March 14, 2013 / by Maria / Make A Comment / Filed under Swop Shop
Recycle Swop Shop Wesbank No. 1 Primary School
Wednesday 13th March 2013 was the second of our weekly Recycle Swop Shop days at Wesbank No. 1 Primary School. At 1.45pm the school bell rang and children darted home to collect their recycling. A queue quickly formed, with mostly grade 6 & 7 students, carrying their recyclable items. Louise worked swiftly to attend to the children, while Anthea and Natalie sorted the recycling. By 3.45pm the area was clean and the Recycle Swop Shop closed for another week. Well done to everyone!!
The children were each rewarded with a token for their efforts, a sandwich and we also took the opportunity to educate them on some recycling ‘can and can’t’. It’s wonderful to see the children’s faces, as they walk away with their tokens, smiling from ear to ear and clearly proud of their efforts!
Anthea and Natalie, from Recycle 1st work with the school monitors to make sure that all the recycling has been correctly sorted and packed into huge sugar bags, ready for the truck that picks up at 4pm.
To make this amazing project happen, we have partnered with a number of organisations including Transforming Minds and Futures, Save All and Recycle 1st, and of course, the school with their incredible Head Master and Teachers.
December 3, 2012 / by Maria / Make A Comment / Filed under Creche, Zusakhe
On Friday we hosted our yearly Christmas Party at Zusakhe Edu Care Creche, Du Noon. To the sound of Boney M singing, “Joy to the World”, we packed out over 170 presents for all the children of Zusakhe, Teachers, Staff, Zusakhe Youth Group and Home Base Care workers.
We were all wonderfully entertained by both a puppet show telling the story of the birth of Christ and the children who sang some of the songs they’d learned during the year.
After so much singing and laughing they were ready for lunch and really enjoyed the Spur Burgers and viennas & rolls. This was washed down with juice for all, followed by a delicious ice cream. Volunteers handed out gifts to everyone and the Zusakhe Youth Group started playing the drums and singing. It was beautiful!
It was a happy fun filled special day for all the children and staff of Zusakhe. Huge thank you to Life Changers Church, Spur Table View, Dairy Exchange, Active Displays, Foo Foo Club, Johnson & Johnson, Woolworths Marketing and a few unnamed heroes from the Table View community, who supported and contributed in making this a wonderful day.
November 27, 2012 / by Maria / Make A Comment / Filed under Swop Shop
Table Mountain 2012
It’s hard to believe that it’s nearly the end of another year of the Recycle Swop Shop and time for us to take our volunteers on a day out. It’s great to spoil them and say,“Thank you”, for all their hard work during the year. This group of dedicated people, give their time and energy to the Recycle Swop Shop each week and we honestly could not run it without their help.
A big thank you to Table Mountain Cable Car Company for sponsoring our 20 tickets. Also a huge thank you to Elkanah Recycling Committee for sponsoring our delicious lunch and gifts. Colleen Rothig, Elkanah Recycling Committee, has taken care of us this year and has made sure that we’ve had a steady supply of 2nd hand clothes and shoes. Thank you to the parents from Elkanah House who generously donated them to us. You guys are the best!
On Friday 23rd, with the promise of good weather, we all piled into 3 cars and set off to Cape Town. It seemed like every tourist in Cape Town was visiting the Mountain too, so we patiently waited an hour and a half in the queue to get to the cable cars. Surprisingly, the hardest part of waiting was trying to resist the temptation to eat the roast chicken, as the delicious smells wafted out of our picnic bag.
There were a few worried faces as we started our ascent in the revolving cable car, but this soon turned to looks of awe and wonder. For the majority of our volunteers, this was their first ride to the top of Table Mountain. Once at the top we were all enchanted by the spectacular views! We eagerly ate our lunch of roast chicken, salad, rolls and apples, washed down with fizzy drinks and juice. Yum! We thanked everyone for their participation and hard work during the year, while munching on the most delicious fudge chocolate brownies made by Liezl Wentworth. We also told everyone how much we loved them and handed out gifts and Pick n Pay vouchers.
Later we spent an hour wondering around and enjoying the beauty and rich biodiversity that can be seen all over Table Mountain. We all agreed that working towards keeping Cape Town a cleaner city was very fulfilling and spending the day on the Mountain made us appreciate that even more. What a fabulous day!
November 5, 2012 / by Maria / Make A Comment / Filed under Swop Shop
Recycle Swop Shop's Presentation
Recycle Swop Shop and the other 7 benicatores
Another exciting year ahead with Cape Town International Airport!
