Friday, November 7, 2008

Term 3 Update

The term has started well at the After School Program with 140 children already registered and high average daily attendances of 71 children in September and 77 children in October. The highest daily attendance so far has been 85 children – now that was a busy day!

New Faces
Rahel Widmer, a volunteer from SIM Switzerland, joins the ASP team from Term 3 2008 until mid-2009. She has training and experience in children’s ministry and loves working with young children.

A new activity the children can try this term is creative dance, run on Thursday afternoons by Ujandja Veii. Ujandja is a talented young lady from the church who especially enjoys hip-hop and creative dancing.

Ujandja puts the children through their paces

Life Stories
This year one of the activities for the children in Grades 6 to 12 has been a Life Skills group. Through this they have learned that everyone is special; the importance of accepting and respecting each other; how to make good decisions; and facts about HIV and AIDS.

While we were talking about the pressures that young people face, many of the children shared about the pressure to have sex that they experience. One girl told us about her sister in Grade 10, who constantly gets approached by older, often married, men who are interested in a ‘relationship’ with her. Others talked about peer pressure and boyfriends or girlfriends who demand sex.

These are issues that our children face regularly and we want to equip them with the skills to make the right choices for their lives.

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