The Amy Biehl Trust Foundation is an organization dedicated to “Weaving a Barrier Against Violence” and does so through its many after school programs. The Amy Biehl Trust Foundation (ABFT) was started in 1997 by Peter and Linda Biehl to keep the memory of their daughter alive and to continue her work to build a new South Africa. The Foundation provides classes in music, sport, art, reading, the environment, and HIV/AIDS peer education.
In 1993, Amy Biehl came to Cape Town to work at the UWC Community Law Centre on issues such as women’s rights, constitutional law, and voter education. In an act of political violence, she was tragically killed by 4 young black men. After applying for amnest through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the 4 men were released from prision and 2 currently work for the foundation.
TESTIMONIALS
Nora Kennelly
Fall 2009
While in South Africa I work with the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust. Each Monday and Wednesday morning I venture to Mkhanyiseli Primary School in Nyanga township. With a collection of about twelve grade seven learners we embark to work on literacy and vocabulary skills. We do different reading exercises while incorporating engaging material that both accomplishes academic goals and some fun. The class last anywhere from forty-five to seventy-five minutes depending on the school schedule. The remainder of my morning is spent assisting grade 2 – 4 learners in the computer lab.
The Marquette van driver then picks me up and takes me to Nomlinganiselo for the afternoon activities. At two o'clock on Monday, Brian Harper and I joint teach an English class. Tuesday, Brian continues instruction and Wednesday I pick up where he left off. The rest of the afternoon is spent working with a sports after school program. I work with the grade seven boys soccer team. It is sorted chaos. Usually, Zane or another intern assists coaching the boys. Currently, the foundation is organizing the Amy Biehl 5-a-Side Soccer Mini-League. Within the Mini-League, twenty primary schools from Nyanga and surrounding townships are anticipated to participate.
Email Nora for more information!
Brian Harper
Fall 2009
There are three aspects to my work with the Amy Biehl Foundation: the Youth Reading Role Models program, English lessons and after-school guitar lessons. I teach an hour-long reading class each Monday and Tuesday at St. Mary’s Primary School in the township Nyanga. My class consists of eleven 6th and 7th graders who have previously been under the tutelage of Marquette volunteers. Though I update Nwabisa and Pinkie from the Amy Biehl Foundation, as well as maintain contact with Nombongo, a 7th grade teacher at St. Mary’s, I am free to structure the class as I see fit. Since I began working with the students in July, we have read portions of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, Stephen Biko’s articles, Twilight and newspaper articles. To keep these readings interesting and exciting for the students, we play comprehension games, do art projects that make ties between the students’ lives and class readings and have class discussions. I have also given each student a book to read during his or her free time outside of the classroom. I use a point system to reward positive behaviour in the class—attendance, participation, completed work, etc.—and give the students three points each day they read 30 minutes or more outside of class. I regulate this by having them get their parents signatures on calendars I gave them, thus keeping their parents informed about what their children are doing at school.
I also teach an English class with Nora Kennelly from 14h00 to 14h30 at Nomlinganiselo Primary School in Nyanga. The two of us teach the class together on Mondays, and I teach alone Tuesdays with Nora teaching alone Wednesdays. This class consists of roughly 40 8th graders, which means the relationships we have formed in this class are less personal than at St. Mary’s. Nora and I coordinated this opportunity on our own and thus have had less time with these students than our students for the Youth Reading Role Models programme. Nonetheless, we have essentially been given the same freedom to design the class as we choose. We keep close contact with their teacher, Nonkosi, who often sits in on our classes. Since we began with the students, we have taught about sentence and essay structure. The students have begun writing their own persuasive essays on a topic of their choice. We generally begin classes by reviewing what we discussed in previous classes, asking the students to tell us how their essays are progressing and then walking around the classroom and helping individual students work on their essays.
I give guitar lessons at Nomlinganiselo from 15h00 to 16h30. Until a few weeks ago, I taught the students on my own, again with complete freedom to design classes as I saw fit. Since then, however, an instructor named Goodwill has been teaching the students each day, with me assisting him Mondays and Tuesdays. At the beginning of my time with the students, I taught them how to read guitar tablature and began showing them how to play the South African national anthem, Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika. Since then, we have begun working on songs with multiple guitar parts (rhythm, bass, lead), such as Stand By Me, Every Breath You Take and I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You. The number of students we have varies from day to day—only a few of the students I had in July are still with me. The class, however, has gained a lot of new students, with more and more joining each day.
