The Link Newsletter March 2019

Registration: Public Benefit Organisation
930-040-158-PBO
E-mail: zweigenthal@gmail.com
www.thelinkliteracyproject.co.za

Welcome to the first edition of The Link newsletter, which we intend to distribute three times a year as a short summary of major events and interesting stories. This is in addition to our regular website and Facebook Link updates. We hope that you will find it interesting.

Five year tea

On the 28th November 2018, we hosted a tea to honour 40+ volunteers, who have served at our Link centres for over 5 years! The magnificent gardens of Beechwood, Hyde Park, provided a fitting venue for the occasion to pay tribute to the work done by these special volunteers.

Volunteer training

We held our first training session for all new volunteers to The Link Literacy Project on the 18th January. Over 70 people arrived for the training and most have now joined centres where they are desperately needed. We hold training sessions almost every month. Every volunteer means another learner can be helped.

Our newest centre

Our newest centre at Gideon Rambuwani, Klipfontein is growing each week. The centre opened in October 2018 and the children love coming to The Link. At present they have 16 volunteers and are managing to see 16 learners from Grade 2 twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Hopefully the volunteer numbers will swell so that we can accommodate more children.

The teachers are very supportive and have already noticed some changes:

“He reads very slowly but is now able to sound out words”

“She has gained confidence and participates in class”

Numeracy project

One of The Link Numeracy volunteers at Norwood Primary, Pam Green, asked her husband to build a 3-D model of the scales used in the Numbersense books to help the kids conceptualise equal amounts. It was amazing to see how quickly the concept of adding to one number to equal another was grasped using this practical device and then reverting to the examples in the workbook!

Sound cards

When working at our Link centres, it soon became apparent that many of the children were not familiar with their phonics. This is obviously key to learning to read. As we couldn’t find a local system that suited our needs, we developed our own Link Simple Sounds’ cards, with the generous help of Zoe von Klemperer and Barbara Botes. The children love learning about Grumpy Gogo, Noisy Nono or Kicking Kumo and the cards have assisted hugely in helping them become familiar with the sounds!

From clothes to classroom

5 March 2019 was an exciting day for the Riversands Link centre when the new classroom to host our literacy project was officially opened. This was erected with a generous donation from Vintage with Love, an organisation that raises money for charity through the sale of gently worn clothes. The event was organised by Kate Alexander and June Holt, the centre manager and deputy at Riversands, and attended by board members, Vintage with Love representatives, Jacquie Myburgh and Jaqui de Abreu, and a team of our wonderful volunteers. The classroom will enable The Link to assist more children.

Please support us in having us listed as a beneficiary for the MySchool Card scheme. There can be more than one beneficiary linked to a card. For more information, please visit the My School card website.