We would like to thank you for all of your support and we would like to update you on all of our progress. We are very excited to announce that the construction of our Permaculture Centre is wrapping up! We are looking forward to having our grand opening this coming summer. A big thank you to Rammteck for all their hard work and their beautiful design.

A little bit about Rammteck!

Rammteck is a South African company which hires locally and trains community members, which contributes to job creation and skill development. Rammteck uses rammed-earth to build beautiful and sustainable structures. The walls of the centre were built by creating a mixture using the sand and soil from the property and repeatedly ramming the mixture into place between flat panels called framework. The building is beautiful and we are excited to welcome the community to the centre.

Updates On Our Safer Kitchen Campaign!

Our Safer Kitchens project has been moving right along! We started by installing stoves at Beretta Primary School. Beretta Primary School’s lunch moms have expressed their excitement about the stoves and that they help exponentially when it comes to lunch time for the learners. Beretta Primary School’s kitchen coordinator wrote to us, “Before the stove were installed we were suffering a lot during rainy days. It was difficult to give learners food in time because the wood would be wet and it takes too long to cook and it disturbs the process of teaching and learning. Now that A Spring of Hope brought gas stoves and pots to cook with it is much easier to cook and it saves time. The cookers are happy that they now give the learners’ food in time and it is simple for them to cook with the gas stoves. They enjoyed using the gas stoves. As Beretta Primary School we are happy about what A Spring of Hope has done in our school”.

Our second project was at Mahashe Primary School. Construction of the kitchen building was completed this fall and we were excited to install stoves to complete the building. Once the stoves were installed the lunch moms were ready to learn how to use them. Trygive brought Mahashe’s lunch moms to Beretta to learn from their kitchen staff. This was extremely successful as they were able to hear from Beretta’s lunch moms how they have benefited from the stoves along with different tips they learned while testing the stoves. Our next step is to install stoves at Masweng Primary School!

Thank you to all our donors who helped make these projects possible!!

Connecting U.S Students With Students In South Africa!

Our ‘Drop In The Bucket’ program is having a very successful year! We love working with such amazing teachers in the U.S and we can not thank you enough for your dedication to your students and our students in South Africa. This is our second year having a letter exchange program and it has been a great addition to our ‘Drop In The Bucket’ program. Students from Happy Valley Elementary School in Oregon, U.S have been connecting with learners at Tshokolo Primary School in Mpumalanga, South Africa. We started the pen pal exchange earlier in the year so that they can write more letters throughout the year. Our amazing guests at Thulani have been helping with this program as they have been bringing the U.S letters to South Africa and South Africa’s letters back to the U.S.

Announcing: UPCOMING PROJECTS

Introducing Mina

Our goal for 2020 is to ramp up our programs especially for female learners at our partner schools. To do this, we are partnering with some amazing organizations who have experience with such programs. Women Strong International created a curriculum for girl clubs called Strong Girls Make Strong Women. Their curriculum can be applied throughout the world to support girls in underprivileged areas. They made this curriculum available to organizations such as A Spring of Hope.

Mina Cup is a woman ran company based out of Johannesburg. We are hoping to add on to the club by providing health resources for girls at our partner schools. Mina Cup focuses on providing girls in South Africa with menstrual cups. These cups provide a sustainable and cost effective solution to menstrual hygiene management for girls who struggle to attend class each month during their periods. These cups are made out of medical grade silicone and can be worn up to 6-12 hours and lasts for five years.

Founders of Mina are aware that young girls will have questions and concerns about using the cup and because of this they host workshops for each school they donate cups to. Mina trains individuals to provide information and answer girls’ questions in a palatable and relatable way. They will host a four hour workshop at our partner schools when they distribute the cups to the learners. These workshops are focused on teaching girls about the cups, talking about puberty, reproductive health, safe sex, and healthy relationships. Mina follows-up with the girls two times after the first workshop to answer any questions and talk about concerns. They also provide the girls with their whatsapp information so they can reach out when they are at home and have questions. We hope to pilot this program at one of our partner high schools in March.

Faith Burlington Creche’s Community Project!

Our amazing board member, Gail Auguston Koppen and her husband Ed has worked very hard with A Spring of Hope’s team to improve the conditions at Faith Burlington Creche. On their last visit to South Africa they met with the staff at Faith Burlington and discussed the possibility of the creche hosting a community garden on their property. The school has a lot of land that has plenty of potential for a large thriving garden. Faith Burlington’s director, Delight, has expressed her interest in a community garden as they have had successful gardens in the past, and the school and community would benefit greatly from a larger community owned garden. Trygive will be working with the school and community to install a fence around the perimeter of the garden. Once the fence is erected Trygive will train the community on permaculture practices and how to run and maintain a community garden.