Jita, Patricia, Louise and myself were invited to Granger Bay Hotel School, Mouille Point where Beyond Education – Recycle Swop Shop received sponsorship from Cape Town International Airport.
As each of the eight beneficiary’s presented their projects, we sat back and enjoying a delicious lunch. Again, it was so wonderful and inspiring to hear all the incredible stories of how these organisations are changing lives in South Africa. It was such a privilege to meet all those amazing teams of people and to have the opportunity to share ideas.
Thank you ACSA for your donation and another year of your commitment to the Recycle Swop Shop
August 30, 2012 / by Maria / Make A Comment / Filed under Venture 4th
I recently attended a four week entrepreneurial programme called Venture 4th, and I must admit attending the programme was one of the best things I have ever done for my personal growth.
Venture Forth is a Beyond Education initiative. The focus of this initiative is on helping young people with the vision of starting their own businesses or of being self employed, to acquire the right skills and knowledge that will help them realize their dreams.
This year’s programme began on the 17th of July 2012 and it was held at Elkanah House at Sunningdale. From the very first day, the course made a huge impact in my life; I fell so in-love with it that I made it an obligation that I attended every session.
We met twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. At every session we had a successful entrepreneur who came and shared his/her experiences with us, teaching us good business techniques and motivating us, so that we may know that the road to success is never easy, there are many obstacles along the way, yet we must persevere and never give up.
During the four weeks we learnt the about :
• Sales
• Marketing and Online Marketing
• Finance
• Human Resources
• Goal Setting and Identifying opportunities.
I personally enjoyed all sessions, however Marketing stood out for me. I really liked and learnt a lot from what Gabe Phillips taught us regarding this subject and everything he said you could see that it came from the heart.
I would definitely advise everyone with a dream of becoming an entrepreneur not to miss next year’s programme. What we learnt from the Venture 4th program is what every entrepreneur must know.
Finally, I would like to give a humble word of gratitude to Beyond Education, Venture4th, and everyone who made the programme a success. A special thank you to all the speakers who came and spoke to us. I am sure there were lots of things they could have done with their time, but they chose to come share their experiences and knowledge with us. Thank you.
Written By Zanele Dlamini
August 1, 2012 / by Maria / Make A Comment / Filed under Venture 4th
Purple Cow : Transform your Business by being remarkable! By Seth Godin
On Tuesday 24th July I attended one of the eight Venture 4th evenings and I would like to share some of the knowledge that I got from there.
Marketing
Market research is really the heart of the business. It’s very important to closely examine the market segments and an Entrepreneur has to really know their products inside out and be passionate about it. It is also important to research the location and establishing whether you have a market for your product that area. I learned that when you start doing market research there are the few things to consider.
Price
• How much will the product cost
• Retailer mark-ups
• Are you going to have any discount
Product
• The quality of the product. How will you maintain it?
• Models and sizes
• Packaging
• Are you going to sell a service?
Promotion
• How are you going to advertise your product or service?
Place
• Channels of distribution
• Outlet location- is it close to your target market?
• Warehousing – Are you going to need any need any storage?
Social Media
This is a very important tool that business entrepreneurs must consider. It has the power to make a business successful considering that its managed correctly. The Internet also offers the perfect public platform for everyone to share their opinions and ideas. Today, online media is one of the top news sources and has many representations, such as forums, blogs, image galleries and video portals. There is a wide variety of social media, ranging from social sharing sites such as YouTube and Flickr through social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
Ways to use a Social Media in a business.
• Listen to what your customer needs.
• Survey
• Tell the customers more about your service or product.
I learned many things in this session and would like to thank Beyond Education for organising this program. If you would like to know a little bit more about these sessions, you can follow their Facebook page Venture 4th.
Written by Godknows Ncube
July 23, 2012 / by Maria / 1 Comment / Filed under Lego Robotics
Students at Inkwenkwezi receive their Build a Bot certificates
My internship at Beyond Education began in early June 2012 and after six weeks that passed far too quickly, my time in South Africa is at an end. During my stay, my main task was to help learners in the Cape Town area to better understand science and technology. I had the privilege of working with a number of Cape Town schools and organizations during my stay, the first of which was Bloubergrant High School. At Bloubergrant, I worked with matriculate students in the natural science class by reviewing their physics and chemistry exams with them. It was wonderful to work with such eager and respectful students.
Following my time at Bloubergrant, I ran a week-long robotics program with a group of six learners at Inkwenkwezi Secondary School. The students learned about engineering and computer programming all while building a series of increasingly complicated and ornate robots (details of this project can be found here).
