#KnowYourNPO #Domino

If you’ve ever wondered what the Domino Foundation actually does… here’s your chance to #KnowYourNPO! This quarter we’re unpacking what the Domino Foundation does on a larger scale.

#1: We are a group of like-minded individuals that believe in the power of a changed life. We have a range of community outreach programmes that focus on the individual, to empower, uplift and transform their lives so they too can impact the nation and others around them. We currently impact the lives of just over 4000 individuals every single day, ranging from 0 to 18 years of age.

#2: We seek to assist and empower the neediest in communities to pave the way for a brighter tomorrow. Our dream is to equip individuals physically, emotionally, socially, cognitively and spiritually to enable purpose-filled lives.

#3: We manage focused interventions and initiatives operating into the spaces of education, nutrition, injustice, child support and business development. So depending on your company’s CSR policy and specific area of impact, we have a diverse offering across multiple geographic locations to suit your needs with the ultimate goal being the same: to empower, uplift and transform our communities.

#4: We believe that for effective social change to take place within communities, we need to work effectively in three key areas. Namely social charity, social justice and social entrepreneurship to holistically transform communities.

#5: Over the years we have witnessed changed lives, changing other lives and we’ve termed this #TheDominoEffect. As we have impacted, uplifted and transformed an individual’s life, they have gone and transformed their immediate family’s lives, and they have gone on to impact and transform their community’s lives and so a beautiful ripple effect, or #DominoEffect of changed lives takes shape. We believe that you change a community, by changing an individual!

#6: We rely on support from a host of like-minded businesses, individuals, partner organisations, schools, churches, international supporters & activists and sporting enthusiasts. So if you know of any, start your own #DominoEffect and share the love!

#7: We couldn’t do what we do without an AMAZING team. These people LOVE doing what they do and what nothing more than to uplift, encourage, support and transform people’s lives. Dedicated, inspired, driven and fun, our teams are truly the best around!

#8: Ways to support ALL

There are SO many ways for EVERYONE to get involved. Whether you’re in school, a group of interested staff members, corporate’s looking to satisfy your #BEE scorecard or simply an individual with a heart for others, there is space for YOU to join the #DominoEffect.

#9: Our support process is super simple. SUPPORT > RECEIVE DOCUMENTATION > FEEL GOOD. Repeat!

ECD Effect 11/14

This past Saturday we hosted a Creche Owner Christmas Party in Amaoti. This was a time to gather all 32 creche owners and staff and thank them for a year of hard work. They have invested their time and talents into educating the little stars of our future and we would like to thank them for partnering with The Domino Foundation in impacting the lives of over 1000 children each day!

There was an abundance of joy and dance at the party and an incredible time was had by all! We’re excited for the new year ahead and to achieve new goals and impact the community.

 

Read more from our November Domino Effects Newsletter:

Babies Home Effect

Life Skills Effect

Literacy Effect

Feeding Effect

General Overview

Literacy Effect 11/14

One of the objectives of the literacy programme we run is “to support educators and work alongside the schools in teaching the children how to read and write in English” by doing this we are able to impact classes upon classes of illiterate children and empower them with the knowledge they need to succeed in life.

Over the past 3 months we’ve looked at the different techniques we use to teach these children and the benefits of these strategies. For the final month we look at:

#3 LITERACY FANS

What are sound fans?

Sound fans are a teaching aid.  Each part of the fan has a sound, blend or digraph printed on it.

How is this done in the classroom?

• the educator says the sound / blend / digraph
• the children repeat
• children find on fan, hold close and on signal show the educator

Why is this done?

Sound fans help the children consolidate their knowledge of sounds, blends or digraphs.

The benefits of sound fans

• Supports children in reinforcing their knowledge of sounds
• Helps build self-esteem

Outcomes we want to achieve?

Through developing a knowledge of sounds, blends and digraphs children will develop the basic knowledge necessary to read or spell.

‘One of the most common reasons for failure to progress in second language learning is lack of opportunity for consolidation.  The key to success are: small steps, frequent repetition and a wide variety of consolidation activities.’ Language without limits, (2014) [online]

Sounds fans are one of five activities we use to consolidate basic knowledge.

Read more from our November Domino Effects Newsletter:

Babies Home Effect

ECD Effect

Life Skills Effect

Feeding Effect

General Overview

 

General Overview 10/14

October has been a truly amazing month! We’ve seen some beautiful miracles at our babies home, had an amazing Pamper Day for school girls in Amaoti and even summit-ted a mountain in Switzerland!

