Isaac
Monday was SISCO’s press conference that
would explain to the press about the organisation, the facility we have been
running and an appeal for funding to allow the facility to continue running.
Therefore Sunday was mostly spent running
around from contact to contact, putting together press releases, refining the
profile and doing all the things that should of course be sorted days if not
weeks in advance. However with much support and assistance from a number of
people we managed to put everything together reasonably.
The preparations on the day itself began at
around 6.30am with cleaning the building in order tat it look respectable. I
had the excuse of having to wait for the press releases to be dropped off to me
by a friend who kindly printed them for us, which allowed me to skip the early
morning. We did final calls round to press to confirm attendance and were as
ready as ever by the time they were to arrive.
In the end only one reporter from Isolezwe,
the popular Zulu newspaper, who attended the conference itself and for what it
was the conference went fine. The rest of the day was spent putting together
the post conference press release and although only one attended we did manage
to stir some publicity. ETV had been in on Saturday, a reporter from SABC came
in on Thursday and people have been enquiring.
Our challenges with finance have not yet
been dented but we have paved and are continuing to pave the way for it to be
possible.
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| Article on SISCO in Isolezwe |
When I arrived at St Raphael’s Special
School on Tuesday for my penultimate session there I was informed that the
parent workshop would be my last one due to a workshop for teachers that will
be taking place next week.
The first half of the day, spent in the
classes of the ‘Autistic unit’, was enjoyable as usual. The teachers and
children are always very open and welcoming to me and I am flattered that they
always want the second opinion on matters troubling them to be mine. I was very
excited to see PECS class timetables, something that I helped introduce, up and
functioning in the classrooms.
The parent session was once more a success.
The crowd attending was slightly smaller but the same enthusiasm was there. The
topic was ‘challenging behaviour’, something for which every parent and
certainly none more than parents of children with Autism and learning
difficulties would be glad for strategies. I am once more thankful for the
people back in Edinburgh who have been helping me with resources for all of
these workshops.
The parents were my first goodbye and I was
generously presented with a South African rugby t-shirt from one of the parents
and a gift of thanks!
On Tuesday evening my brother arrived to
stay here for a week. We spent Wednesday and Thursday on Jabulani education
through visiting projects we have worked with: SISCO, Zwelibanzi and Dloko High
School and a trip emotional as ever to BobbiBear.
Today we went to Ningizimu Special School
for Robbie to offer a football coaching session to the kids there. We know the
school from hen my mother, Jane, came to South Africa and did a presentation there
on Autism.
Nombulelo Yeni, our friend and head of special
education for the district, was very helpful in organising the day and thanked
us for always thinking of her schools. It is amazing how people always manage
to find something to thank you for here even if they have done most of the work
themselves!
The session was a great success. Both the
children and teachers loved it and the school as a whole was as hospitable as we
remembered it. After Robbie gave high-fives to all of the kids they said they
would never wash their hands again.
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