The North Indian GSE Team! This week Lorraine Cockerell talks to us about The Slovo Centre of Excellence.

What a wonderful time we had with the GSE Team from North India. They were interesting, informative and most of all, fun.

The Social Function at Twickenham Guest House organised by Linda & Mike Vink kick started the whole visit on a high note. Everyone enjoyed the occasion and the North Indian food as well. It was a truly social occasion because we all enjoyed being together and our guests very quickly became part of us.
Wednesday saw the team's presentation to the Club. This was really a delight because we were no longer strangers and the Team Leader, Ganshyam Acharya, gave us a short introduction to India before Vikas Tiwari, Siddhi Joshi, Pranav Joshipura and Devika Rathore gave their individual presentations. Everything was delightfully personal. We presented everyone with our Club Banner and after breakfast Allan Beuthin, Bert Ettekoven and myself took everyone to Constitution Hill to see the Fort and the Constitutional Court. We then rushed through to Troyeville so everyone could be photographed in front of Ghandi's house and then briefly to New Town for a break before lunch at a Gujarati Restaurant in Fordsburg after which Vikas had a R25 haircut. Opinbion was divided as to whether it was a bargain or a disaster!The afternoon was spent at The Institute for International Affairs at Wits. Tom Wheeler and his team provoked an interesting discussion on parallels between post-independent India and post-apartheid South Africa. 40 years of Congress Party rule in India...40 years of ANC rule in South Africa?

The next day was Vocational Day for everyone. When I went to say goodbye to the team at the Country Club on Friday morning I made a point of discussing the vocational visit with each individual team member. Without exception they were thrilled with the opportunities and contacts that they had made and everyone was delighted with what they had experienced and all felt that they had learnt something. Thank you Eleanor Hough, Nhlanhla Thwala, Andrew Smythe, Lucille Blumberg, Hugh Rix and Ian Widdop for making the Vocational Day such a constructive exercise for everyone. That is a tremendous achievement.

Thank you to all the hosts, Linda & Mike Vink, Bert Ettekoven & Marja van Leeuwen, Joan & Graham Donet and Robin & Ian Widdop for opening your homes to our guests and making them so welcome. A special word of thanks to Ian Widdop for putting everything together and keeping us all on our toes and finally to everyone in the Club, you all helped to make the GSE team feel that they belonged.

Our Speaker this week is Lorraine Cockrell, the facilitator for the Slovo Centre of Excellence:

The Slovo Center of Excellence (SCE) is being established to initially serve some of the needs of the Joe Slovo Informal Settlement and its surrounding communities. The SCE project will serve as a resource center, which is being established on the foundation of the Wayside Sunday School (WSS) ministry that has been ongoing for this settlement over the past four years, under the auspices of The Evangelical Bible Church, in Bosmont.

The need for a more structured group of stakeholders that could offer a more holistic thrust into the community and its children was identified. It was felt that there remained a need to cater not only for the spiritual wellbeing of the children, but indeed to address their physical, emotional, social and intellectual wellbeing as well. This would build on the foundation of the good work started, and offer growth and development towards a more holistic project.

A group of interested people to take this forward was recruited, and the SCE Steering Committee was formed. SCE Steercom was given the mandate by Councilor Fadiel Moosa to pursue with whatever specific objectives initially, to get the SCE off the ground. The University of Johannesburg (UJ) was sent a proposal to partner this initiative, and they agreed to adopt the SCE Project as one of their community outreach programs.

After lengthy negotiation with the Coronationville Secondary School stakeholders, (being the School Principal Mr A S Louw, and the then SGB Chairman, Mr Gounder) written permission was granted on the 24 April’08 and 6 May’08 respectively, for the SCE Project to be housed where the current WSS ministry now still continues (correspondence to be tabled). We were therefore advised that we could utilize their address for the SCE Project.

Due to the lack of available fulltime manpower, donor/govt funding, and approved building facilities, the SCE project as initially envisaged has not been able to take off. However, the momentum and interest has been kept alive with continuous meetings to report back on status quo, an intense workshop held in the beginning of this year, to determine the need for way forward, and the recruitment of additional Steercom members. After much thought and deliberation, the Steercom agreed to work with the status quo the SCE currently has, and to get off the ground initially, the SCE programs most feasible to start with initially, that can be accommodated.

In order to now get going with the SCE initial programme, the following is in place:

• Fulltime manpower to take this project on initially.
• Limited Donor financial support to “make good” derelict building and facilities, however - to a point only. In this regard, we would hope to work with the School for State contribution, towards damage and repair as needed to make the building facility usable, including health hazards, security risks, and pest control scenarios. We would also wish to request community participation and awareness towards this end, by means of a “road-show” within surrounding communities, to request contribution and volunteer participation.

The SCE’s Initial Main Objectives to date are for:

• An After School Care programs that will endeavor to assist the SCE’s school going children with:

- Supervision of their homework, which will include reading/literacy enhancement opportunities.

- An after school feeding scheme

- After school extra mural activities eg. Art, various sports activities viz. dance exercise (Hip-Hop), development in swimming, running, soccer. Then also activities geared towards - art, cultural music instruments, singing, etc. In this regard to create opportunities for children to attend theatre/stage productions, etc.

· A Health and Wellness Programme that will endeavor to address HIV/AIDS and other related diseases and their conditions within the community, by offering information and counseling sessions to address problems encountered within the community, then follow up with referral to State stakeholders, for their intervention.

The SCE’s Secondary Objective would be to endeavor to collaborate and network with other organizations and their stakeholders, to ensure that mutual value and synergy can be derived and added through such collaboration and our partnerships, for the good of all ultimately.