Maranatha Trust

We have a library!

Maranatha Trust — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 15:09:33 +0000

Covid has brought many challenges, but it did give us the time to work on a most important dream we have had for so long: our own “public” library for the children (and hopefully more and more adults ) on the Paardeberg.

We started with reading sessions on different farms during the Covid lockdown and combined the reading with something nice to eat: pancakes or soup or lollipops. In the beginning the eats were more popular than the stories, but it did not take long for the stories to win the day and we now have 7 reading groups on 5 different farms and about 70 kids who attend weekly or twice a week, as well as a number of moms and dads who do bedtime stories. Everyone started with picture books, but the older children have moved on to Afrikaans translations of Roald Dahl and C.S. Lewis. Several children have started to take out books to read on their own, some as young as 6 years old.

The different groups met up for two “reading days” in October and had fun acting out the books they had read, listening to stories in the bigger group and playing games.

Our library now has 300 books, all in excellent condition or new; all covered. We believe every child must have the option to read new books or books that are as good as new; and that children should learn to appreciate that feeling and learn to keep books in a good condition. We have received some from Biblionef, some from private donors such as Milan Murray and Charmaine Nolte and others from many sponsors who allowed us to choose the books that would be best for our children. These gifts are doors to new worlds and new hope.

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A gift that liberated an old dream

Maranatha Trust — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 09:36:37 +0000

Our preschool kids are treated to stories and books every day, because we have a well-stocked and well-loved bookshelf at school. They do need to hear stories from their parents too though… and their parents do not have access to a library.

In September this year, at the launch of their new book “Poenankies”, the very inspiring Milan Murray and Charmaine Nolte chose Onse School for a wonderful gift: a small library called “Biblio’kie” and 80 books. It is best described in Afrikaans: “tog te poenankies”. This very compact but sturdy shelf with books was exactly what we needed to get a new project going: a library for the Onse Skool parents to come and take out a book to read with their preschool child. We are in the process of labelling and covering the books and working out a system of library bags and library cards, but all indications are that we will be ready to get going during the first months of 2020.

We would also like to do a short course with our parents in how to read to these small people in a warm and lively and engaging way – and so one good idea leads to another. Who knows where this chain of good ideas will lead us? This we do not know, but we do know where it started: with a lovely, inspiring gift!

Murray and Me https://murrayandme.co.za
Pictures: Lizelle Lotter

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The World Needs A Father

Maranatha Trust — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 06:54:10 +0000

Nine of our dads or dads-to-be had the wonderful opportunity to be introduced to The World Needs A Father https://www.theworldneedsafather.com/, a global movement of fathers committed to building unbreakable families and healthy communities. Throughout the year they attended a series of discussion sessions with a mentor, Gerhard van Eck, and all of them have enthusiastic testimonies of the value this added to their personal lives and their families.

Even in our rural community fatherlessness and/or uninvolved fathers have become the norm, with serious consequences for the individual children and the community as a whole. As Stephen Baskerville has summarised it: “Virtually every major pathology has been linked to fatherlessness”.

Our ECD centre educators organised a community dinner with the theme The World Needs A Father as a first step towards a future in which we will keep on focussing on this topic. The ECD kids participated with enthusiasm and decorated the table cloths and made pictures of the men in their lives to decorate the walls; the team of men who attended the course helped prepare food and music for the evening and shared their thoughts with the other parents; and our older kids in the guitar group (taught by a dad of course) entertained their moms and dads.

Can nine men make a difference? Yes, when the community embraces the chance to work towards a difference and that is the hope we have.

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Experi-Buddies

Maranatha Trust — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 09:09:14 +0000

Our Grade R-kids swim in the summer and they work on becoming aeronauts during the winter; or experts on magnetism and heart transplants… the topic just depends on what the Experi-Buddies teacher, Lianne, brings along in her magic basket. The lessons develop so much more than a basic knowledge of science or How Things Work: a sense of wonder, vocabulary, listening skills, self-confidence, fine motor skills… and all this happens in sessions filled with laughter and fun. When we started Onse Skool in 2014, we hoped to give children a safe haven and it has become so much more – and for this we are grateful every single day.

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One of our most favourite(st) places. In the World, that is.

Maranatha Trust — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 11:14:44 +0000

We do not have a library on the Paardeberg Mountain and the farmworkers cannot join public libraries, because they do not have municipal accounts. We do have a big and well-stocked book case at Onse Skool and we read and tell stories every day… but that is still not a library.

So we get into our Quantum and go to the library whenever we can, class by class – which is unfortunately not that often. And it is just loverly: a warm and friendly and happy place with hundreds of books.