This month a new-born baby was placed on the doorstep of our local babies home: Fairhavens. The baby was abandoned at midnight and left in a blanket at our gate where her crying was heard by staff members who went quickly to help. The baby girl, estimated to be a week old, was wrapped in a blanket, had a cloth nappy and a piece of string tied around its umbilical cord. The baby was immediately taken to the hospital for a check up and she was declared well and healthy! Read all about this beautiful story here…

 

 

On the 22^nd of October 110 girls from Amaoti 3 School travelled to COGS Durban North for a day filled with informative talks, amazing food and awesome pampering! The 13-16 year old age group for girls is a time of adolescence, growing up and change so we see it as important to give these girls the tools and knowledge they need to be inspired and encouraged in a positive, safe and relaxing way. The girls were treated to 4 inspirational talks by various speakers, all relating to empowering women to take pride in themselves and live a happy life. Hear more about this awesome day by clicking here.

 

Shaun Tait, The Domino Foundation’s marketing and Communication Extraordinaire embarked on a journey this month to join the ‘West2East’ crew as they tackle the final leg of their mission – walking across Switzerland to raise funds for our Abandoned Babies’ Home: Fairhavens. Former South Africans, Dana Kleu (15) and her dad, Patrick started their expedition at the beginning of the year and have raised a remarkable 3,506 CHF (Swiss Francs) since. The journey for her has not only encouraged her to cross physical obstacles in her life, but emotional ones at that too – since the beginning of her ‘walking’ adventure she has become more confident within herself and been driven to make a change and enforce the ‘Domino Effect’ WORLDWIDE! Find out about this crazy adventure here!

 

This Christmas, join in The Domino Christmas Story and spread the festive joy! Help package Christmas ‘loveboxes’ for vulnerable children in the Amaoti township. We work with 32 crèches on our ECD programme and benefit over 1000 children on a daily basis.We are wanting to place a Christmas present into the hands of each of these children on Christmas day to share the love and make a difference in the lives of these little ones.

Read more about this awesome drive here.

 

 

 

 

Read more from the October 14 Domino Effects Newsletter here:

Babies Home Effect

Life Skills Effect

Literacy Effect

ECD Effect

Feeding Effect

ECD Effect 10/14

Staff Training:

On the 7th and 8th of October eight of our crèche owners attended a business training at Entrepreneurial Support Services. They had attended a course last year and this was a follow-up on this. We are trusting that our crèches become small businesses and this means they have to be able to run simple books, keep records etc. This course was to check what they had done and to add to what they had learnt previously. A person from Social Development Services gave a talk on how to get crèches registered which was very helpful. The crèche owners loved it as it added to their knowledge on how to run a small business which in the long run helps the children.

Creche Lessons:

It’s hard to believe that we’ve already hit November! That means Grade 1 is in the near future for many of our kids, so we have set aside October and November  to start preparing the kids for ‘BIG school’. The field workers and crèche owners cover areas such as How to hold a pencil, how to count basic numbers, how to thread string/rope through various items and how to hold and cut with a pair of scissors. Having witnessed the lack of school readiness from previous grade 1 learners within Amaoti, we are confident that our learners are well prepared and we are very excited to see our 1st group of ECD learners head off into the ‘big pond’ that is primary school.

 

 

Read more from the October 14 Domino Effects Newsletter here:

Babies Home Effect

Life Skills Effect

Literacy Effect

Feeding Effect

General Overview

 

International Literacy Day 8/9/14

Our words are powerful. The potency of a written word can arm a person with the wisdom and ability to make a difference.. A literate person is empowered, strengthened and has a more hopeful future. But with approximately 860 million illiterate adults worldwide, the time is now – more than ever – to fight for every human’s right to be educated.
Today, the 8th of September is International Literacy Day – a day celebrated annually to highlight the importance of literacy in individuals, communities and societies

SO WHAT DO THE STATS SAY?:

• Globally, 1 in 5 people are the world are illiterate.
                              ↓
• Of these people, 2/3rds are females.
                              ↓
• Africa, as a whole continent, has less than a 60% literacy rate.
                              ↓
• 7.1% of South Africans are illiterate

                              BUT

Is this statistic an accurate representation of our country’s literacy rate?

Statistics at the end of 2013, displayed that in total, 92.9% of of South Africans can read and write. However, the way that literacy has been defined and measured in South Africa seems to be problematic. Just because a child is receiving an education, it does not mean that this is a GOOD education.
There is an evident issue that in an ever-evolving technological world, we tend to forget how vital it is to lay the appropriate foundations of literacy to allow ALL children the tools they need to be independent and empowered.

DOMINO IS ON THE FORE-FRONT OF CHANGE:

At the Domino Foundation we recognise how profound ONE literate individual is. We rest strongly on the fact that literacy opens up the doors to a future that is immeasurably brighter.

We make sure that well educated teachers and tutors are raised up to bring about a change and to impart a GOOD education on these learners.

