March News

The learners from School of Hope recently drew closer to nature in two amazing ways:

We survived an Outward Bound Camp!
At the end of February we had the opportunity to send 20 learners on the Outward Bound Camp. This is a very challenging outdoor adventure camp that stretched the limits of many of the participants. The notorious "solo" (surviving in the bush alone for a period of time) proved extremely difficult, but most of the learners survived and came back to tell the tale. In their words:

‘I had a great experience from raft building to the solo. I felt it as if I was having the best time of my life. I did all the challenges for the fun experience even though I found some of them very difficult. My backpack was heavy when I was hiking, but I went up the mountain and finished the hike.’ Shargaan Bassardien


‘It was very beautiful, I enjoyed myself and had a great experience. It was my first time doing these kinds of activities. I would like to come back and do it all again. The week was great apart from the solo - I was wet and cold.’ Ismail Moosa


‘I had a great time with Outward Bound and all the aspects of the course. I learned a lot of things from this experience, I overcame my fear of heights. I found the mountain climbing very hard, but I did it. All the activities were great, but I never want to do the solo again.’ Shirleen Hendricks


‘I had a good experience, learnt many things including how to manage my anger. I never thought I could do activities like rock climbing, abseiling and hiking up a mountain. All these things taught me how to trust my team, myself and my leaders. I also learnt about self-control and self confidence. I would like other youth to come here even though it is difficult and challenging at first, it becomes easier and you end up being proud of yourself afterwards. I would like to thank my team members for motivating me and my instructors for leading me well.’ Lizanne Martin

We also joined the Treevolution with Greenpop!
Twenty students and two teachers were part of an exciting tree planting on the premises we currently occupy. In three hours, we planted 29 trees with the outstanding facilitators from Greenpop. Their leadership was inspiring and very informative. The tree plant resonated with our values of HOPE, TRANSFORMATION, RESPONSIBILITY AND GIVING. Best of all, we did it as a FAMILY. We are committed to watering and nurturing each tree. We learned that ‘the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is right now!’ Our learners are looking forward to passing by the premises in 20 years' time with their children and being able to point and say, ‘See that big old tree? I planted that one when I was in school!’