Newsletter – Today for Tomorrow
Today for Tomorrow – South Africa & Swaziland
Newsletter for Oct 2011 – Mar 2012
The support visits last year had been helpful in answering many questions of the volunteers in South Africa and Swaziland. This helped them to use Today for Tomorrow better during the past six month (October – March).
AEC Sunday School Teachers in Swaziland, Eastern Cape, and Gauteng continue using Today for Tomorrow as their Sunday School curriculum. A total of 539 Sunday School teachers in Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, and Gauteng have been trained to use Today for Tomorrow. They were trained through AEC members, and in Swaziland also through World Vision. 
Some of the AEC members in Swaziland also continue to take the curriculum to the local schools in a personal capacity. By now over 9,000 children learn weekly from the lessons. 6145 of these children attend AEC Sunday Schools and 3244 are reached through World Vision and other partners.
The Sunday School teachers indicated that the lessons also help them to grow in the knowledge of understanding HIV and AIDS. Some have shown interest of getting more skills in HIV and AIDS education and would like to give assistance to children in distress. They have come out with a felt need of skills in counselling which is something SIM would like to help address.
The 500 curricula printed in December 2010 for use in Swaziland have just come to an end. This is because the curricula are also used by World Vision in Swaziland for their Bible Clubs. Pray for Mama Elizabeth as she will print additional curricula in Swaziland.
It is harder for the Sunday School teachers of the AEC KwaZulu-Natal to teach T4T because they are still waiting for their curriculum in Zulu.
In December 300 Xhosa 1st year Curricula were printed and delivered to the AEC in Eastern Cape. Sadly the deadline was missed by one day and this meant that the curriculum could not be presented at the AEC Annual Conference in Gauteng.
Follow up and monitoring remains a challenge everywhere due to lack of transport and running cost. Thankfully the different local churches and World Vision in Swaziland support as they are able to.
Mseleni – The Mseleni Children’s Home is still waiting for the translated Zulu curricula so that they can also start teaching the lessons.
Pietermaritzburg – The Entabeni Children’s Academy teaches 40+ children every Saturday through their three faithful volunteers. The children learn that each one is special, whether big, small, thin or wide. They hope that the Zulu material could help for more volunteers to come forward.
Mseleni – Lulisandla Kumntwana
Due to funding restraints After School Clubs and Youth Clubs aren’t meeting anymore. Pray with us that these can be reinstated soon as they made such a big difference in the young people’s lives. Psycho Social Support Workshops continue monthly helping orphans to overcome trauma of losing their parents and develop a healthy and hopeful view on life. T4T lessons continue being integral part of these workshops.
Lenasia – At the Khaya Centre of Positive Ray Reef Thandi taught staff further about HIV and AIDS related topics. In November 2011 62 Sunday School teachers from local churches learned about “Teaching children to pray”, “Leading children to Christ”, and “Different styles of learning”. This equipped them better for their ministry. Another workshop took place in December.
Thandi expressed that they also need the curriculum in Zulu as well as Southern-Sotho.
The weekly outreach into the schools continued for Oct-Dec. With the beginning of 2012 it was stopped until after the move of the Khaya Centre moved to their new premises during April. There were many preparations needed to do it smoothly. They have since moved and teaching and workshops will continue as of the end of May.
TRANSLATIONS
Maureen Ngubane, who volunteered to complete the translation of the Zulu 1st year Curricula, has just finished translating lessons 1- 34. Now she is working now on the “Gospel and Growth lessons A-G”. The expansion of the ministry in KZN is greatly depending on this.
Members of the AEC in Swaziland have already translated the 2nd year curriculum and it is currently being proof read.
PLANS FOR THE NEXT SIX MONTH
* printing 400 Zulu Curricula so that the AEC can receive 300 curricula and our other partners 100 among them.
* assist 2 key people to visit Chris Maphosa and the team in Zimbabwe, and possibly participate in bringing T4T to Zambia.
* encourage further translations
Thank you for your support.
Daniela van den Berg
21 May 2012
