{"id":1841,"date":"2010-08-07T14:53:17","date_gmt":"2010-08-07T14:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yeboyes.org\/?p=1841"},"modified":"2010-08-07T14:54:15","modified_gmt":"2010-08-07T14:54:15","slug":"189-children-12-volunteers-and-a-showground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.yeboyes.org\/?p=1841","title":{"rendered":"189 children, 12 volunteers and a showground"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today we had a great da\"Our\"Lucy,y at Tzaneen show with the children from Letaba special needs school.\u00a0 The night before we were told by the teachers that they would be taking all 189 children to the show which they would also like us to come too so we could help out as there were only 20 or so teachers with the children.<\/p>\n

4 buses\u00a0 later the children arrived with lots of smiles, excitement and laughter.\u00a0 We expected that we would be helping them to move around the showground by pushing their wheelchairs and helping them to communicate using some of the sensory toys that we would find around the show on the different stalls that they had there.<\/p>\n

The children that we knew appeared excited to see all of the volunteers as we did our best to push lots of wheelchairs and hold hands of alot of the children as we went around.\u00a0 At first we had decided that we must stay \"Dancingtogether and would try to keep all of the children we were looking after together, but it soon appeared that we were out of a job as the children seemed to want to push their friends and carry their own friends who could not walk on their own.\u00a0 We were worried at first that some of the children were missing out, and those that struggled to walk would need our attention.\u00a0 We compared this attitude to the UK, as because of many of our backgrounds with children, this is very unusual and different to how we would work and the guidelines and rules that we would work to.<\/p>\n

As we started pushing some of the children in wheelchairs, we were often pushed away by one of the childs friends who then wanted to\u00a0 \"Helpingpush the chair instead of us.\u00a0 We found this very interesting, and funny at the same time.\u00a0 We did look around us at one point and see some very happy and \"Withlaughing children in the following mode of transport going past some of the show stalls.\u00a0 A child in a wheel chair had another friend on his lap, who then also had another smaller friend on his lap who was being held on by the young boy who was first sitting in a chair. On the bottom of the chair a much smaller boy sat on the foot rests.\u00a0 On the back of the chair a young boy was standing on the ledge at the back whilst a much older boy was pusing them along at top speed!\u00a0 We laughed and soon realised that these children were just incredibly independent, and again, it was us that were more worried about the children not coping with their disabilities than them or their teachers.\u00a0 This did upset us at times as we could see some of the children that may have been left out of things.\u00a0 This was difficult for us to accept and we struggled to hold \"Smiles\"ourselves back from trying to help these less able children who looked as though they had a very big struggle with trying to walk such a long way.<\/p>\n

At lunch time, all of the children \"Somtimeswho had been going around the showground alone suddenly appeared and met at the end of the field and arranged themselves into groups of their classes.\u00a0 The teachers of the groups then gave them all food.\u00a0 Some of the teachers gave our volunteers a small amount of money to go and buy a child food if they had run out.\u00a0 After this we decided that during lunch we were causing more disruption than\u00a0 good so stepped back even though we wanted to help.\u00a0 We ate our lunch and returned to the show, not really understanding our role here.<\/p>\n

After deciding to speak to one of the teachers to ask them what they would want us to do and that we felt like we should be helping more, the teachers giggled and told us that this is a normal day, that the \"Enjoyingchildren love this independance and do not like to be looked after.\u00a0 She said this was a great opportunity for them to have some \"Thefreedom in this safe area with their friends, which we then understood.<\/p>\n

Our role had now turned into making sure that all the children were happy and managing well around the show grounds, so we did not interfere with their independence too much.\u00a0 Again, with some of the less able bodied children, we found very interesting and amazing to observe this. We also became aware that by the children pushing their friends in their wheel chairs, that they found this could help them walk as they used this as an aid as if it were a walking frame!<\/p>\n

We did help the children a bit by taking them to get some water with the teachers and then proceeded to meet them all in a great big tent where the showground had started to have a party with some dancing competitions.\u00a0 As we walked into the tent we saw most of the 189 children sat in the audience with a lot of other children from other schools.\u00a0 We heard a lot of cheering as we walked in, only to find 4 of the older children from Letaba up on the stage of the dancing competition. This was amazing and we could not beleive how wonderful they were at dancing and the \"Janemoves that they came out with!\u00a0 They even had a hula hoop competition which was also great.\u00a0 All the children dancing and all of those in the audience were laughing so much and all dancing in their seats to the music.\u00a0 This was so great as we saw how much this day had benefited their moods and minds as well as giving them independence and good exercise!<\/p>\n

It may not have been what we are used to in the UK, as far as our safty rules and special equipment to help children with disabilities, but it made us notice, that if in certain situations, that cannot be changed, the children will all adapt and make the most of the environment and capabilities that they have, as well as being so caring and helpful to all of their friends.\u00a0 It seemed to us that they felt relaxed and natural with each-other when they were helping one another, and that this was something they would always do for each-other.\u00a0 We then saw in this environment, when the children were all together, what a big family they all were.<\/p>\n

Another day for us, at first a feeling that we were not needed, but then seeing that we were able to observe and help these children in a different way, and giving us a more wider understanding of their capabilities and culture in this school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Learning the children’s culture in their school and the amazing behaviours and abilities they have<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yeboyes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1841"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yeboyes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yeboyes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yeboyes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yeboyes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1841"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.yeboyes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1861,"href":"http:\/\/www.yeboyes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1841\/revisions\/1861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yeboyes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yeboyes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yeboyes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}