Teaching these various lessons have been both rewarding and challenging experiences. The students I work with are very bright; some can play three or four instruments, and almost all of them speak English and Xhosa. Furthermore, they come to school despite there being a lack of libraries and limited resources as well as living in an environment that often does not foster motivation to take initiative in becoming educated. I have had to deal with students not showing up for class and not completing the work I assign. Nonetheless, there have been significant successes, many of which should surely be attributed to the Marquette volunteers who have worked with the students before I knew them. Many of my students at St. Mary’s have been returning to school with many days on their calendars signed. Two of the students have also already completed the books I gave them to read in their free time a few weeks ago. Some of the English students’ essays reflect outside research that Nora and I never asked for, and the guitar students who have been with us for some time have ever-expanding repertoires and have clearly grown in their abilities.
To address some of the challenges I mentioned, I have guaranteed that a church money collection from a Marquette chapel will be donated to the Amy Biehl Foundation. Furthermore, a former teacher of mine has agreed to organize a book drive and send the books to be used at the schools I work in. I feel very pleased, honoured and determined in my work at St. Mary’s and Nomlinganiselo. My students inspire me and have taught me a great deal, and I look forward to my ongoing work with them, hopefully continuing to find new methods to enhance their educations along the way.
Email Brian for more information!
Mike Ziegler
Spring 2009
For the spring of 2009, I have been placed as a facilitator of the Youth Reading Role Model Programme through the Amy Biehl Foundation. My experience has been intimately involved with people, dynamic in responsibility, and has given me quite a bit of room for personal ownership while requiring a good deal of patience while my role settled itself out.
I work with two schools, Mhkanyseli Primary and Nomlinganiselo Primary. During the day I teach a 7th grade reading course, in which I have an hour alone with the learners to work on their reading skills and personal and group development. I do this reading course for two 7th grade classes and one 4th grade class, and during the in between time I help out in the computer lab and with individual mentoring. I also work with Amy Biehl’s after school programme, where I co-facilitate an AIDS/HIV Peer Education group. My focus in this HIV/AIDS Awareness group has been working on pertinent issues through the medium of writing. This role took about a month to settle out, and is potentially still in flux, but my work has been enjoyable, personal, challenging, but over all, has filled me up.
Email Mike for more information!
Allison Schommer
Spring 2009
As a service learner at the Amy Biehl Foundation, I have enjoyed being a part of the “hands on” aspect of Amy Biehl’s mission as an organization. Twice a week, I spend the morning at St. Mary’s Primary school in Nyanga and then go directly to Nomlinganiselo Primary for the rest of my day. At St. Mary’s, I teach a class of nineteen Grade 7 students through Amy Biehl’s Youth Reading Role Model Programme. The focus of this class is to first and foremost develop the reading skills (in English) of these students. Throughout the semester, class has been centered on reading the book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, although I have incorporated other elements such as current events into the class as well. Other goals for the class include working on reading comprehension, learning new vocabulary, and instilling confidence in reading for each one of my students. At Nomlinganiselo, I work with Grade 4 students and help them learn how to read in English; I also teach another class through the Youth Reading Role Model Programme to Grade 7 students. Finally, I stay for Amy Biehl’s After School Programme and give piano lessons to several students. This has been an incredible opportunity to get to know and understand children in the township communities on a personal level. While it can be a challenge, I have loved getting to know the children and have learned much from them as well.
Email Allison for more information!
Ali Gooda
Spring 2009
I worked for the Amy Biehl Foundation and was assigned to two schools to volunteer at: Bongolethu Primary and Nomlinganiselo Primary Schools. I was at Bongolethu in the morning where I was going to be working with a reading group, but things didn’t work out and I now help a teacher out with her English class. In the afternoons I volunteered at Nomlinganiselo and helped teach two fourth grade reading classes, and a seventh grade reading class with two other students in my program, as well as teaching piano to beginners in the after school program.
