#Repost
I had the pleasure of meeting with Dr. @deisi2010, president of @worldfamilyorganization — an NGO that leads meaningful projects alongside international governments and the UN itself, always with a clear purpose: to build a better future for families around the world, leaving no one behind 🌎
Grateful for the conversation! May we join forces so that our work resonates even more strongly throughout Paraná ✨
What an extremely busy and productive start to the beginning of the year! We have been busy running Health Campaigns in line with UN, International and National Health Days,(see our Health Awareness Programmes Calendar), Teachers workshops, community education and LifeLong Learning from toddlers to pensioners! At the same time the centre has had some significant upgrades.
In January we held a teachers’ workshop in another township in Johannesburg. The topic was an introduction to our Grade R and EaziTeach curricula. Teachers from 43 Early Learning Centres participated and were very enthusiastic about joining the programme. We produced memory sticks for the chairperson and others to share with the rest of the teachers with thousands of resources. The resource kit is a library of educational books, posters, worksheets, reading schemes, teacher training resources. We also donated 2050 books to the 43 Early Learning Centres represented.
Another 18 teachers join our Early Learning programme
Some of the NQF 5 student teachers putting the finishing touches to their portfolios after two years of study.
Adult Literacy progress! Life Long Education Adult Literacy
Cervical Cancer Awareness Month Reproductive Health Month
Cervical Cancer workshops and Reproductive Health workshops were conducted during January and February.
TB awareness Month and Medical Testing Unit
Prevention of Transmission of HIV to babies
One of the goals of our organisation is to do everything we can to help to stop the transmission of HIV from mothers to babies. And we are having considerable success through education, testing and encouraging women to stay faithful with their ARV medication. It’s also important to educate to ensure women make the right choices about pregnancy and breastfeeding. So during January and February we have been running workshops on these important issues.
Success Stories: Changing Lives Helping families have a better life!
Meet Boyke and Mbuli’s family.
Mbuli, single mother with 5 daughters, and Boyke are examples of what a difference can be made through targeted and long term consistent assistance. We are helping almost 200 families every week and while it is not possible to give each one the individual care we would like to, the holistic approach of Health education, Lifelong education along with food distribution does seem to be a successful approach as we work to make a positive impact in the community.
Our reading tutor works with about 20 Early Learning Centres on a rotational basis and the children really enjoy the reading activities.
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Struggling readers from different schools and some who have never been to school attend our reading clinic and are making progress. We had 14 year old twins come for lessons who had never been to school as they are undocumented. A very sad story but not unusual. At present we have 10 such children attending. The good news is that 4 children whom we were teaching last year because they were undocumented now have school places after we assisted them in getting the documentation they needed.
It is not easy to go out on the streets with an T shirt saying “I am HIV positive” (and we want to add it was not our idea) but members of our support group have been out and about several times in the last couple of months doing door to door work, helping to educate, raise awareness and fight against the stigma still attached to HIV. We are very proud of them and their willingness to be open about their status!
Care in the Community Old People’s home in Limpopo
We are always very happy to donate medical supplies, walking sticks, wheelchairs to the local community as well as to assist with the establishment of rural clinics. We believe in assisting and promoting care in the community and so often we are touched by community members who have so little themselves caring for their sick relatives and taking into their homes orphans and children whose mothers are in hospital. We consider it a privilege to be able to assist in whatever way we can.
Can you have good quality education for children living in poverty and give it free of charge?
Well, it’s not easy and you have to work hard to accomplish it but we have great resources, a fantastic curriculum, a great team of teachers which make it possible.
Maintenance and Upgrades for our centre
This Month’s Spotlight is on the work on Madagascar!
The Team there is feeding over 400 vulnerable children and orphans
every day, digging wells in rural areas and building houses for abused women.
For more news and pictures from Madagascar click here!
Find out more about the work around Africa
South Africa
http://thefamilyafrica.blogspot.co.za/
www.facebook.com/The Family Africa
Madagascar
http://www.familyafrica.com/index.php/affiliates
http://www.facebook.com/Save the Youth Madagascar
Nigeria
http://www.familyafrica.com/index.php/affiliates
Kenya
DR Congo
www.familyafrica.com The Family Africa Facebook page
You can contact us by email on familyafrica@mweb.co.za or rachaird@gmail.com
Whatsapp only not calls: Rachel +27 826438029
Celebrating 27 Years of Projects in South Africa!
2024 was another extremely successful year for The Family Africa and besides celebrating 27 years of work we made excellent progress in each of our projects. We are thankful to all our sponsors who have helped us to continue to assist and empower the vulnerable in South Africa!
Here are some highlights for 2024:
A BIG thank you to all our sponsors who make all these projects possible.
You can contact us by email on familyafrica@mweb.co.za or rachaird@gmail.com
Whatsapp only not calls: Rachel +27 826438029
Celebrating 27 Years of Projects in South Africa!
