Gutsakisana: “Joy” in Gitonga, the language of Inhambane, one of Mozambique's provinces. Gutsaki There are around 20 - 50 children depending on different days.
Gutsakisana: A space where we all feel safe and free to learn, to ask, to be curious, to fail, to be who we really are. We talk in the first person plural as we are all learning and experiencing changes. We don’t aim to be teachers, but more like guides to support the children in developing their own paths. It’s an inner process of knowing ourselves, themselves, of finding out our dreams and poten
10/11/2022
🏝️ Games on the beach 🎲
The beach became our classroom! We are so fortunate to have the amazing ocean right on our doorstep and love to use the natural wonders of the world as inspiration for our games! The children loved playing together before cooling off in the sea 🌊
08/11/2022
🧘♀️ Mindfulness and Meditation 🧘♂️
Teaching children outside the classroom setting is a lovely opportunity to explore a healthy mind and what we can do to relax! The children from Gutsakisana really enjoyed learning some yoga techniques and practicing the art of Tadasana meditation. They all left feeling ready for the day ahead!
26/10/2022
👨🍳 👩🍳 Cooking with Gutsakisana 🍚 🍅
Here we can see the wonderful children learning to cook with Gutaskisana! The particular dishes they are preparing are called feijoada (beans) and tseke (similar to spinach) with rice to accompany.
Utilising fresh food to make delicious meals is a fantastic life skill for the children. It was a pleasure to teach them as always!
🧘♂️ Our morning routine 🧘♀️
The children from Gutsakisana have created their own morning practice! Before our group sessions we like to warm up and the children felt this routine was perfect! Here they are saying hello and stretching! 🥰
🥘 The Gutsakisana Food Gratitude song! 🍗
With growing hunger in the world, the children of Tofo are so grateful that they have food on their plate. Statistics show that “278 million people in Africa suffer from chronic hunger. This corresponds to 20 percent of the continent's population.” (World Economic Forum 2022)*
Gutsakisana is a creative community that cares and spreads love. The lovely children created this song with the help of our volunteers. We hope you enjoy it!
*https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/08/hunger-in-africa-serious-millions/
01/09/2022
🎨 Arts and Crafts 💐
On Monday 29th August the Gutsakisana group enjoyed creating salt dough flower decorations. After making up the dough, the children created the shape they wanted, before adding petals and decoration to personalise their ornament. The children could then take these home to proudly hang up on display.
💃🏼We love to dance! 🕺
On 22nd August the children at Gutsakisana utilised old recycled materials to create new musical instruments. The group then enjoyed dancing, with the boys leading the way and showing off their moves!
10/08/2022
🍉 From Fruit to Music! 🎶 Making Traditional Musical Instruments
On Monday 8th August, the wonderful Rahel led an innovative workshop for the Gutsakisana children.
Indigenous to South Africa, the monkey orange tree can grow up to around 9m high and produces large grapefruit-sized fruit that is an essential food source for the local communities. Once the seeds have been discarded and the fruit dried they are often used for carving or for the likes of our workshop!
Using the shell from the dried fruit, Rahel turned them into amazing flutes, drilling a hole for the sound to be created. The children loved designing their personalised flutes and then experiencing the most amazing sound as they blew into their new musical instrument!
Vanderful / Seeds of Hope ODV
Rahel Brunner
27/07/2022
👋🏻 A hello and a goodbye 👋🏻
On Monday 18th July we welcomed 24 children to our largest ever Gutsakisana workshop. We played our signature games and were delighted to see familiar faces from 3 years ago remembering our names, faces, songs, and games! We then tried a new activity, using sponges to paint the children’s hands which we then used to make handprint postcards. After enjoying our sandwiches to celebrate our return but also to say goodbye to the lovely children, we were emotional to see everyone following us down the street singing “Vanderful” and “Gutsakisana is back coming to make us happy!”
Vanderful / Seeds of Hope ODV
Julie Tsakani Roos
Sonia Tofo Tofo
Tofo Mozambique
Rahel Brunner
20/07/2022
💃🏼 Gutsakisana Parade 🕺
On Thursday 14th July, the children of Tofo enjoyed the most amazing parade through the town. The day started with face painting and circus preparation, with all the children joining us in high spirits! We sang the Gutsakisana song through the streets with local boy Alfonso leading the march. We spent time on the beach playing games before heading to Tofo Tofo Restaurant for cake alongside more dancing and celebration. It was incredible to see the children united and happy.
Vanderful / Seeds of Hope ODV
Bernhard Hus
Namaki
Julie Tsakani Roos
Rahel Brunner
TofoTofo Restaurant
Tofo Mozambique
08/07/2022
Exciting news!
We hope you are excited for our Vanderful / Gutsakisana parade through Tofo next Thursday!
Vanderful / Seeds of Hope ODV
06/07/2022
Gutsakisana is back 🎭 🎪
The children of Tofo, Mozambique were very excited to be back for the first Gutsakisana session since 2019! We played circus activities such as the spinning plates and enjoyed creating the chant “Gutsakisana ngungunua guta takisa sanana” in the local language, Gitonga. This translates to “Gutsakisana ta a voltar vem fazer-nos felizes” in Portuguese and “Gutsakisana is back, coming to make us happy” in English!
| 14:00 - 16:00 |