In Nqileni village, there is no piped water for a 40km radius. As a result, the community relies on collecting drinking water in buckets from open springs in the ground. The obvious solution was a borehole, but we could not find a company willing to risk their trucks on our roads. After approaching three different borehole companies, we finally found one bold enough to brave the roads to our village!!
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Jujurha Early Learning Centre was host to eight visiting teachers and staff from three other preschools in the surrounding area: Zithulele, Mdumbi, and Coffee Bay. The visitors spent the morning touring our beautiful facilities and observing our wonderful teachers and children in action in the classrooms and on the playground.
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We have successfully completed delivery of our first lemongrass harvest, four months after planting. The farmers managed the cutting, sorting, bundling and packaging very well.
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Scroll through our gallery of fun to share in some of the daily activities of the Jujurha Preschool!
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We were delighted recently to receive a visit from the mobile immunisation clinic. We had requested their services several times, but previous scheduled visits to the preschool had been cancelled either due to bad weather / roads or because the clinic had run out of stock of vaccines.
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Our Grade R teacher, Funeka Jija, is also a skilled facilitator and is responsible for facilitating our community workshops on issues of relevance to early childhood development and education. She recently organized a workshop with parents, to discuss health and safety issues in the home.
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Significant strides have been made in improving equity of access to schooling in South Africa – however, we are a long way from achieving quality and equality in education. This fact is most pronounced in areas such as ours.
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Learning About Litter

Our after-school enrichment programme offers afternoon education activities to learners from Grades One to Three from the local No-ofisi Primary School. Activities are designed to stimulate the children’s interest in learning and in their environment. This week, the activities focused on litter.
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As part of our health and nutrition programme, we were recently visited by a dentist from Zithulele Hospital. He ran a workshop with the kids on the importance of regular brushing, and gave each child their own toothbrush (certainly the first toothbrush that many of these kids have ever owned!).
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The Jujurha Library has been open for ‘check-out’ since March 2010. Prior to that, children were only able to use books on the premises. Interest in the library has grown substantially since we started, and we now have over 120 children  borrowing books on a weekly basis. The library resources are also used by our teachers for lesson preparations, and library activities are integrated into the daily routine at the preschool and after-school enrichment programme.
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In preparation for our first lemongrass harvest, we invited representatives from the Southern African Essential Oils Producers Association and from Karwil Agricultural Consulting to visit the project and provide the farmers and team leaders with training on harvesting, drying and packing techniques.
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Here are some recent pics of No-ofisi Senior Primary School. The BI built the hall and classrooms and established an impressive vegetable and fruit garden to supply fresh produce for the school feeding scheme. Thanks to a donation from SUN TV and Telecom Techniques Solar, the hall will also be a venue for watching the 2010 Soccer World Cup!! Sun TV and Telecom donated a large screen TV and satellite dish, powered by a custom made solar system!
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The organic inspector visited our lemongrass fields, interviewed farmers and project management, and our lemongrass has been offically certified organic! This will enable us to negotiate better prices for our products.
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Farewell, Karen

We bade a sad farewell to our American volunteer, Karen Kievit, recently. She left her home and family in Olympia, Washington State, in September 2009 and has spent the last 9 months living in the heart of Nqileni village, immersing herself in the customs and activities of this Xhosa community.
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The Bulungula Incubator recently welcomed two new staff members to our team – Vuyani Olo and Khuselo Gcelu. They have been appointed as community workers and will be replacing Phumzile Msaro. Phumzile has been an incredible asset to the BI since he joined us in July 2009 and was recently promoted to a management position in our Essential Oils Project. Welcome Vuyani and Khuselo, and congratulations to Phumzile!
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