2024 was another extremely successful year for The Family Africa and besides celebrating 27 years of work we made excellent progress in each of our projects. We are thankful to all our sponsors who have helped us to continue to assist and empower the vulnerable in South Africa!
Here are some highlights for 2024:
Education
Early Learning Teacher Training
Our teacher training workshops in Johannesburg reach hundreds of teachers and are benefitting thousands of children living in squatter camps and townships.
A new Phonics Workshop was created this year. Two workshops on teaching reading using Phonics was well attended by 67 teachers from 65 different schools. These three hour workshops included an explanation of the technical terms associated with phonics, useful activities and practical tips. Digital resources including training videos, charts and workbooks were made available as well as printed manuals and posters.
Why are 12 year olds still struggling to read? A new workshop for Primary school teachers on why reasons children struggle to read and presenting solutions and activities. This was a result of being informed that 180 children could not read in Grades 5-7 in one local school and it seems to be the case in all local schools. The children are now being referred to our reading clinic.
Two “Helping your child to Succeed at School “Workshop s– for over 100 parents.
We also produced and held a new workshop for teachers called “Being a Christian Teacher “, which covers being a Sunday School teacher, a Christian teacher in a private school and cultural awareness and respect for other faiths. Teachers from over 20 Early Learning Centres attended and were presented with our Character and Faith building courses. This year we also launched our Christian Teachers Association with daily posts on whatsapp.
The Family Africa “Best Teacher Award” was held at the end of the year and at a big celebration and lunch the cash prizes and certificates were awarded to the winners. World Globes which work with a free app were donated to every Early Learning Centre plus well over a total 2000 books.
Reading Clinic
Twice a week and during holidays we run our reading clinic for 40-50 children who are school age and struggling with reading. We conduct remedial sessions teaching the basics of sight reading and phonics . This year we also trained 3 extra young people on how to give assessments covering the main aspects of reading so that we can pinpoint weak areas and also track the progress of each child. Assessments are now being carried out every 6 months.
South African Accredited Teaching Qualifications
This year we continued with hosting South Africa accredited teacher qualifications at our centre The courses for NQF 4 and 5 have been running for 2 years and the teachers will hopefully graduate soon. We also managed to organize sponsorship for another 6 teachers to complete an accredited computer which includes a monthly stipend while they study (Thanks to Pattern Matched Technologies)
EaziTeach™ Resources and Curriculum
Over 2000 children are benefitting from our Early Learning programmes and we are improving our delivery system as we learn and grow the programme. Besides weekly planners which were revised and updated last year, we now send the resources out to fit with each planner every week so they are easy for the teachers to use.
ECD (Early Learning Centres/Preschools) Community Outreach
Our trainer goes out in the community every Tuesday to do follow up and teach reading using our curriculum. We were able to work with 20 ECDs this year. It is inspiring to see the impact on the teachers as well as the children.
The Family Africa’s Early Learning centre
Our Free of charge Day Care Centre for orphans and vulnerable children has been running now for 20 years and through that time we have been able to help hundreds of vulnerable children receive a free preschool education as well as free school meals. This year we had 42 children who benefitted from this programme and 18 graduated in 2024 and will attend primary school in 2025.
Art classes every week with Inna. The children have really made progress with their hand eye coordination and creative skills due to the exciting and colourful art projects which Inna does now with both classes.
Mums and Toddler group twice a week
Encouraging Mums to play and draw with and read to their children which research shows will help the children to succeed at school.
Primary level schooling for undocumented children.
Classes at our centre and workbooks for homeschooling
Classes and homework assistance for teenagers
During 2024 had 3 teachers teaching 3 afternoons a week and have also at our Saturday school.
One of our teachers has also started classes for adults who want to improve their Maths and English skills in the afternoons. Some days we are running 8 different classes.
The donation of iPads from iStore which has greatly improved access to online educational programmes as well as research projects. The number of students attending has risen and the teenagers are motivated and making measurable progress.
Youth Activities
Chess club
Team Games’ Days
Adult Literacy : English and Maths
Over 100 women participate in four classes every week , covering beginners’ oral English and learning to read and write (Many of our older clients missed out on a proper education during Apartheid ) and simple Mathematics.
Our advanced class covers such things as job interviews, letter writing, and more advanced mathematics.
Health
Support groups for people living with HIV/TB
For the last 23 years we have been running support groups for people living with HIV and TB. We reorganised our groups during 2023 so that we could better focus on our clients’ needs and now we have groups on Monday (HIV + mothers), Tuesday (HIV/TB men’s group) and Friday (HIV/TB clients and new clients) and we continue to find this model is working well. These groups are running 52 weeks a year.
Health awareness workshops
These include topics such as HIV, TB, Mother to child transmission of HIV, Antiretrovirals, High Blood pressure, Diabetes, Breast and cervical Cancer. Our new HIV positive members go through our Health Champion course which includes 6 workshops and are run several times a year.
