1. To clean up the community and teach environmental awareness
2. Help provide basic needs of children
3. Teach children trading skills
The children of Masakhane collect bottles, tins, plastics and other recyclables and bring them in bags to the White Shark ‘Swop Shop’. In return, they earn buying points that they ‘spend’ in the shop. The shop carries worthwhile stock such as stationery, simple clothing, and food basics, and relies completely on donations.
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| Waiting in line |
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| Waiting in line |
In this way, the children learn valuable lessons about caring for their environment: They learn that it’s important to recycle resources and at the same time care for their environment by picking up litter. Not only does their village look nicer, but they also earn something through this care. Conservation, they see, has many values.
The underlying vision of the Swop Shop is to empower these historically disadvantaged children, helping them grow into self-sufficient, contributing adults. By encouraging them to use what they have around them, they see that in small ways, they can improve their lives.
The WSP volunteers take turns going to the shop each week. This week I went with Gary, Roger, Dominick and Sidsel. What an amazing experience! It was humbling seeing these children lining up with their bags of recyclables to trade.
I was truly blown away by these kids. When they had the choice between "buying" a pencil or "buying" a toy, they always chose the pencil. There was one girl there, maybe 8 years old, that used her points to buy clothes for her family members. The lady that runs the shop, Nellie, said that girl comes every week and that is all she buys. She never gets anything for herself. What a selfless act at such a young age. After they redeem their points they are given a cup of soup to eat.
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| Eating their soup |
The older children spoke a few words of English but mostly they speak Xhosa. Xhosa is a tonal language; that is, the same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meanings when said with a rising or falling or high or low intonation. One of the most distinctive features of the language is the prominence of click consonants; the word "Xhosa" begins with a click.
The kids LOVE to have their picture taken. They are such hams! They say "cheese" when they see the camera pointed at them. They like to play photographer so I let them use my camera. They took photos of each other and themselves - they love to take selfies! Adorable!! I got a video of one boy singing and dancing too!
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| She buys clothes for her family each week |
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| Selfie! |
Life changing experience! Wish I could go every day! Certainly looking forward to next week's visit!
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| Adorable girls |
If you are interesting in learning more or if you want to help, please visit this link.
PLEASE VISIT MY GOFUNDME PAGE AND MAKE A DONATION IF YOU CAN. ANY AMOUNT HELPS. I WILL BE DONATING TO THE SWOP SHOP!
http://www.gofundme.com/eouk6k
http://www.gofundme.com/eouk6k
Sounds like a great place. I think a donation here could really make a difference. Love you blog.
ReplyDeleteWow! Your trip is just one amazing thing after another--people, animals, children, service, education. We can think of no other word than amazing--a word we apply to you!
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