Every day, we have the privilege of impacting close to one thousand through our Literacy Project that works into 3 schools in the Amaoti Township. That’s 998 minds that are being equipped to change our nation and make the right choices. 998 children that will grow up to be literate adults who will play a part in a Domino Effect that will affect an entire community.

To help, SMS the word DOMINO to 48716 to donate R10 to our Literacy Programme!

 

Want to see our Literacy programme in action here:

 

Read more from the September Domino Effects Newsletter here:

General Overview

Babies Home Effect

Literacy Effect

Life Skills Effect

ECD Effect

Feeding Effect

Literacy Effect 4/14

This month we feature another interview with one of our awesome Literacy teachers and we take a look at what’s been going down in the lessons.

At The Schools:

Our literacy lessons are jam-packed with learning of new sounds and words. For our grade Grade 2 learners this month we focussed on the reinforcement of sound s, a t, i, p, n and blends st, sp, sn, sc. We also did an introduction of the sound c, hearing of sound c and blend sn.

For the Grade 3 learners, the reinforcement of vowel digraphs oo, ee, ai and igh was taught as well as the hearing of sound v. Also looked at were the reading and spelling of words with vowel digraphs.  Activities were also done to help develop skills in distinguishing between vowel digraphs.

We also gave the opportunity for learners to apply their knowledge to the reading of a text.  This month we also focussed on the development of comprehension skills.

Meet Ntombi:

Once a month, we like to feature one of our Literacy teachers and give you a greater insight as to who they are and what they do. This month, we interviewed Ntombi, a 22 year old with a passion for children. Currently studying education through UNISA, Ntombi works part time 4 days a week tutoring children in their understanding of the English language. Ntombi was encouraged to start teaching when she looked at the community around her and realised that every child deserves to be educated. She loves the experience that being a literacy teacher has given her and loves seeing children begin to grasp something new and finds it exciting to watch them progress over time. Ntombi is passionate about God and delights in getting to bring some of that joy and care to these children.

Read more from our April Newsletter here:

General Overview

Feeding Effect

Life Skills Effect

Babies Home Effect

ECD Effect

Babies Home Effects – 11/13 – 01/14

Community Involvement:

La Fleur Landscaping services at Fairhavens

We are thrilled to announce that we have a volunteer who has a PHD in Child Psychology who has committed to helping us for the next 3 years. She will begin by assessing each child in the new year and then develop a Child Stimulation Programme for the children at our babies home. This will help Domino effectively reach our objectives of meeting not only physical needs, but also cognitive and emotional needs to the children. Identifying speech problems, ensuring developmental milestones are met and assisting volunteers with age appropriate toys and games for they visit, will ensure that our children at the home receive the best care that we can give them.

La Fleur Landscaping, run by Yvonne Sharpe comes weekly to volunteer her time and attend to our garden! Yvonne and her staff keep our lawns and gardens looking beautiful, which allows the children spend as much time outside as possible!

There have been a number of phenomenal medical professionals who have assist us in our times of need. From weighing babies for urgent international adoption requirements, to speech therapy assessments and medical check-ups, we say a HUGE thank you to all who have given of their time and efforts to assist us!

A special thanks goes to La Fleur Landscaping, Beachway Medical practice, Anneline Jack & Candice Stone Speech Therapy Practice, Kwikspar Sunningdale and to all the volunteers and donors who have continued to support us!

Baby Updates:

We currently have 5 precious children staying with us in the home, after having 2 children spend some time at the home during the holidays. All babies are on the adoption register and we are eagerly waiting adoptive parents for them!

Baby News

From time to time , we have babies who are placed with us for a few days due to severe crisis that occur. One such child was a baby boy of 2 years who spent two days and two nights with us, while the Police could locate his mother to be arrested for child neglect. The police were called to the rescue by the neighbours, after his mother had left the baby alone in their flat for 2 nights. The child has since been returned to responsible family members by child welfare.

A beautiful baby girl, BabyA arrived on 5^th November when Child Welfare had removed her from her family for the 2^nd time this year. She remained in our care until the festive season and was placed in a children’s home with visitation rights as she is not on the adoption register. When she arrived, she was quiet, unresponsive, scared and would sit for long periods on her own and not talk or smile. Our hearts broke but the staff and volunteers continued to show her love and affection and by the time she left us, she was laughing, talking, playing with the other children and even swinging outside!

The #DominoEffects for 2013 at our babies home have been astounding, see stats below…

Babies home #DominoEffects 2013

Read more of our November Domino Effects Newsletter here:
– Monthly General Overview
– Babies Effects
– Feeding Effects
– Life Skills Effects
– ECD Effects
– Literacy Effects

ECD Effects – 11/13 – 01/14

Monthly ECD Theme:

Following on from last month, we continued with the theme of School Readiness as the children will be starting grade 1 next year. Focusing on fine motor skills development and shape identification, our crèche owners have been preparing the learners for their 1st year at pre-primary.

