Livingstone Community Projects Updates and Achievements from Q3 2018 - African Impact

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LANGUAGE LESSON:

Teaching

Sports

HBC

Clinic

Health talks

reading Club

math

art

moph

alc

as/yctc/ldfsport

holiday club

building

GI

environmental

WHAT’S NEW ON THE GROUND?

“How are you?”

1.

We welcomed Annie from Ireland as our new Sports and Teaching Coordinator!

“Muli Bwanji” in Nyanja

2.

We hosted 11 workshops on gender-based violence, with almost 2000 boys and girls participating.

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7 volunteers from 4 different countries worked on the building project in the past 3 months

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We finished the outside classroom at the Dambwa Community Center (DCC) and built a wall to separate the classroom from the playing area.

The wall is made of almost 1060 eco-bricks, which holds over 100kg of waste. To make the wall look prettier, we painted an African landscape with zebras, lions and elephants

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15 September was World Clean Up Day. Together with the community, we cleaned the streets of Livingstone and wrote pledges on how to keep Livingstone clean in the future. The day was a big success with over 500 participants

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The women have showed interest in our women’s health classes, learning about breast cancer and how to detect it

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Most of the vegetables are ready to be harvested at Linda Farm! Some of the vegetables will be used as subsistence for the women and girls who work on the farm, while the others will be sold

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We’ve completed a Women’s Health Talk about cervical cancer, the correct diet, women’s hygiene, breast cancer and pregnancy with girls from grade 10 and 11 at Highlands Secondary School. Their improvement was impressive with a 77% increase between pre- and post-test!

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The grade 4 boys and girls at DCC are making great progress with the AGEP program. We finished the chapter “reproductive health” and are currently working through the “life skills” chapter. In both classes we’ve seen an improvement between pre- and post-tests

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Our grade 6 girls have learned more teamwork skills as the grade 6 boys joined in for some tag rugby lessons. The girls showed the boys that they know how to play tag rugby; a very important lesson for the boys who thought touch rugby was a male sport

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We’ve had 15 volunteers from 10 different countries working on our medical project these past 3 months

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Our volunteers hosted a first aid course for all the caregivers that we work with during Home Based Care sessions in the villages of Linda, Ngwenya, Mulala, Maramba, Libuyu, Kalaluka and Sakubita. The first aid course included topics like how to dress a wound, what to do when someone chokes, CPR, how to stop bleeding, how to take care of burn wounds and basic information on the common diseases in Zambia.

During the 3 sessions we had 22 participants that scored 44.7% on their pre-test and 70.8% on their post-test, meaning we saw in incredible increase of 26.1%

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We have been busy with Home Based Care sessions in Linda community. We held follow-ups for our patients 11 times during the past 3 months to see if they are improving. Linda Community has a high prevalence of wounds, making this an area where wound-care is the most prominent task for our volunteers. Luckily, we’ve seen great improvement with most of the patients

“African Impact truly is a sustainable and empowering organization. The impact goes both ways. During my time, I was able to meet local people as well as volunteers from all around the world. Together we collaborated, trying new ways to approach volunteering in Zambia. On a personal level, I was able to grow as a person, learning from others and how to share my talents. I am grateful for this opportunity. Thank you African Impact!”

Kathy, Medical Volunteer

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In Adult Literacy Club we’ve seen a great improvement in the confidence of the shyer students who have previously struggled with speaking in front of the class – this is great to see and we’re proud to offer them a safe environment

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They’ve practiced their listening skills this quarter which was a challenge for them at first. We had different volunteers reading out comprehensions for them and they needed to answer questions based on what they heard. Listening intently, especially to accents that were not easy for them to understand, was a great challenge that they overcame by the end of the lessons

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We have incorporated regular spelling tests and homework into the lessons which has proven to be beneficial as they are now practicing, speaking and writing outside of class hours

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The students in Math Club learned how to create bar charts and conduct surveys this quarter. These classes were very interactive as they involved the students collecting data from each other on things like their favorite fruits and their favorite sports. They represented the data on bar charts and pie charts

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Each Math Club lesson also involves a recap of the times tables which the students have become more confident in saying aloud.

The more modern approach to teaching mathematics effectively is the constructivist or problem-solving technique

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With the help of our volunteers, the sports sessions have been running smoothly and are enjoyable for the students and the volunteers. We’ve been focusing on one main sport per week, which has enabled us to track the improvement of their skills and technique from where we started

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The students at Health Club enjoyed something new this quarter – flow yoga sessions. They started with some meditation and controlled breathing and they were as composed and attentive as true yogis! It was a great way to get them ready for the energetic dance session that followed. Placing an emphasis on mindfulness and exercise is of the utmost importance. The lessons certainly reinforced the many benefits of Health Club in the community

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One way in which we measured their performance this quarter was with the ‘Olympic Games’. The students were tested on speed, which included a 60 meter sprint, and we measured their throwing and jumping. We compared their results to the results of the same tests from January of this year to track their progression

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We took time at the beginning of each lesson to check understanding of the rules so that the games would be played efficiently. Checking understanding and consistently reminding students of the rules of P.E is essential

“I thought the Devil’s Pool was amazing. You can’t do anything like it anywhere else. Be prepared to swim a little bit and bring water shoes! I went in September, during high season (when the water is very fast flowing), but the guides were great and made me feel safe and looked after. You also have the option of crossing over into the Zimbabwean side and looking over the waterfalls edge. It was the best thing I’ve done here, for sure”.

THE TEAM IN LIVINGSTONE