The Fountain of Hope Project
Baphumelele Fountain of Hope is a project which aims to provide young people, who have been raised in residential care or who have recently been orphaned or vulnerable, with a safe and nurturing environment, a new skill set including food security, and educational support enabling them to build a positive future for themselves as self-sufficient adults.
After months of planning, we can finally plant and produce our very own 100% organic seedlings from our newly built green house. (full story further down) | New programme alert! Taking our IT skills and computer literacy to new heights. (story continued further down) | ILP addition - re-usable sanitary towel project and sewing project. (story further down) |
Sowing for a better future, in our new greenhouse!
Food insecurity is a challenge that is not unique only in South African communities, but globally. Many families and communities are affected by hunger and a lack of nutritional food. Studies have shown that children who suffer from food insecurity suffer from restricted growth and development, and are more likely to develop chronic health conditions later in life. This challenge needs to be met with development of better food production systems, education, and training that can empower all.
As such, the Agricultural skills programme is at the core of our Independent Living Programme (ILP) – with the aim of empowering our youth with the necessary skills to learn about food security and start their journey in micro farming. We believe that with a holistic approach, our youth get an opportunity to grow in harmony with our plants, and sow the seeds for a better tomorrow.
We have recently built a full scale greenhouse for the generation of seedlings from seeds. This is key as most seedlings are not 100 percent organic, this way we can ensure organic goodness from seed to harvest. Organic vegetables are more nutritious and are packed with flavour and nutrients, thus leading to less chronic health conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, and high cholesterol.
Once the greenhouse is planted to capacity, we will not rely on buying seedlings to keep the farm producing year round. Being able to produce our own seeds and seedlings starts and perpetuates our sustainability plan for the future.
Learning to be tech savvy, while being sparkly and smart.
With the generous donation from our friends Sophie & Larissa Roux from Canada, our IT & Computer Literacy programme just reached new heights.
A “smART box” is a powerful combination of a computer lab and digital library. It consist of Chrome books, with a multitude of resources that can be accessed from the in built server in the box. The advantages of this resource box serves as solution for a lack of internet and electricity that we face on regular basis.
This smART box has in built lessons, resources, and pro-grammes that will assist our youth to be tech savvy — A critical skill that is in high demand throughout the world.
Sewing for Sustainability
In the previous months we identified a component of our Independent Living Programme that can aid our sustainabil-ity efforts. This component of the Housekeeping training is Sewing. A basic skill that everyone needs to learn, and as such this makes sewing a valuable skill to have, if mastered. One of the ways we are using this skill is to make reusable sanitary towels.
Reusable sanitary towels have many benefits and one of those benefits is cost. Since it is reusable, it can last for more than one year, thus saving money for those who are unable to buy pads every month. The skills learnt in the sew-ing project are transferable to reusable sanitary project, here the youth learn the basics of sewing, then move on to use industrial sewing machines.
In the coming months we will be in-creasing the level of skills already at-tained, by introducing curtains sewing and clothes sewing. Mastering this skill will not only equip our youth with a practical skill but also promote the ultimate goal - Independence.
Health is Wealth - Welcome to boot camp!
The COVID-19 pandemic made us all question our health and our way of living. We promised ourselves that once this passes, we are going to make changes in our diet and lifestyle.
To make this a reality, we have introduced a fun and addic-tive exercise boot camp for our staff and youth. Everyday, for an hour and a half we strive to become healthier and happier by doing light cardio exercises. This is also a team building exercise, as some of the activities require a team to complete, bringing both youth and staff closer as we achieve our goals together.
Our Boot Camp leader Erica Harrison, who is also a full time business owner, volunteer, and health enthusiast is patient and a great motivator. Under her guidance and encouragement, our youth and staff will surely meet the goals setout for this year. Go Team BFOH!
To lead, you must first follow.
Young people who receive the appropriate guidance, support and encouragement have the capacity to positively impact their peers, families and communities, as such we have introduced leadership programs into our ILP. We have partnered with Light from Africa Foundation to bring an exciting new program on empower-ing future leaders. It further teaches them the necessary life skills and coping mechanisms to deal with the challenges in life and make a success thereof.
Drumming is used as a medium to help partic-ipants focus their attention, to build teamwork, to listen, to communicate, to interpret and to encourage self-expression.
The program takes into consideration that the abilities of these young people are varied as they often come from difficult home back-grounds and deprived communities. It is struc-tured so that participants can discover their inner potential as a key to their future.
We aim to provide education, support, empowerment, and care to people from all walks of life. However the project is in urgent need of support to firmly establish itself and to ensure that it serves the young people and the surrounding community in the best way possible. All forms of donations and support of any kind is welcome. If you feel that you may have the skills and passion to teach and impart knowledge in your area of expertise, then please consider donat-ing or joining our volunteer program.
For further information, please contact us
or
+00 27 21 703 7477
Also find us on all social media platforms and our website below http://baphumelele.org.za/projects/