Weaving Threads of Hope in Kayamandi, South Africa

I will be away from my blog for a few weeks as I travel to South Africa with a team of volunteers from Threads Africa and Tapestry Homes.  I encourage you to visit our website and click LIKE for updates of the events happening throughout our trip.

Threads Africa: www.threadsafrica.org 
Tapestry Homes: www.tapestryhomes.org

About Threads Africa work:

Just a few miles away from one of South Africa's most affluent cities, Stellenbosch, lies Kayamandi, a small township (about one square mile) where approximately 60,000 people live in varying degrees of poverty.  About 60% of the community lives in squatter shacks with no running water, sewage or electricity.  Unemployment is currently at about 65%, and an HIV/AIDS infection rate of about 40% - well above the global average.  Schools are sub-par and education is commonly incomplete, as older siblings (12-14 years old) often leave school to care for their younger brothers and sisters, orphaned when dad leaves and mom dies of AIDS.

Six years ago Threads Africa began to visit this community and listen.  We listened as they spoke to us about the abuse and hopelessness that the young adults and youth are facing there.  Rape, drugs, alcoholism, violence, promiscuity, abandonment, loss of parents to AIDS - the list goes on.  Poverty here is the collateral damage of years of apartheid.  The scars borne by many residents of Kayamandi serve as a vivid reminder of the long-term, generational damage done by hatred and injustice.

Kuyasa Learning Center

Now for the good news.  Six years ago Threads partnered with Kuyasa Horizon Empowerment, an organization in Kayamandi that focuses on providing after-school tutoring in all academic areas.  We helped build and furnish classrooms in the Learning Center, reinforced roofs, added air conditioning and constructed and furnished a Computer Learning Center.  In 2011,  93% of the Kuyasa high school students that took the matric exam, passed! It's working!  We are seeing lives changed, and hope of a better future for these young people.  This year the public school administrators in Kayamandi have, for the first time, partnered with The Learning Center asking that they work together to send struggling students to the center for tutoring until their grades improve.  This collaboration with the community has always been our long-term goal, so to see these results and hear of this new collaboration was music to our ears.

Tapestry Homes Safe Home #2

Over the past three years, Threads has also teamed up with Tapestry Homes to build two safe homes.  These homes have allowed 12 girls to be rescued from the streets and placed into a safe environment where their education and personal growth can blossom.  The team leaving in July will be building a third home.  That team going in July will also be presenting a two-day workshop on healing and spiritual development for the girls and house moms.

Threads of Learning workshop

We also partner with another organization working in Kayamandi, Prochorus, whose focus is to help elevate the preschool (creche) education of the youngest citizens of  Kayamandi.  We are developing a teacher training program called Threads of Learning, sharing our knowledge of preschool teaching techniques with these creche teachers, many of whom have never finished school themselves.  In July we will be presenting a 4-day workshop on different learning styles, storytelling and connecting bible stories with academic learning games, songs and activities.

The team will, of course, spend part of every day walking though the community and listening.  Our efforts are meant to help them help themselves, but give them the tools and encouragement they need to dream past their poverty by using their God-given talents to the fullest.

Listening to the Need

If you'd like to contribute financially to our programs, you can do so directly on the Threads Africa website, or purchase a ticket for the opportunity drawing for a Safari for Two in beautiful South Africa. Tickets are $100 each and you can purchase as many tickets as you'd like. But do it quick, since we are only selling 500 tickets.

See y'all next month!