Reflective Journal: Analysis of My Participation in the Pebbles Project

A reflective journal refers to a document that reflects an analysis of one' s thoughtful analysis. The journal analysis my participation in the pebbles project and involves interactions with the pebbles project community during the cause of my involvement. This journal is a course requirement and also helps me in articulating what I learned in the organization and from the community. The journal also considers service-learning, which comes through my self-analysis rather than from class learning and lectures. The reflective journal will be of benefit to help in understanding one's interests and talents too. This journal will consider interactions with the community in the pebbles project. It will address; my learnings during the interactions, my contributions, other member's contributions as well as plans for applying the learned concepts during my time with the community. The journal will also consider my specific actions and address the following; the activities that happened in the community and its relation to the concepts that I learned as well as success and failures of my actions in the project. I will also address the skills I applied to in the community.

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In my experiences at pebbles, I started by attending a three- hour orientation where introduction to the organization was done. There was an explanation about the organization's sectors, including the ECD. This information is also available on their websites. I got to know about pebbles' values, goals, ethics, mission, vision, and objectives. We got to know about their facilities such as the school buses. The buses had a miniature aircon, library bus, life skills bus, and computer bus. It is at the orientation that I got to see their health care facilitation. The facilitation included medical practitioners such as the dentist, where services were being offered cheaply. This was of great benefit to the community, which will be empowered by accessing health services at lower costs. I also got to know the kitchen, which had been opened this year, where food was being offered at a lower price. The food at pebbles is pass produced, frozen, and sent to the farms.

I also spent much of my time with children who are part of the early childhood development program (ECD). I spoke with the children, played games with them, went for a walk, helped in feeding them, and told them stories. I noted that the staff at the farms were amicable and took good care of the children at all times. The team was supportive of the children and to the rest of the team and us as the students too. The children got care from the staff who felt so much attached to the kids. I saw the children were very respective and listened to their elders attentively.

Pebbles project, the main emphasis is education. The lives of the disadvantaged are enriched through pebble's operations. Among those disadvantaged are children and community members from Winelands farming in the Western Cape. Pebbles focus on the entire lives of children and the challenging situations in which they find themselves living in to achieve a significant meaning in their lives (Wetu 2019). Since 20014, the pebble has significantly impacted on the community, families, and children by offering support and intervention in different areas. The areas include; education, health, nutrition, community as well as protection.

In education, the community benefits through the following programs; baby box program which supports pregnant women throughout their pregnancies up to delivery. The women get essential information about pregnancies and childbirth, which ensure their wellness (Pebblesproject 2019). First thousand days (FTD) program where kids get special attention in the first one thousand days. Early childhood development (ECD) program where resources, equipment, parent, and educational assistance is given to the children between 0-6 years. After school club program provides support to school going children between 7-18 years, they are provided with homework supervision, academic support, and given a chance to participate in extra-curricular activities such as drama, sport, art as well as art. School leaver programs support mid-teen children by guiding them in subject and career choices (Pebblesproject 2019). This is aimed at ensuring they make well informed educational and career choices, which enables them to be resourceful members of society. There are staff training programs where ECD and ASC staff are selected and offered monthly training sessions. This mainly benefits those staff coming from the farms where the children live. The mobile toy library helps the children to access recreational toys which they do not have at their homes. They get the chance to borrow them on a fortnight basis. ECD special needs program benefits children between 3 months and five years through simulation programs as well as therapeutic support and intervention.

Educational outing enables the children to travel on educational trips. The mobile book/ DVD library allows children who had no access to books to get some. Math and literacy program assists after school club learners with essential subjects such as mathematics. Mobile computer learning program where children learn necessary basic computer skills which makes them familiar with the digital settings (Pebblesproject 2019). The youth leadership center enables older farm children to access information, make choices, and learn essential leadership skills. A dedicated special needs center aims at helping thee children with learning difficulties - individual child mentorship where children get the chance to spend quality time with their role models.

Pebble's health program and activities include; primary health care program where they ensure access and availability of quality health services. The sick are assessed and treated, both the children and the adults using physical examination and medication. Pebbles administer family planning, deworming programs, and vitamin A to the farming communities. This greatly improves the community's lifestyle and health (Pebblesproject, 2019). A wellness program is put in place as a preventative approach to the health of the farming communities. There is a screening of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, cervical cancer, cholesterol as well as hypertension. Individuals and groups get professional awareness about their health status upon which they can get treatment and establish a healthy lifestyle. The dental program offers dental screening and treatments, which comprises evaluation of the dental structures. They mainly focus on preventative treatment like cleaning of teeth. Pregnant mothers program- pebble provides social support, fetal, and infant advice to the member of the farming communities.

Pebble's nutrition practices are exercised through the following programs; nutrition program where lunch and breakfast are provided to 500 children attending the farms ECD centers and 300 children who attend ASC centers (Pebblesproject 2019). Growth and wellness monitoring where the children's growth is tracked via partnerships between the nutrition program and health professionals. Pebbles project kitchen, which cooks 5000 meals per day.

In this journal, I will discuss in detail the community programs by pebbles. They include provision building where a spare building is built and can be converted to ED centers of After School Clubs. Wooden structures are provided when there is no available building. Renovation building where industrious teams volunteers to scrub, paint, sand, and decorate the existing buildings and classrooms. There is the provision of clean water, which helps to avoid exposure to dangerous diseases (Pebblesproject 2019). Action committees created on each farm pebble works, and the teams meet regularly to discuss challenges facing the farms. There are weekend activities where families have fun and quality time together, including sports. Other community programs include product making and selling, parent workshops, outdoor play areas, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders program.

These community development activities can be reflected in the situation in South Africa since poverty is at the heart of many community development initiatives. Various theories that address the issues of poverty include; Individual deficiencies stated as laziness, poor choices, inherent disabilities, and incompetence. The theory works in such a way that those who work hard are rewarded, and laziness and poor decision making are punished (Bradshaw 7). The second theory is cultural belief systems, which adopt -productive values that are contrary to success. It works by using the community to the advantage of the poor (Bradshaw 8). The third theory states that poverty is caused by economic, political, and social discrimination, where poverty strikes due to systematic barriers that present access to critical resources and institutions. This excludes some people and groups, thus subjecting them to poverty (Bradshaw 10). The fourth theory is geographic disparities, where the concentration of social merits and demerits are in different areas. These could be distance, economies of scale, and biased distribution of resources (Bradshaw 13). The fifth theory is cumulative and cyclical interdependencies, where individual problems such as income, education, health, and self-confidence are interdependent and linked with deficiencies in the community (Bradshaw 15). These factors are believed to interact in complicated means such that as the level of community crises results in a personal crisis. These two cumulate to bring a vicious poverty cycle.

These theories reflect the situation in farming communities. Pebbles intervenes to support the farming communities and their children to improve their lives and standards of living. Pebble's practices and the emphasis is on several areas that touch the farming communities' lives, such as education, nutrition, health, community development as well as protection. It is likely that, unless all these areas are taken into account, it will be impossible to eradicate poverty and improve the farming communities living conditions.

Bibliography

Bradshaw, T.K., 2007. Theories of poverty and anti-poverty programs in community development. Community Development, 38(1), pp.7-25.

Pebblesproject.co.za. (2019). Community programs | wine farms| Pebbles Project. [online] Available at: http://www.pebblesproject.co.za/community-programmes/ [Accessed 10 Oct. 2019].

Wetu.com. (2019). [online] Available at: https://wetu.com/Resources//24615/pebbles_project_summary_-_march_2019.pdf [Accessed 10 Oct. 2019].