When helping out in any school here it is very important that you are flexible because things sometimes don’t work out how you planned, and you must readjust your plans quickly! Because I was helping out with the reading program for Amy Biehl, and they often get guest readers at the schools that we work at. This didn't happen to me in particular, but to one of the others working for Amy Biehl, in the fact that the student was not notified about the guest reader coming in, and had to change around her whole schedule because they were no children in the group that day. Also, another thing that happens is that on more than one occasion, that some of the kids, and sometimes all of them didn't show up for reading, but nobody could give us a direct answer to why they weren't there. One also needs to be flexible with the resources at the school and realize that there aren't that many good books to choose from. So, as one of the teachers of the reading program, we had to provide the children with copies of books that we purchased ourselves and made copied of them, one of them was "Harry Potter" which they really seemed to enjoy.
My field of study isn’t in education, but I really enjoyed teaching these kids a lot, it was very rewarding. It was rewarding in the sense that you could see the children looking forward to coming to class and being eager to learn in it. Also, the progress seen in their reading and in their piano skills since the beginning of the semester is very rewarding in itself!
Email Ali for more information!
Christina Luchetta
Spring 2008
As a service learner at the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust I am exposed to a variety of environments and involved in a few projects. In the morning I go to St. Mary’s Catholic Primary School in the township of Nyanga which I work with 12 students in grades 6 and 7 in the Youth Reading Role Models Program. A past Marquette service learner read the first Harry Potter book with the students and they wanted to continue with the Harry Potter series so we are working on the second book, Harry Potter and the Camber of Secrets. In addition to the students taking turns reading aloud, we work on vocabulary, reading comprehension, and character development. The goal of this program is to build confidence and skills in reading so the students can in turn serve as ‘reading role models’ for younger students. I then spend a couple hours in the main office downtown where I plan my lesson plan for the afternoon class, or help with any other project that is going on, or just sit and chat with the staff. After lunch, I go to another primary school, Nomlinganiselo, in the township of New Crosswords to help with grades 1, 2 and 3 in the after school program. We work on the alphabet, numbers, nursery rhymes and educational crafts. The service learner at the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust will be involved with a multitude of experiences. Not only will you be able to see an NGO at work in an office setting, you will also be fully immersed in a township setting while directly working with the youth in the Youth Reading Role Models Program and at the after school program.
Email Christina for more information!
Alicia Fleming
Spring 2007
As a service learner at the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust there are many opportunities for creative work and new projects. You will have the opportunity to participate in the Youth Reading Role Models Program which involves students in grades 6 and 7 reading to students in grade one. Through their mentorship, the 6th and 7th graders encourage younger students to develop a love of reading and critical thinking skills, while they improve their own reading and leadership skills. Over 23 schools in Cape Town participate in this program, and as a service learner you will teach a special class at St. Mary’s primary school in the township of Nyanga. During that time you will engage the learners, or “Reading Rock Stars” as they have been so lovingly named, in a classroom experience developing their reading skills and also their self-confidence. Some of the past interns have focused on cultural short stories, or even a series book like Harry Potter.
Before the service learner is taken to the other placement they spend time downtown in the main office. It is located in the city bowl and the wonderful staff at the foundation is always willing to go out for a bit of tea during lunch. In the afternoon the service learner goes back to Nyanga to help out with the after school programs at Nomlingananselo primary school. Here there are opportunities to teach computer literacy, art, traditional dance, or a music class. Both school environments are extremely supportive and rewarding to work at because they foster a deep sense of community and are inclusive to the intern. I love going to each site because I feel an incredible sense of welcome and openness to sharing cultural experiences and insights. The experiences I have had at the ABFT have helped me gain confidence as a teacher and also have taught me to see things from many different perspectives. As an Amy Biehl service learner you are privileged to see the multi-dimensional role that an NGO plays and how that presence can impact the community in a positive way by instilling pride, confidence, and valuable skills in the youth of South Africa.
Email Alicia for more information!
Amy Neumeyer
Fall 2006
I spend two days a week teaching grade seven children through the Youth Reading Role Models Program and going to the After School Care Program. My class consists of a dozen 12 & 13 year olds and we spend two hours each week together. During this time I have the children read aloud often to improve their English, speaking skills, and to make them more comfortable speaking in front of others. They are supposed to take the skills we work on together in class and teach the grade one students how to read. The After School Care Program is designed to provide the children with a place to go after school so they can stay out of the streets, develop a skill or talent, and have something to eat. The program currently offers violin lessons, modern dance, cultural dance, reading class, and an art class, to name a few.
Email Amy for more information!
