The purpose of the grant is to provide quality specialized education to 10 South African Children in Johannesburg South Africa. A common phenomena found amongst children in Child and Youth Care Centres is that they struggle academically throughout their school years. When young children do not receive sufficient stimulation from a consistent caregiver in their formative years their cognitive development is negatively impacted which ultimately affects their ability to learn in a school environment. It is also very common for children who have experienced trauma to struggle to keep up academically in the school environment. As children's brains and bodies are still developing traumatic experiences can lead to many changes in these areas of development. Neglect, physical, sexual and emotional abuse can affect the normal development of the brain which leads to academic challenges. If children are placed in school environments that are appropriate for their academic needs where they are able to receive the correct stimulation and type of learning environment they will have the capacity to reach their full potential.
Oasis Haven currently has children in three different special needs schools. They are as follows :
Sparrow Combined School:
This school accommodates children with special academic needs. Their focus is on
preparing learners for the future through academic achievement and the development of
thinking and reasoning skills. Our children who have been placed in this school have
struggled to cope in both mainstream schooling as well as remedial schooling. All three
children placed in Sparrow School have flourished academically and on the sports field.
Sparrow High School also offers a FET skills training qualification for learners from Grade 10. Our oldest boy has recently started with the FET skills training in order to equip him for a trade once he leaves school. This will enable him to become employed and put him in a position to care for himself financially once he ages out of the system.
Forest Town School:
This is a school for both disabled children and children who have remedial educational
needs. We currently have one child in this school in Grade 7. The reason for choosing
this school is that when some children come into our care they are already in Primary
School but usually have huge educational gaps. Forest Town's remedial style teaching is
able to help them close those gaps during their primary school years giving them the best opportunity to move back into mainstream schooling once in High School.
Global Academy:
This is a home school support centre for children who are not coping in mainstream
schooling. The centre offers very small sized classes where learners can get a huge
amount of one on one attention. We currently have two children doing their GED
qualification with skills development at this school. This qualification will allow the
learners to become employed more easily as there is a skills shortage in SA.
Swan Nursery School:
This Nursery School is open to children of all levels of academic and cognitive
functioning. We have 4 children in this school as they have the ability and inclusive
teaching style that enables our younger children to catch up academically and
developmentally. They also have great success with children who cannot speak English
which is often the case with new children coming into our care.
Fees:
Access to funding in South Africa has become increasingly difficult in recent years due to the turbulent nature of the economy with South Africa recently being downgraded to junk status. This has negatively affected not only funding from corporates and individuals but also government funding. In an attempt to stay afloat and not compromise on the care, quality of education and future prospects of the children we are needing to access funding designated specifically for education. We are in need of education sponsorship for the children in our care and believe that the above mentioned schools are best meeting their needs. Being able to keep these children in these specialized schools is paramount to their development and to our mission of nurturing whole people who will be able to make something positive of themselves inspite of their troubled pasts.
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