Their vision is to connect people with local communities with a particular focus on working in schools, creches and in strengthening communities through teaching sports, arts, crafts, English, environmental education and food gardening.
Future Vision Volunteer program was started in 2014 by Elliot and Lieve, a Xhosa-Belgian couple, and their 2 kids. They saw the local schools/creches being understaffed and a more than 60% unemployment rate with people struggling to survive. For this reason, they decided to bring in national and international volunteers to provide the much needed extra help in the community.
Learn to Earn to Own (LEO) is a registered Not for Profit Organisation and was set up together with the community in 2014. It's an empowerment and creative movement that facilitates skills, business development, educational programs for people from Elundini village and the greater Lushington area.
Because of the lack of jobs in the area, most people move to the cities in hope of a better life, leaving the schools with decreasing numbers. Government regulations in this area state that the teacher/student ratio be 1/35. Due to smaller numbers in individual grades, this requires teachers to instruct multiple grades at one time. This is a very difficult situation for both teachers and learners and is one of the main reasons volunteers are needed. With the assistance of local teachers, volunteers will instruct in English, Maths, Geography and life skills.
There are 2 pre-schools in Lushington. Both of them are run by local 'mama's' who have no formal education in child care. Volunteers can be a big help in the pre-schools by giving practical examples of age appropriate games and lessons that later can be implemented by the care givers once the volunteers have left. The language in the pre-schools is primarily Xhosa, however English can be introduced to children at this young age to help set the foundation for further learning as they enter primary school
A few years ago Jeanette Mahonga Primary school (Grade 1 - 7) were donated 20 second hand computers for student use of which only 8 work. To date, they have been hardly used as the teachers are understaffed and don't have proper computer skills to instruct students. Since computer literacy is so important in modern day life, volunteers can play a major role by teaching basic computer skills, which will benefit students later in life.
During school day, children are not exposed to arts and sports. After school, children typically play in the village without adult supervision. This is the ideal time to introduce children to sports, games and arts. Best known sports are soccer for boys and netball for girls, but volunteers are encouraged to introduce other sports like karate, dance, gymnastics, etc. These activities will be organized for primary school children and will teach them important life skills such as winning and loosing, working as a team, etc.