We have a dream: a school on the mountain, built around a library like the public library in Malmesbury where we can go so often that we will not take pictures of it every time we go, because we will just be there most of the time.

“Maak nie saak hoe arm nie, ’n kind wat lees, is ’n bevoorregte kind. Maak nie saak hoe verwaarloos of verlate nie, ’n kind wat lees, is ’n gekoesterde kind. Maak nie saak hoe onverdraagsaam ’n gemeenskap nie, ’n kind wat lees, begryp en verstaan. Maak nie saak hoe geestelik verarm ’n familie is nie, ’n kind wat lees, is ’n intelligente en ingeligte kind. Maak nie saak hoe onmenslik ’n gemeenskap nie, ’n kind wat lees, word ’n menslike kind.”

“No matter how poor, a child who reads is a privileged child. No matter how neglected or abandoned, a child who reads, is a cherished child. No matter how intolerant a community, a child who reads has empathy and understanding. No matter how educationally impoverished a family is, a child who reads is an intelligent and informed child. No matter how inhumane and brutal his surroundings, a child who reads, becomes a compassionate child.” – Antjie Krog (Rapport, 6 December 2009)

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Every Day is Nelson Mandela Day

Maranatha Trust — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 09:08:33 +0000

The Maranatha Community considers itself a community project and not a charity drive and therefore we have a “Let’s Give”- project every year which is just a way of saying thank you for what we receive every day. For 2019 the Onse Skool parents and staff have chosen Huis van Heerde in Moorreesburg as their project. The parents donate toiletries every month and the Onse Skool educators take care of birthday cakes and gifts for the smaller kids in the care centre who do not have someone who can bake them a cake and make them feel special on their birthdays. You do not need to be well-off to experience the joy of giving – and a joy it truly is: the Onse Skool kids just love packing up the toiletry donations when it is delivery time… and the educators give it their all to make the cakes as special as possible.

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Why walk if you can run?

Maranatha Trust — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 07:27:52 +0000

Our annual athletics meeting is usually one of the best days of the year and the 2^nd March 2019 was no exception. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but we would need more than a few thousand words to describe the excitement and laughter and cuteness factor that reign on this day. We started with sack races and potatoes-on-a-spoon in 2014, but have upgraded to hurdles and some serious running, even for the tiny tots. Our parents joined in and it is clear that there are well-developed athletics genes in abundance in this area. After the prize-giving ceremony the day ended like any decent sports day should end: with a good boerewors roll, prepared by the dads.

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5 year-celebration

Maranatha Trust — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 15:46:54 +0000

On the 17^th February Onse Skool was 5 years old and since we are currently a bit taken with the theme of water and swimming, we had a “sea” cake. Everyone felt special in their new T-shirts and there were party games and balloons – and, of course, the very best gift of all: another normal, wonderful, fun-filled and joyous day at this school that nobody could even imagine 6 years ago. We truly did not see this coming in 2013, but what a gift “Onse Skool” is to everyone involved!

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To Fly with Fins

Maranatha Trust — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 09:29:56 +0000

In the midst of the 4 year Swartland drought we started a Grade R class at Onse Skool and the name they chose for themselves was “Dolphins”. There was not a drop of water in sight and all the farm dams were dry… .

It did rain this past winter and a dolphin needs to swim, so we were so happy when the Aqua Fast Swim School in Malmesbury offered to collaborate with us in a true community initiative and enabled us to send our Dolphins for swimming classes. Herewith some of the pictures of the first lessons: what a thrilling, joyful event this is every week!

It is good and necessary to be reminded that we are born to live an abundant life and something wonder-ful like this does have the possibility to help us all believe that and hopefully keep believing it…. even in all kinds of times of drought.

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A New Song

Maranatha Trust — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 04:44:53 +0000

Our end-of-year guitar concert gave no sign of the difficulties this group and their teachers had to face and overcome in 2018. We had great plans for different activities with the primary school children in the beginning of the year: guitar classes, a reading room and chess. A few months into 2018 we lost the access to classroom spaces that we had used for this purpose and the lack of space meant the end of most of the activities. The guitar lessons did continue after a few months when the farm Boesmansfontein offered their church house and even though the group had to be limited, the children were enthusiastic and made excellent progress… and so we could end the year’s programme with a wonderful concert on the veranda of our preschool on the farm Welgelegen.

What an occasion it was! Every one of the guitar students participated and all their parents and admirers turned up for a wonderful summer’s evening of music with much applause and many proud faces. There is so much undiscovered talent in our community; so many possibilities we must still explore. An evening such as this encourages everyone to keep on going and to never give up. We are all quite sure that one day, when we have a safe and big enough space where the instruments can be stored and more children can practise, we will still remember this first concert as one of the music team’s finest moments.

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