School uniforms for our children

01.05.11

 Genna (22 years from Australia) was Volunteer at Yabonga for 3 Months. She reports on the hand out of the School Packs (April 2011)

"I spent the week helping out handing out the uniforms to the OVCs.
Overall it went really well. The kids and the guardians especially were grateful for receiving them and they all thanked Yabonga. On Monday my two friends Segolene and Stacey came out with me and were a big help. The kids out there loved the face paint and so did the ladies, oh my they had so much fun!
And then of course there was the sweets, which made me very popular with all the children.
Each centre was different in how they wanted to sort out and hand out the uniforms, so I was happy to slot in wherever I was needed most. The first centre (crossroads) was a little concerning as there seemed to be a fair few female shirts missing, although I did remember that we did have some left over at the office so that helped in easing some of the concern.
Mfuleni was by far the busiest, with the two OVC groups, plus parents/guardians that also needed to be fed. Having said that, it was organised well and without too much confusion. With the two separate OVC groups I forgot to give out sweets to the first group, and felt it unfair to only give to one group of OVC, so I ended up giving the bag to the Community Mothers of both to give out to the children on behalf of Yabonga at their own discretion.
I thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience! It felt good to grab the reins of something and be involved in every aspect of it. Of course it is the amazing women who work with Yabonga who made the entire experience a memorable one."