Help2Read

This is the second organization I am interning with. Help2Read trains volunteers to do one-on-one reading sessions with children who need assistance with English reading skills. The one-on-one doesn't just ensure that the children aquires reading skills, but also boosts the morale when these students are given the attention and the repsect of the volunteers.

We had training yesterday, and out of the 15 or so participants, my fellow intern, Angie and I were the only ones in their 20s. Most of them were retired grannies or school teachers, who were absolutely shocked that these two girls are staying in Cape Town, and working. They told us to be careful and gave us generous hugs and peks on the cheeks at the end of the training session.

It was good fun, going through the 5 hour session, not just because of the good people I get to know, but also because of the interactive format.

First, we were presented with Three sentences of symbols and a picture of a ship. We were to decipher what those sentences mean, and that looked something like this:

.

It was a frustrating 5mins, trying to decipher the code, and as hard as I tried, I was reading it slower than I would otherwise have wanted.

The second activity we did was to play some paper games like hangman, boxes, categories, and grapes. (I will not explain how they are played, but if ever you want to know, I could play it with you, the next time I see you!) And that got us to redicover a glimpse of childhood again. All of us were excited and we hardly wanted to stop when the time is up. We share laughs and felt comfortable enough that by lunch time, we were talking about our most embarrassing moments!

)ne of the women told us a story of how she wore her pants inside out, when she went to a school and it was her students that noticed it! She was telling it in Afrikans (one of the 11 languages in South Africa) and the others around us translated bits and pieces of it for Angie and I.



[Books for Africa]