Community participation and parent involvement in education is an important aspect of the Bulungula Incubator’s work in the area. Monthly workshops on a variety of different subjects are held for the parents, grandparents or caregivers which aim to encourage participation in the children’s development and education. This month, the workshop was on how to make message holders, with the children’s names, for each class at Jujurha Preschool.

Mamas preparing the pockets and the children’s names to be sewed

Sewing the name of each child

Message holders ready for all three Jujurha classes!

The message holders are an important means of communication between teachers and parents as children can take individual messages or their creative artwork home to show to their parents. Similar holders can also be used for storing small items in a household which is particularly useful when there is lack of storage space. They are easy to make with materials available in the village and a bit of sewing from the mamas. The mamas made one message holder for each class and sewed each child’s name in front of each pocket. More importantly, they seemed to enjoy the opportunity to socialise during the workshop and were proud of what they had achieved.