Multiplying the good

How we started an After Care maths club, and how our new community library has become a hub of hope.

The sum is always greater than the parts

There’s a saying that “mathematics gives us hope that every problem has a solution.”    
And nowhere was that more evident than when a team from the US in Virginia Beach visited our After Care centre in Mmakaunyane, North West in early August and started a maths club.

When people come together, and we give others a place to learn, great things happen

The maths tutoring service they offered runs on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. For Pastor George and Sarah Rabothata, this was a huge win, as the centre could now stay open five days a week, instead of just three.

On top of that, there was a dramatic increase in the number of kids attending After Care who wanted to learn maths. Research shows us that learning maths helps young minds develop problem-solving skills, improves their attention span, and fosters resilience and determination. But, at a more symbolic level, it instils in all of us – both tutors and students –  the belief that challenges can be overcome.

So inspired was Pastor George by the success of the maths program that another centre he runs 20 minutes away will also start offering a maths tutoring service on a regular basis.
 
And if that wasn’t impactful enough, our US team also helped us put the finishing touches on a local community library. We’d been working on the project for a few years, and it was amazing to see what a few extra hands could do – painting walls, putting up shelves and placing all those precious books in the right order on those shiny new shelves.
 
And within weeks we soon learned what this library meant to the surrounding community, and what it could offer them as a place of learning.
 
A Grade 10 girl was the very first person to check a book out the library. She used it as a source of research for a school assignment, and her teacher was so impressed with her work – discovering information on the topic that even the teacher has not known about – that she asked where the Grade 10 learner had sourced the info from. Once she heard about the new library, she reached out to the Pastor to ask if she could send more kids to study and do research there.
 
And this is how hope works – through daily acts of dedication. Through many hands working together. Through His spirit of devotion. And all of these have a ripple effect in our communities, multiplying the good and growing the hope.

Popular Posts

Multiplying the good

How we started an After Care maths club, and how our new community library has become a hub of hope.

Childhood literacy is a life-long skill that leads to untold opportunities. It uplifts not only the child but their entire community around them.

Pastor Caleb Campbell from Crossroads Church in Georgia shares a message on the significance and centrality of children in God’s Kingdom.