Community Involvement:

Children enjoying their Christmas gifts

This month started off with a HUGE celebration for the ECD programme. Izimbali crèche, build from thin prefabs, was demolished, reconstructed and built for Primrose and her learners. Read more about the incredible story here.

As the year draws to a close, we welcome the exciting Christmas parties and goodie bag donations for the children on our ECD programme. A number of individuals and companies spent time celebrating with the children at a number of creches. Santa Shoebox donated a number of presents, filled with toiletries and toys, to 10 of our crèches. Each crèche held a Christmas party towards the end of the month with sweets, cool drinks and chips and handed out their Christmas shoeboxes filled with goodies. The children and teachers thoroughly enjoyed the day as they wound down from a productive year.

Last week, all 16 crèche owners on our Afrisun Bright Start ECD programme, met together at our Domino offices to reflect on the 2013 year and complete some required paperwork. As our ECD programme is a recognised Enterprise Development contributor on the B-BBEE scorecard, we are required to ensure that certain standards are met. Each crèche owner signed affidavits to confirm the training received during the year, as well as any physical work that was carried out at their crèche. We received some positive and encouraging feedback on our effectiveness in 2013 and are looking forward to continue building this relationship next year.

We ended off the month hosting a Christmas party for each of the crèche owners and teachers on our ECD programme. It was a fantastic networking opportunity and team building event, over some hot dogs, breyani and ice creams. The day started with some praise & worship, followed by some talks by the field workers and it ended with each teacher walking away with a gift bag of goodies to say ‘Thank You’ for a fantastic year.

This years ECD #DominoEffects are below. How incredible?

2013 ECD #DominoEffects

Read more of our November Domino Effects Newsletter here:
– Monthly General Overview
– Babies Effects
– Feeding Effects
– Life Skills Effects
– ECD Effects
– Literacy Effects

Literacy Effects – 11/13

Literacy Assessments:

One of the key components of our Literacy programme is our ongoing assessment of our each of or learners. From the results, we are able to review the programme, assess teaching techniques and consider any necessary changes moving forward. We believe it is vitally important to reflect on the results from our assessments which we carry out 3 times a year.

As we approach the end of the school year our literacy team have been busy carefully assessing each of our 950 learners across grades 1 to 3. From this process we have identified that spelling in English is an area of concern facing the foundation phase learners. The learners are struggling to hear vowel sounds, specifically finding it difficult to distinguish between vowel sounds ‘a’ and ‘e’. Our team are busy ‘tweaking’ the programme to address this need in 2014.

Amongst the positive results from the learner assessment we can see that the learners have an increased understanding of texts with an increased ability to read sentences and short stories. As you can see from the accompanying graphs, the Grade 2 learners have deepened their Knowledge of sounds as they progressed through each assessment period. (March, June, November). The pink group illustrates children who are performing above average, the blue group illustrates the children who are performing at an average level and the yellow group illustrates the learners who are struggling. From these assessments our literacy workers are able to identify which learners need 1-on-1 tutoring for further development. Our multi-purpose training huts provide a safe learning environment not only for our life skills learners, but also for literacy students who need special attention.

These assessments were carried out in early November, allowing our teams to meet with school management and discuss the results and ways forward. We received some positive feedback from grade 4 educators as they are finding it easier to complete their syllabus as a result of the Domino Foundation Literacy Programme. As a governmental requirement, foundation phase learning (pre-school & pre-primary school years) is taught in the learner’s respective mother tongue. When learners reach grade 4 however, educators are required to teach all syllabuses in 1st language English. In a community environment, where students do not receive effective ECD English training before grade 4, primary school teachers are needing to teach English, before teaching their own subject, resulting in an incomplete syllabus. Teachers reflected and compared situations before our literacy programme was implemented to now in 2013, having had their 1st set of pre-primary learners complete our programme. Our team was deeply encouraged and motivated to improve wherever possible.

Literacy Lessons:

After reviewing the results of the assessments, our literacy team continued their final 2 weeks of literacy lessons based on area of improvement. We focused on reinforcing the vowel sounds ‘a’ and ‘e’ and specifically applied these to the spelling of words. We also focused on distinguishing between the vowel sounds ‘I’, ‘o’, ‘e’ and ‘a’ when reading and spelling.

Read more of our November Domino Effects Newsletter here:
– Monthly General Overview
– Babies Effects
– Feeding Effects
– Life Skills Effects
– ECD Effects
– Literacy Effects