Back at Mariannridge- with Spread the Loaf!

First week back at Mariannridge! It was great being back at the preschool and seeing all the kids smiling faces. We were greeted with a stampede of hugs on arrival, with shouts of “hello teacher!”

We were also so excited as we have new audio screener! And our other screener had been repaired, which meant that we could now bring 2 screeners into the community- we brought one to screen at the preschool, and the other to the clinic.

We had a few spare minutes while the teacher was finishing off the morning session in the small room that we usually use for screening, so we took a walk down to the café to see the ladies who run the soup kitchen. I have been helping one of my close friends (who is a student speech therapist currently doing her Community Based Rehab block) with an NGO that she has started called Spread the loaf. She raises money through donations and raffles, and we then buy a few hundred loaves of bread to hand out to people in communities that are in need.  This July, Rotary have helped us out with some sponsorship, which has enabled us target more communities. We decided that Mariannridge will be one of the communities that we distribute bread to this round, and the ladies who run the soup kitchen were delighted to hear the news! 

After discussing our plan for Spread the Loaf, we headed back to the preschool where we started screening the age 4-5 year olds with our NEW screener. This was the youngest group that we had been screening, and we found that with a few children we had to switch to play audiometry, which they then responded well to. As always, we had a bit of trouble with the background noise, but it is just one of the things we had to accommodate for. 

Saturday came with much anticipation and an early start, as we had to collect and pack just under 1000 loaves of bread into the 2 Bakkies (Thats pick-up trucks, for any non-South Africans reading this ;) ). We made 3 stops in various communities, meeting with people of influence who would ensure that those who were most in need received bread. These stops included 1000 Hills Community Helpers, a pastor down in the valley, and someone who is involved in a orphan housing project in Ntshongweni.

This is only about half of the bread that we distributed! Team Speech-Audio!

Mariannridge was our last stop, were we met up with one of the ladies who runs the soup kitchen and is involved in the knitting project. She has such a heart for the community and was definitely the right person to connect with to hand out the bread, it seems that she knows everyone! Mariannridge have an online forum where they can express their concerns and community news, so between the forum and word of mouth, those in need were able to collect bread :)

Our final stop- Mariannridge!

I think that it is important for the community to see that even though we are students, we aren’t just in the community because we need to fulfill the requirements for our degree, but because we have a genuine care for helping people and improving the community. The reason I have gone into the field of audiology is because I love working with people and want to make a difference in people's lives- sometimes that difference can be made in ways that do not include an otoscope, audiometer or hearing aids but random acts of kindness that might meet someone's need at just the right time!

So this week was exciting and different for me in Mariannridge, both as a student audiologist and as someone who wants fully grasp the community aspect of our Community Based Rehabilitation clinic.