Monday, August 16, 2010

Compassion Days




During the 4 weeks of our Keep Them safe holiday program during the World Cup, we offered a variety of programs to the children and teens who came to the center. On Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings, our volunteers (from Germany, Brazil, America, and South Africa) teamed with our Kayamandi youth volunteers led Kids Games in the mornings from 9:00am until 12:00pm. Kids games is an internationally known program that reaches kids for christ using games and sports. Then at 12:00 the kids went for lunch and continued with an afternoon program that included arts, team games, dramas, and special events until 4:00pm.

On Wednesdays, however, our kids morning program was a bit different. Wednesdays were our "Compassion Days" when our kids and teens went out into their community and learned about service by serving hands on. Across the 4 Wednesdays in the KTS time, our kids cleaned the streets, painted the play equipment at 2 parks, planted trees at 2 parks, leveled the ground for our new classrooms, and cleaned for the sick and elderly at their homes.

It was so beautiful to see the youth and children in Kayamandi taking ownership for the hygiene and cleanliness of their neighbourhood. Even now, weeks later, the kids are still looking out for "their" tree and making sure that nothing bad happens to it. Compassion Days are a great way to get kids thinking about other's needs and not just their own.

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