Love+faith=differentworlds: READ FOR LIFE CHRISTMAS PARTY

Our last leaders meeting before I flew out

Well what an amazing 5 months we have had of read for life.

We started with about 35 kids – we now have over 120 – with a waiting list!

We have gone from starting with two volunteers – to now having a team of 5 – all being paid for the days they are on.

Our leaders in their christmas gift - read for life shirts.
From left to right ( Moses, me, Nuruh, Jonah and Juliet)

We started with one class, moved to two, then three and now have 4 classes.

We now have a confident reader class, an intermediate, a beginners class and a special needs class.

We started with many children who could barely read, and many who struggled to sit and listen and behave, to seeing a great improvement not only in the reading but the behavior of the kids.

Its been such a great year we had to celebrate!

One of the biggest way’s we have motivated the kids over the past few months has been to promise them a Christmas party.

And so that’s what we did.

Some of the precious boys from Home of Joy waiting for party to start - first time they've all been early :)

My last Saturday at read for life was our Christmas party.

Kids eagerly waiting for 2pm to come around - this was at 1.30pm - by 2.15pm the room was crowded!

Waiting,.. waiting.... :)

Lots of preparation went in to making sure it was a day for the kids to remember and for them to feel they’d been rewarded for their hard work.

The majority of our children come from the local slums, so celebrating Christmas would probably only mean going to church, for some they may get to eat meat, but majority of them would never have received a Christmas gift.

We wanted to find a practical way to give them something special.

So we came up with the idea of personalised library bags.

I wanted to use someone local to make them, so one of the fathers of one of our read for life students does simple tailoring and sewing at his business right in the heart of Katanga slums.

I took along a sample of what I wanted and met with him at his shop.

He didn’t feel confident to make what I was asking for, but with some simple guidance he said he’d give it a go – and he did a GREAT Job. I had him make 100 bags – thinking we’d have a lot left over because as of the middle of September we only had 75 on roll book, within the next month, we had 100 and a week before the party we had 125, so I had to quickly ask him to make more which he did.

He was incredibly grateful for the business but was also so grateful for learning a new skill – you would have thought I’d shown him to make something extravagant, he was so grateful.

The leaders sat down and worked out the children for each of our groups who were always on time, best behaved, most improved, best reader, best listener and most engaged learner, best improved attitude and behaviour etc.

We also went through our library book register and came up with the children who had returned all their books each work in the best condition ( we keep a score of each book to motivate the children to take care of the book they borrow – the book gets a score out of 5 when it is borrowed and then when it is returned )

We also gave group rewards for best attendants and most helpful, best manners etc.

It was hard to choose some of these as we had seen so many children make improvements.

When we arrived to set up for the party many of the children were already there waiting, many of them in their Sunday best clothes. They’d been freshly washed and many girls had their hair done nicely.

They were very excited about today!

We had arranged some cakes, popcorn and soda.

We started off the party with some group singing and dancing before each reading group performed items for their fellow readers.

We had everything from gospel singing to gospel dances, drama’s about underage marriage and games.

It was lots of fun, and the kids did a great job.

The baby group performing their songs

One of the older groups performing a drama
they wrote

Mine & Juliet's group performing their gospel songs

Then we moved on to handing out the certificates – for me this was one of the highlights – the children’s face just lit up when they heard their names read, all for a piece of paper with their name on it. They were so excited. And so supportive of each other, even if they themselves didn’t get one.

It was beautiful – the children thought that was the extent of the gifts for the day – then we told them that everyone was getting a gift - their eyes lit up.

We told them that everyone was getting an individual personalised library bag. They also got an exercise book and pen and pencil.

These were for a challenge – over the Christmas break we wanted them to write some stories, and practise their alphabets and draw pictures for the little ones and then return with them in the new year and we will share what we’ve seen.

The children were all very excited to receive their library bags and are excited to be able to use them each week to carry their books home and keep them safe and clean.

After they received their Christmas gift, I did a Christmas message and talked all about the real meaning of Christmas and how loved they are by God.

We then cut the cakes we had and each child received some cake, their own bag of popcorn and small bottle of soda.

This was a crazy time, many worried they’d miss out, so trying to encourage them to wait was difficult but they are learning.

I had many little one’s come up and excitedly ask could they keep the plastic bottle the soda came in J

It was a great party and we had lots of fun.

The children still have another 3 weeks of classes before they have a 3 week holiday, but we did the party early since I flew out the next day.

It was incredibly hard to say goodbye to the kids, I am really missing them, but am so thankful for such a great team who are keeping everything going well.

We look forward to the new year bringing bigger and better things for Read for life.