously assist us in the future when teaching reading goes back to the classroom (or you may want to learn how to teach reading online). 

I will be hosting a Phono-Graphix Specific Zoom session for our Edu Fun volunteers every Tuesday morning from 9am to 10:15. I will set a Phono-Graphix topic each week and anyone can “Login in and Learn”. 


Starting with an introductory session this Tuesday, 21 April at 9am. The focus will be on how the online course would work, and will be a brief overview of the course and the method.   

Please let me know if you would like to be included in the meeting and I will send Zoom invitation. 




4. Edu Fun Shifts its Focus to a Post-Lockdown Plan 


With the following information in mind, we are also turning our focus to post-lockdown and the additional educational, technological and human resources we will need to be able to provide necessary support to DCS. 

Any money raised over this period that doesn’t get used on food during lockdown will automatically go towards any resources required to deal with some of the scenarios described below.  

 

Pupils in grades 12 and 7 will be the first to return to school on May 6 if President Cyril Ramaphosa lifts the lockdown at the end of the month, according to a draft proposal seen by TimesLIVE. 

This is according to proposals contained in the department of basic education's “draft post Covid-19 lockdown recovery plan” which was discussed with teacher unions and governing body associations on Wednesday.
According to the document, two grades will be phased in at a time, starting from May 6.


These are the tentative dates for pupils to return to school:

 



As education is the main focus of EDU FUN, this is where we feel we can make the biggest impact and ensure that our funds are spent on DCS specific initiatives and to give our learners a fighting chance of being promoted to the next grade in 2021, having consolidated the necessary skills. 

We will always keep in mind that the basic needs of the kids in terms of their health and safety; nutrition and having a school uniform and shoes, needs to be in place in order for any of our Educational efforts to be successful, so we will increase our fundraising efforts to cover all these areas.  

There are so many unknowns, so all that we can do is start thinking of possible scenarios and to brainstorm and problem solve various options so that we are a bit more ready to step up and step in when the time is right, have enough resources and funds to implement some of these ideas as soon as possible. 

It would be great if you can go through the ever increasing list below that many of you have already contributed to. Perhaps brainstorm with your resourceful networks and families and chat about the various scenarios and add a few more potential issues or scenarios and start to see how you personally might get involved and what “post-lockdown at DCS” might look like for YOU.


Whether it means going to Diepsloot (in a socially distanced way when allowed), offering online support from a distance or financially.   

We will obviously discuss all of our ideas with the school and Partner Project co-ordinators before any action is taken, but here are some of the questions being asked and possible scenarios that have been raised ...... 
 
  • Assisting Grade 7 and 12 learners with their Maths/English during May and June as we won’t be able to work with the Grade 2s or 3s until July at least.
  • When the learners do go back to school there should be health professionals onsite organised by the education department – will we need to have a screening protocol in place ourselves when people enter the hub (learners and volunteer) and what might these include?   
  • What social distancing protocols will we have in the hub (legally but also in order to encourage maximum participation from our learners and volunteers 
  • Will it be better to stagger the programme and only have small groups of volunteers going in and trying to offer lessons in small groups in the hub and spread the programme over the week? 
  • Will we still have enough volunteers willing to go into Diepsloot to volunteer – will they be too busy home-schooling their own kids, will we lose more volunteers as they are repatriated?
  • Can we raise enough funds to train and employ local unemployed youth / graduates to teach Phono-Graphix so as to multiply our impact?
  • What if the proposal that learners must work right through to the end of the year without school holidays is approved and/or the school day is extended later into the afternoon …. will we need to assist with more food so that those kids who get one meal a day at school can get a second meal (at least the kids that we work with).
  • Will our current volunteers be able to give up more time to go in 2 or 3 times a week or on Saturday mornings?
  • Will we be able to get enough laptops, mobile data and other resources donated to be able to set up online groups in the hub where our volunteers can “call in” from home and assist small groups of learners (especially the older ones with either Maths and English) 
  • Alternatively - could we set up an online resourcecentre in the hub so that more learners can access the internet and online resources that have been made freely available over this time but remain inaccessible to the majority of the DCS  learners? Or or do we want to start from scratch with our current Grade 2s?
  • If we are able to resume with our Monday Reading Programme as usual, should we rather work with the current Grade 3’s as they have basic skills in place from last year, but would have possibly regressed after a 4 month break. Is it better to focus our efforts on them, revise their basic skills, consolidate and give them a better chance of being able to cope with the increased work load of Grade 4 where the focus shifts from “learning to reading” to “reading to learn”?  
  • Do we try and replicate our Monday Model on Tuesday - continue to work with the whole of Grade 2 on a Monday and appeal to any Monday volunteers to come in on a Tuesday (if they don't already) to try replicate the programme with the Grade 3s so that both grades have as much exposure to English literacy as possible?

..... please keep thinking and sharing 



5. Thank you to Edu Fun's Superhero 

Finally - I'd like to thank Nopinki for the amazing job she has done at school during term one and during this lockdown period. 

Not only did she manage the hub in an efficient manner and help put systems in place, but she provided a wonderful support to the volunteers, partner project co-ordinators and the teachers. 

Who knew that she would become our hero on the ground a few weeks later during this period – moving back to Diepsloot to provide the most essential service as an unofficial social worker to her family, her surrounding community as well as several DCS families. 
 
Nopinki in "My New Home" as she 
fondly refers to the Hub


I’m really missing not seeing our army of volunteers and hope that we can stay connected over this time as we navigate our way through and beyond this lockdown both personally and professionally.

Take care
Jenny  

 
www.edufunsa.co.za