25 Gauteng volunteers from Nedbank, Signorama, Penguin Books and the public helped out on Do It Day at the Carel du Toit Trust centre, where hearing impaired children learn to speak, to give their kids’ play area a face lift.

 

Refreshments were served while the volunteers gathered, and at 09:00 the morning was opened with a short welcome by Thelma Andersen, Trust Manager, who handed over to Brenda Schmid, Vice Principal and coordinator of the Parent Guidance Project.

 

A brief video was viewed about the workings of a cochlear implant and how deaf children acquire speech using either hearing aids or the cochlear implant. A short time for questions followed before they all moved out of doors to do the tasks required for the day.

 

The volunteers painted the slide, swings and climbing frames with brightly coloured enamel paint, and painted the wooden huts, the borders of tyres around the trike track and the fences. They planted donated plants in various small flowerbeds and tidied and trimmed shrubs in one area under trees to make it suitable for placing picnic benches on it. Indoors, the volunteers painted wall murals and picture display borders.

 

“ To have experienced and been part of Do-It Day a project of GreaterGood SA was a wonderful experience for us all,” said Andersen. “From the initial planning to the event itself has also impacted on the children of the Centre.”

 

On the day, the centre still continued to operate its normal routines, which included Chrisna, the manager, disappearing for a while to fit a child with her first pair of hearing aids and share the moment with her family. “After fitting Jenay came and looked at what the volunteers were doing in the garden and so was able to interact with everyone, explained Andersen. “So lovely to have had a first hand experience of seeing what a child’s reactions are to being fitted with hearing aids!”

 

The children were also a part of the day and interacted with the volunteers throughout the day. They were required to go indoors to have a sleep at 1 o’clock. It took a while to settle them down in a room they were not used to because the murals were being painted in their classrooms. On waking Terah looked out of the window and was overheard to say to one of his friends: “Come and look, there is a rainbow in the garden!” This was his way of describing the lovely brightly painted equipment!

 

So at the end of a project one is inevitably asked, do you think the project was a success? In Andersen’s words: “I am sure that with all the wonderful volunteers, donations and enthusiasm of all concerned we can clearly declare this event to have been a wonderful success!”

 

The centre also benefited from donations in cash or kind through which they acquired plastic scooters and dolls in cots (from Nomads Consulting and Design), mattresses, storage bags, a washing machine, kettles, toys and a camera (from Nedbank), plants (from Reichmans) and children’s books (from Penguin Books). “This gift you all at GreaterGood SA have made possible is greatly appreciated! Thank you also to the ‘Pretoria Rekord’ for including a report in the following week’s publication,” concluded Andersen.