After Inkwenkwezi, I spend some time assisting with a winter Lego robotics workshop sponsored by ORT TECH, which prepared two teams of middle school students to enter the Robot Olympiad competition. In addition to interacting with the young engineers, I observed the way they went about constructing and tuning their designs and gained insight into what types of projects and challenges would be appropriate for a robotics interest party with children in the same age group.
During my final week in South Africa, I visited the TRAC lab at Stellenbosch University where top students from a number of Cape Town high schools were participating in an intensive, week-long science lab program. In addition to interacting with the students on a personal level, I was able to help them in their construction and understanding of AC and DC circuits.
Although my time in Cape Town has been brief, the experiences I’ve had have been richly informative and invigorating. It has been an absolute pleasure to work for Beyond Education and I wish them nothing but great success in all their future projects and endeavors.
June 28, 2012 / by Maria / Make A Comment / Filed under Lego Robotics
Working in groups of 3 programming and adjusting the robot.
On Monday 25th June, a group of six learners at Inkwenkwezi Secondary School started a week-long Lego robotics course called Build a Bot. The course, which is in its second year of operation, encourages learners to apply what they’ve learned in science, math, and technology classes in an engaging, hands-on, and fun way.
During the week, the learners build multiple robots, discovering some of the basic tenets and challenges of engineering along the way (such as how to use scaffolding to improve stability and how to use gears to transfer power). They also accomplish a series of both simple and complicated tasks by programming their robots using visually stimulating software, thus encouraging them to think logically and deliberatively about what steps are involved in performing certain actions.
Nyameko, Ngayeka & Sabelo doing a little programming
After three days, the learners have built a total of nine robots, programmed them to trace out a square and a Christmas tree design, and even learned how to use robotic sensors to navigate an obstacle course. While the program has undoubtedly been challenging, the participants rose to the occasion and demonstrated great perseverance, creativity, and teamwork in working with tools entirely new to them.
For the next two days, the learners will be refining their programming and engineering skills and writing more complex code to allow their robots to perform more interesting tasks. It has, indeed, been a fruitful journey so far, and I anticipate the last few days of the program will be equally if not more rewarding for these hardworking learners.
Written by Vinay Trivedi-Parmar. 27th June 2012.
Inkwenkwezi Secondary School
Participants:
1. Andisiwe Mahlafana
2. Nyameko Skoti
3. Zezenkosi Hintsa
4. Ngayeka Yongama
5. Sabelo Sifuba
6. Wendy Blom
June 11, 2012 / by Maria / Make A Comment / Filed under Swop Shop
HERZLIA School Grade 3 visit
On Tuesday 5th June, 44 Garde 3 children from HERZLIA School came to visit Swop Shop. The Grade 3′s have been learning about recycling and the teacher Lee Lanterm organised for the children to visit us not just for the recycling aspect, but also for the community upliftment experience.
The children and parents where asked to bring a few items of clothing that they no longer wore and some basic food items. They were so generous and giving! Thank you so much to everyone of the children and parents for all the things you gave to swop shop! The children next Thursday will love all the clothes, shoes, toys, toiletries and food items! Well done.
One of the girls doing a work sheet.
The children were given an explanation of how the recycle swop shop operates, followed by a tour. They met the ladies sorting the recycling and the ladies standing in the queue. The children asked many interesting questions and were keen to find out more about swop shop. At the end we gave them an information sheet and asked them to write or draw how they thought the recycle swop shop has affected the community.
One child wrote, “By making the world a better place. By making the kids and adults recycle. By making the poor the community have food and clothes.”
Thank you HERZLIA for your visit, we have been truly enriched and blessed by your visit!
May 30, 2012 / by Maria / 1 Comment / Filed under Swop Shop
A very cold and wet day!
Yesterday 33 lady’s brought their recycling to swop shop despite the rain and cold. Inspired and motivated to come to swop shop knowing that there would be hot soup & rolls to comfort the pain of the cold.
Many of the lady’s rely on the basic food items they purchase at swop shop with their tokens. It seems that as in most developing countries, women bear the brunt of hardship in poor communities. Its encouraging to see that these lady’s are entrepreneurs in their own right, collecting plastic and swapping them for essential and useful items.
Our aim is to create partnerships and spread successful Recycle Swop Shop models across the Western Cape. By partnering together we can harness energy, creativity and resources of communities that will be vital to speeding development.
Almost 3 billion – or nearly half the world’s people – survive on less than 2 dollars a day, according to the World Bank. Poverty: the desperate facts
