As a teaching volunteer, the role often overflows from the classroom into other areas of the students lives especially with the female students living at Kapanda Community Day Secondary School whose school and home life overlap on a daily basis.
Recent volunteer, Marian, noticed the number of students who had uniforms with missing buttons or broken zips so set up a repair shop. She said, “I started with 20 small white buttons for blouses and 10 larger black buttons for skirts. The idea was anyone who had lost a button on their uniform could sit and sew on a new one, with help if needed. I was taken aback at the enthusiasm this created. In the end the sewing box expanded with zips of various colours and sizes, velcro, a dozen different coloured threads and ‘pretty’ buttons. Not only were zips and buttons replaced but tears on uniforms were repaired along with dresses, underwear, chitenge’s, tops and blouses – whole wardrobes were fixed!”
Marian continued to say that these sessions were really fun and a sense of achievement everytime something was fixed.
Are you a teacher with some hidden skills? Interested in volunteering abroad? See how you could get involved.