Eye Tests and glasses for children
Over 60 children benefited from free eye tests and those who needed them received free prescription glasses and others received treatment for eye infections and other eye related problems.
Food Garden
We doubled the size of our food garden during 2023 and it is being well cared for by the men from the TB group. Some of them graduated from an agricultural course this year and this has really motivated them to do a better and more productive job. They are also selling the excess vegetables so they receive a little back for their efforts.
Other Training:
Agricultural course
Sign Language courses
Health Campaigns
HIV and TB outreach campaigns in the community with trained volunteers going door to door doing TB screening.
Diabetes Action Campaign
New mobile medical testing unit
Our mobile health testing and screening unit/ gazebo has been successfully doing community outreach every month during 2024 with HIV testing, TB screening and blood pressure tests. It has been particularly successful in targeting men which is often a real challenge in South Africa
16 Day of Activism : Campaign against Domestic and child abuse
Our full time counsellor, Peggy, who was on the organising committee, was once more given an award for her contribution to the events especially due to the success of our mobile health testing unit.
Young African Leaders Workshops
We had another visit from the Young African Leadership Initiative from the national, highly respected University of UNISA . YALI trains participants from the age of 18-35 from fourteen countries: Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Lesotho, Malawi, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Kingdom of Eswatini, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
42 Young African Leaders attended our workshop in July and it was yet again a wonderful opportunity to showcase our work (the challenges and the reasons for our success) and for our team to interact with young people full of inspiration to make a difference.
iStore Future Leaders Programme
Every year 3 teams are designated to help develop their leadership skills, by identifying a need, finding a solution, planning it and costing it and raising the funds for it and carrying it out as a team. They have done very well and will be completing their work in early 2025
Christmas Events:
Christmas Party for 22 pre schools
Christmas parties for 200 people and their children living with HIV/TB
Graduation and party for our Early Learning Centre
Christmas parties for 180 families from our HIV and TB groups.
Special events:
Celebrating United Nation Days such as Mandela Day, Cervical and Breast Cancer Months, Women’s Day, and International TB Day, World AIDS Day and Heritage Day through awareness campaigns and competitions.
New Year :2 Candlelight celebrations to bring in the New Year
16 Days of Activism against Domestic Abuse
Feeding Schemes
Over 28,000 hot meals cooked
80 tons of food collected and distributed in our feeding schemes
180 families receive groceries every week (over 10,000 bags of groceries)
Humanitarian Aid
1000s of items of clothing, toiletries and blankets distributed
Medical supplies including wheel chairs, adult incontinence pads, walking sticks, crutches, bandages etc distributed in Johannesburg and three clinics in Zimbabwe.
Education and Health Stats
102 teachers and over 2000 children from over 70 Early Learning Centres benefit from our Early Learning projects
3000 educational books distributed to Early Learning Centres
Over 100 adult literacy classes taught during the year
Over 600 classes for teenagers in Maths and Science for Grades 5-12.
48 Health Awareness Workshops covering topics such as HIV, TB, mental Health, Cancer, alcohol abuse etc.
A BIG thank you to all our sponsors who make all these projects possible.
You can contact us by email on familyafrica@mweb.co.za or rachaird@gmail.com
Whatsapp only not calls: Rachel +27 826438029
During this meaningful meeting, common goals between the two institutions were discussed, paving the way for a promising future of collaboration focused on initiatives that support families and each of their members. Together, we aim to empower and strengthen communities through impactful social development programs.
His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz bin Talal Al-Saud Secretary-General of Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz’s Donations, welcomed the World Family Organization delegation led by its President, Dr. Deisi Kusztra and accompanied by Vice President Isidro De Brito and Mohammed AlRadi, General Manager of our esteemed member جمعية المودة للتنمية الأسرية | Almawaddah Association for Family Development.
The meeting focused on fostering collaboration between the two parties in advancing social work initiatives dedicated to families, women, and children. Together, we aim to create a stronger, more inclusive future for communities around the world.
The World Family Organization represented by its President Dr. Deisi Kusztra and Vice President Isidro De Brito today at the opening of COP16Riyadh which takes place in Riyadh/Saudi Arabia, were present at the launch of the One Million Eco-Friendly Families Initiative promoted by its member جمعية المودة للتنمية الأسرية Almawaddah Association for Family Development.
HEADQUARTERS
7, rue Meyerbeer
75009 Paris – France
Tel.: + 33 173053900
info@worldfamilyorganization.org
PRESIDENCY OFFICE
R. Duque de Caxias, 831. São Francisco.
Curitiba – PR – Brazil
Tel.: + 55 41 3254 5678
presidencyoffice@worldfamilyorganization.org
Website developed by Paulo Machado | www.paulomachado.com
