Durban - It has been 10 years of multiplication, subtraction and addition on Friday afternoons at the Bhambayi Project in Inanda and some of these sessions have created academic stars.
Last Thursday, the Bhambayi Project’s Friday afternoon Maths Club celebrated their 10-year partnership with Durban Girls’ College (DGC).
Since 2013, DGC learners have been travelling to Inanda to impart their knowledge and to make lasting friendships. The cherry on top has been enabling some of the children to be awarded bursaries for Inanda Seminary and the St Nicholas Diocesan School in Pietermaritzburg. One of these individuals is now in her second year at UCT studying civil engineering and is a leader in her residence.
Mia Venter, marketing and relationship manager for the Bhambayi Project, said the initiative was a community-based orphan support model which sought to change the stories of orphans and vulnerable children through relationships and empowerment, thus enabling them to become courageous agents of change in the world.
“There are over 200 children in these programmes. We believe in and practise what we call eye2eye giving, a two-way approach where every person is both a giver and receiver, with dignity not being compromised by the ‘powerful’ giving to the perceived ‘powerless’,” said Venter.
She shared that during these Friday afternoons DGC volunteers teach maths and the Neema Literacy Programme to Grade R to 12 children.
“What you will also find are children from Bhambayi teaching the volunteers games, dance moves, an abundance of laughter and relationships growing between people whose lives ordinarily would not have crossed paths.
“The benefit of these afternoons is staggering in its two-way giving. Many a DGC pupil has shared that it is the highlight of their week, one going so far as to say she felt it had in some way saved her. The children in Bhambayi say that they have new friends and they are now good at maths,” she said.
Venter said the event to celebrate a decade of changing lives was memorable.
“The Stories of Hope evening was an opportunity for powerful stories of impact to be shared. The stories follow the themes of the Bhambayi Project’s H.O.P.E. Building Model which believes that how we see others and how we give has the ability to change our nation.
“H is for Honour rather than pity, O for long-term Outcomes rather than handouts, P for a focus on Potential not lack, and E for empowerment rather than solving problems on the other’s behalf,” she said.
The DGC girls performed marimba music, djembe drums and an a cappella item.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE