2006 quarterly newsletter Jul-Sept

July – September Review

Dear Friends of Manzini Youth Care,

Here are some of the highlights from the past three months;

Eswatini Swazi Honey

We have received the nod and are eagerly awaiting receipt of the funding contract so as to begin implementation of our largest income generation activity to date. Working with the support of the African Development Foundation, Eswatini Swazi Kitchen is about to expand into honey processing and sales, whilst simultaneously equipping vulnerable rural homesteads with the skills and equipment to keep bees and sell honey to the factory as a means of bringing an income source into their own homesteads. The new factory construction is underway thanks to additional funding from Missionary Development Fund in Ireland. Poverty alleviation amongst the rural poor and self-sustainability for MYC are the two key aims of this 5 year project. More of this in subsequent months.

Website

Manzini Youth Care and the Salesians in Swaziland are finally online! Thanks to the artistic and technical efforts of Eclipse Web Designs, information on our programmes can now be found at www.salesiansmyc.com We plan to have regular updates on new projects, information for prospective volunteer placements and lots of photos to give our friends a chance to have a virtual view of what we do.

Sandrini Center and Likusasa Crèche

The Sandrini drop in school and Likusasa Pre-school teacher training creche have now reached roof level thanks to the efforts of the group of Edinburgh Global Partnership volunteers and local builders. It is hoped that the two centres, based at Enjabulweni home and Bridging school should be ready for operation term 1 next year. The Sandrini centre will be the educational home to those boys just coming off the streets. The plan is to introduce some more dynamic learning materials along with art supplies and musical intruments and tuition to assist these young boys in their rehabilitation process, thanks to funds from the Coca Cola Africa Foundation. The other classrooms will be the perfect set up for hands on pre-school training experience for our pre-school teacher training programme, as well as allow 40 young disadvantaged children to attend free pre-school education.

Funding

We have had another active time in the funding area. We have been very fortunate to receive funding from the Salesian Mission Office in the US for the purchase of two new vehicles to assist us in the running of the operations. The first new vehicles we have ever had, this will make a huge impact on our daily work and allow for more timely home visits, delivery of foods to the homes and other vital duties that we have been struggling with due to lack of drivable vehicles.

We have also received a 40 foot container of nutritionally enhanced chicken flavoured rice for our homes, soup kitchen and bursary schools. This rice has come through the Salesian Mission Office in the US via the US NGO Save our Starving Children.

Social Audit

The time has come for our organisation to look at the quality of our programmes, assess our weaknesses and look at whether or not we are really having maximum positive impact on the youth that we work with. An experienced volunteer from Canada, Allyson Chisholm, is out here to help us conduct a social audit of our programmes to allow us to look more closely at quality issues and begin to investigate further how to address some of the physcho-social needs of our beneficiaries. This audit will take place over the next few months.

Skill Center and YES

We welcome Rodwell Nsibandze to our Skill Center and YES programme. Rodwell comes with a great deal of experience in the skills training area, he has been given the challenging task of working with our Skill Center trainers to ensure quality of training programmes, as well as to develop assessable learning modules to properly gauge the skill base of our trainees. Based on perceived ability of the graduates from the Skill Center, Rodwell and the team will then assist in the setting up of sheltered entrepreneurial businesses within our Sheltered workshop estate. Here, these young people will be given a maximum of one year to prove that they have the skills, drive and business mindset to then go out and continue their businesses in the real business world. With employment options diminishing by the day, self employment is one of the few remaining options for the 45 % unemployed economically active members of the population.

Thank you for your continual support, interest and prayer. We always look forward to hearing your news, advice and well wishes. God Bless.

Fr Larry