news

Ziyanda Gova

We have a delightful story about one of our ex-pupils,Ziyanda Gova. She started at the Hermanus Waldorf School when we were still on Camphill Farm. She was in the Kindergarten then. She went up to class 7 in 2005. She moved to the Hermanus High School and then on to Qhayiya High School in Zwelihle.

She once organised a small choir or young girls to sing at the funeral of an elderly lady whom she greatly admired and there she recognised her old Class 7 religion teacher, John Coates. He was at that time searching for someone with artistic skills and some knowledge of puppetry to supervise a group of Xhosa speaking ladies who were giving puppet shows and running weekly puppetry clubs for children from their own homes in the townships. John was taken aback to be recognised by this young lady with the beautiful voice and immediately felt she (although young) was the right candidate for the role of supervisor. So with funding from Stichting Projecten Zuid Afrika she left her job as waitress at the Hermanus Golf Club and started puppetry training and working with the puppetry team. Ziyanda is now the most capable member of the team and is becoming a puppetry trainer herself. John says she has the imagination, creativity and drive for this task – he is convinced that it is a result of her Waldorf schooling!

So today Ziyanda assists the 50 puppetry clubs and many of the 70 puppet shows presented monthly in Zwelihle and Mount Pleasant. She also gives puppet shows herself, and John says she is his best storyteller and has a flair for all aspects of puppetry. This view is also strongly supported by Elizabeth Reppel who with John are the founding members of Puppetry in Education Trust (PIE).

No comments:

Post a Comment