Community Activities

There are a number of sustainable community projects that we support. Depending on your groups needs and requirements you can arrange your Eco School Challenge around the projects that you will find most beneficial but more importantly where your group can offer the greatest assistance and help.

The following projects have been identified for consideration when organising your Eco School Challenge.

Feeding Scheme
In Port Alfred, malnutrition greatly contributes to the poor performance of learners. As one teacher mentioned "it is unfair to expect learners to do well when they come to school with an empty stomach."
In an effort to address the problem of malnutrition, EISS has over the years supported the efforts of the Harris House-Soup Kitchen. Every Monday and Wednesday, soup and bread is provided to the underprivileged people in the township. The problem this programme faces is the lack of sufficient manpower to deal with the increasing number of people to be served (400 - 600 a day). Volunteers are needed to help in the sharing of the bread and dishing out the soup

Ntingani Cooperative Service
Ntinga in the Xhosa language is a command to 'rise up.' It is a business set up by four primary school teachers and includes tourism, catering, transportation and hospitality. The students from EISS serve as consultants to this business. EISS students have been very instrumental in the drafting of the Articles of Association and the Memorandum of Association. There is a need for students with knowledge in financial management to assist this group of entrepreneurs realise their dream. EISS decided to assist 'Ntingani' because unlike other businesses, the mission of this business is to create employment for people from the underprivileged communities. (The Nelson Mandela Township).

Computer Literacy Skills Development
Computer literacy which is a way of life in the developed parts of the world is still at its infancy stage in South Africa. Although some of the schools in Port Alfred do possess computer facilities, there is an absence of teachers with any computer knowledge or skills. Volunteers will be involved in teaching computer skills to the primary school learners, who have never been exposed to computers in their lives. The EISS computer literacy programme is based on the premises and the end result of the computer literacy is not in just knowing how to operate computers but to use technology as a tool for communication, organisation, research and problem-solving. This will help the learners meet the demands of the job market. In the first quarter of 2008, there were 40,000 job vacancies in South Africa in the field of ICT.

Enkuthazweni School for the Disabled
In the idyllic town of Port Alfred, a holiday resort which boasts one of the most attractive marinas in South Africa, is to be found a special education classroom hidden away in the recesses of the poverty-stricken township named after the modern founding father of our nation, Nelson Mandela. In an abandoned beer hall, thirty five mentally challenged and physically disabled learners, share one classroom in which children of seven years and adult men and women, whose ages range from eighteen to twenty nine years, sit cheek by jowl in dreary and un-stimulating surroundings.