Archive for the ‘Blomvlei Multi-Purpose Centre’ Category

An awesome philantrophical act indeed from Helmut Prast as he celebrated his 70th birthday in May this year!

While Helmut Prast had the choice to be lavished with fabulous and grandiose gifts at his birthday party this year, he turned it down and preferred instead to change this occasion into one whereby he could give something significant to disadvantaged communities.

Hence, in lieu of gifts, he requested that his family and friends make a monetary contribution towards the equipping of the Library at Blomvlei Primary School. This venture resulted in a wonderful and genereous contribution of R52, 400 to Blomvlei Library. The funds donated will be used for the purchase of books, furniture and a computer.

We extend a huge thank you to the Prast family for this extremely kind & charitable donation towards the library! Thank you so much Helmut Prast for this wonderful birthday present!

There was great excitement when Louisa Wilkinson from Paddington Academy in London visited learners at Blomvlei Library last week. The children love having visitors at their school who tell them where they come from and what they do.

Louisa, who is a teacher at Paddington Academy, read a story to the children and then donated the new book to the library so that other classes could also have the opportunity to have the book read to them by Renshia in their library period.

Louisa explained to me that Paddington Academy is a vibrant and thriving 11-18, non-selective academy in West London where everyone, both staff and students strive to be the best that they can be. The school motto is ‘the best in everyone’. Many students at the academy also come from very poor communities in London and face similar circumstances as the learners at Blomvlei as their communities are also threatened by gangsterism, violence and drugs.

Paddington Academy is a multicultural, multi faith learning community where the language they all speak is ‘good learning’. Every decision is made in the best interests of the students to improve their learning.

Paddington students are encouraged to live their lives by four values
• Always do your best
• Always do the right thing
• Always look for a ‘win win’
• Always look smart

We hope when Louisa returns to London to be able to set up an exchange programme with Paddington Academy where they might be able to send some more books to Blomvlei Library as well as get some of the children to write to eachother as pen pals.

Thanks for visiting Blomvlei Library Louisa we really enjoyed meeting you.

Meet Renshia, our new school librarian at Blomvlei Library. Renshia comes from Hanover Park and has begun her training to run the new library. Under the careful guidance of Themba Tshabala and Cosmas Maybeya, from Equal Education, Renshia has been trained to use the library computer software system called Libwin. The libwin system scans and categories each book in the library, a number is allocated to each child taking out a library book and entered into the system.

Renshia has made great progress so far and has shown good initiative in the library with special projects focusing on World Water Day, story telling and creating great excitement for the children to be using the library for the first time in their lives. The Headmistress of the school, Dawn Petersen, is also there to give her guidance and each class now has a library period which has been introduced into their curriculum. Dawn is very positive about the future literacy levels at her school and feels the library has already made a big difference in the children’s lives.

Renshia is also mentored by Jacqui Ahrends who is the librarian at St Cyprian’s School. Jacqui has a wealth of library experience and knowledge which she will share with Renshia showing her skills and creativity of how to make full use of the library for the learners at Blomvlei Primary School.

We are certain that with all this wonderful and careful guidance plus training through UWC Library studies department, Renshia will in time become a great asset to Blomvlei Library.

Good luck Renshia we are here to support you and help you grow with your new journey in life and career at Blomvlei Library.

It was a very exciting day for the learners of Blomvlei Primary School when Cape Talk Radio brought their mobile broadcasting unit to the school and broadcast live from the library.

Africa Melane and his Cape Talk Radio team arrived and visited the library for the first time. They were completely blown away by the new library and did not expect it to be as beautiful and impressive as it is.

The Blomvlei project was initially originated on Cape Talk Radio during their “Silence the Violence “ campaign in 2006. One of the teachers from the school, Debbie Rinquest, called into the radio to tell them about the violence in Hanover Park and their dream to create a place where the children could stay in the afternoons where they could be safe and at the same time have the opportunity to learn and hopefully be inspired into a new way of thinking besides gangsterism, drugs and violence.

That call for help was heard on the radio by one of the Trustees of the TCD Trust, Enver Mally, and the rest is history. Four years later the dream has become a reality for the learners and staff of Blomvlei Primary School and new dawn has arrived in Hanover Park.

Thanks Cape Talk for listening to the community of Hanover Park and for their support of the Blomvlei Library.

Grade 6 Learner, Crystal Barnes, won the competition at Blomvlei Primary School to design a new flag for the new library which was opened on the 25th February.

Bjorn Vye from Blue Flag Designs generously offered to make a flag for the new library as well as supply the school with the South African flag and two flag poles.

A competition was run at the school for the children to design a flag for the new library. The teachers choose 10 finalists from a number of wonderful designs but it was a unanimous vote by the staff that Crystal’s design was the winner.