Some images just don’t need a caption – the captured emotion jumps out at you like sunbeams. Yet there is more to this story. Teacher Nushfeekah regularly visits our COLT children and their families in the communities where they live. By visiting the families of current and past learners in their homes she is able to offer support and advice to them, while at the same time reminding parents of their commitment to their child’s education. The Hadji Ebrahim Crescent informal settlement is where most of our children live. It has the highest unemployment rate out of the three communities that COLT serves. Here teacher Nushfeekah works closely with the community leader and our parent representative, whose son is now in primary school. He also attends the new COLT aftercare.
During her community visit last week she took the photograph. She had walked far into the settlement between the rows of shacks looking for our children. Then she noticed one of them talking to an elderly man while eating a piece of braaied chicken. His neighbours told her that when this elderly man receives his state pension each month he buys a whole chicken, braais it at home and then shares it with the children in the community who are hungry. Daily life is so often unpredictable for these children and this is why COLT teachers make every effort to maintain a predictable routine in their classes each day at the Educare. For healthy development children need love, encouragement, guidance and positive relationships with adults.
