Providing Basic Foundation for Education
The children of the deprived areas very often have little exposure develop their cognitive knowledge and skills. Hence since early days of primary school they often lag behind in their studies. Through activities based learning the children acquire the necessary foundation to pursue their primary education without being tagged as failures.
The activities are developed alongside with the primary school curriculum but with an activity based approach which creates the interest of the children.
Art and Creativity program
The Art and Creativity program is developed and implemented by our teachers and volunteers. The objectives of the program are to promote the students’ creativity, develop their sense of observation, and to allow them to properly express themselves using different medias. The program is run during our normal activities time and more intensely during school holidays.
The children are encouraged to use wastes and convert them into useful artefacts, thus inculcating environmental awareness.
Hands on computer
This component allows children to be exposed to computers and thus provide an opportunity for the children who have no access to computer to be familiar with the its use.
The program is basically divided into two parts. The first part allows students to acquire basic computing skills and graphic design skills through simple activities and projects. The students will make use of G- Compris, a visual program which helps the children to develop them in language, maths and analytical ability through fun activities. The second part of the program will be more specialised i.e. students will be divided into categories painting, simple word processing and basic mathematics.
Trash to Treasure
The objectives of this program are not only to promote creativity but also to make the students environmentally conscious. Basically, the idea is to make the students create new products from used things, which would have eventually added up to our saturated dumping sites, thus encouraging them to recycle.
Outing with a purpose
Outing is planned on the annual calendar as part of the program. This important component helps to consolidate the learning by concrete visual exposure. For example visit to Le Morne Heritage Site helps the children to better understand the Slavery history in Mauritius. Outings are organised with proper preparation of the children to the subject.
Green Gardening
Through this component the children learn to use recycled materials such as plastic bottles, cans, containers for gardening purposes. They learn how to have produce vegetable and spices which they can reproduce at their own place. The children are taught on how to produce compost and avoid using chemicals for cultivation of crops.
Relaxation through Meditation, Music and Dance
The children of deprived areas are often restless and show some degree of “Hyperactivity”. The sessions of Meditation help them to develop their ability to concentrate in what they are doing. Hence in the long term they can focus in their work and activities. Similarly Music and Dance help to develop their self esteem and overall development.
Adult Functional Literacy and Numeracy
It is clear that literacy of the parents generally has an effect of performance of children at school.
Eli Africa has introduced Adult Literacy and Numeracy program which is held for parent every Saturday at the Bambous Eli Centre. This is helping the parents to become literate but also in turn to be able to understand and help their own children. The parents are proud to be able for the first time to write their names, fill simple forms and read common street signs.
