A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A KYP MEMBER

Our members are incredible young people who confront challenges every day as they seek to get the education they will need to lift themselves out of poverty.  Learn more about a typical day for our members, get to know some of our highest achievers, and meet our university graduates as well as this year’s grade 12s! 

Our members wake up early morning in their shacks with no electricity and no running water inside their home.  First thing, they go outside to fetch a bucket of water from the communal taps and bring it back to the house.  They light the paraffin stove to heat the water for bathing. Some older children first have to prepare the hot water for their younger siblings before they can take care of themselves.  The children use a bucket to wash their body and when they are done, they throw the water in the sewage farrow which is not monitored and exposed to everyone, because there are no bathrooms or toilets inside the homes in Kliptown.

After they are done preparing for school, our members walk to KYP to receive a sandwich prepared by our kitchen team. At KYP, we provide 2 meals a day for all 500 members. We provide these essential meals because some children do not have food in their homes and we want to ensure all our members have food before they go to school. A member can have this sandwich as breakfast or eat it during their lunch break at school.

Our members walk for about a half-hour to get to their respective schools which are in the neighbouring communities because there are no schools in Kliptown.  Because children as little as 7 years of age must walk along busy roads, most of the children walk together in groups to take care of each other and avoid the dangers on their way to school.  Even so, accidents occasionally happen, and children are injured or worse.

All our members arrive at school in their uniforms, which are required in all South African schools.  At the schools to which most of our members go, there is one teacher for every forty students. The children are encouraged to listen and grasp as much as they can in class because the teacher is unable to give one child individual attention when there is such a large class to attend to. The facilities are simple with basic classroom space and no extras, such as theatre or assembly rooms.

When the students get home after school, they often have work at home to do.  They must wash their uniforms for tomorrow’s school day, and do chores such as cleaning, fetching water from the tap for later in the evening, and making food for their siblings if there is food in house. They have to make sure they do this during daylight because there are no street lights and no electricity in Kliptown, and at night when it is dark, it is unsafe to go outside.  After their work at home is done, they prepare themselves to go to KYP.

When the children arrive at KYP after school, they receive a hot cooked meal prepared during the day by our kitchen team. Especially if there is no food at home, this allows all our members to go to tutoring with their stomachs full and their bodies ready to learn.

Every day, Monday through Thursday, our members attend after school tutoring and homework assistance classes. The primary school aged children, grades 1-7, are with their tutors, who are members of the community trained by KYP, and they focus on reading, writing, and maths.  The high school students are with professional teachers two days a week, and the other two days they participate in peer-to-peer learning.  In addition, every day the primary students use online learning programs to help them build their skills, and the secondary school students use such programs at least two times a week.  Especially since they don’t have access to technology at their schools or at home, our members love being able to use computers and tablets to help them with their learning.

Tutoring is ended by the time the sun sets, and the students make their way back to their respective homes.  The younger students are done with their homework because they have done it at KYP, while some high school students may still have work to complete.  For some of the children, the meal they had at KYP was their last meal of the day, which means they will have to go to bed with an empty stomach.  If there is food at home, they might help with the cooking until it is time for dinner.  Because of the lack of electricity, at the end of the meal they hand wash everyone’s dish after eating by candlelight.  After everything is clean and spotless, they prepare themselves for sleep and the rest they will need for the new day tomorrow!

KYP'S WALL OF HOPE

Our members and leaders actually do lift themselves up out of poverty!  Meet some of our most successful members and leaders who have gone on to graduate from university, get skills training, and leaderships, and successfully join the formal economy.  Not only have our Wall of Hope members helped themselves, they support their families and give back to KYP with their time and their hard-earned money.  Congratulations to all of them!

OUR GRADE 12'S

Meet this year’s group of Grade 12s, each of whom is working hard to prepare for their end-of-year matriculation exams, which will help determine what opportunities are open to them post-high school.  They are an incredible bunch - the largest class we have had in our history!  Good luck to all of them!

HELP US DEVELOP MORE SUCCESS STORIES

Your support is what allows us to support our members.  Help us help more of Kliptown’s children today with your tax-deductible donation to KYP through the One World Children’s Fund.