February 2018

2018 marks the tenth anniversary of PCC being open. Officially, we will celebrate that in October. But this is Africa, so why don’t we just celebrate all year long?

So many girls now at Masirebane high school in Mt Moorosi

After ten years, we are seeing signs of maturity in PCC. What struck me recently was to see some of the children who came to the Centre as young children in 2008, now enrolled to high school! This January marks a record for PCC, with 15 children going from primary to high school. As children get older and move to high school or vocational school, the number of kids on the property decreases. This presents an interesting change for us. We are finding that our focus can not just be 100% on what is happening at the Centre, but we need to think bigger, and wider, and make sure we are caring for the children who are PCC kids, but living elsewhere. We need to think how we can prepare these children to be God loving, responsible, Basotho adults.

At the end of 2017, the ‘Thuso’ fund was introduced. ‘Thuso’ means ‘help’ in Sesotho, and its just what we have called the eduction fund here at PCC. We are keeping funds aside, and raising funds, specifically to go towards the children’s education. Vocational school, university, and in some cases even high school is not free, yet we feel strongly that our children should be given the chance at whatever education path will suit them best. We had some great contributions to the Thuso fund so far and are grateful to have money set aside to provide opportunities for the older children.

From November through to the end of January, we ran the Christmas fundraiser, to raise money for school clothes, shoes and bags. Although our visibility this year was a lot less than last year due to some changes on Facebook, we still were able to get pretty close to our target. Thanks to everyone who contributed to that fund. The children were so happy to have new clothes and shoes.

In February we have some visitors from the UK and Portugal. Marina, Hannah, and John, who have all visited Pulane before, are at the Centre for about a month, helping out in various ways. John has plans to improve the electrical infrastructure at the Centre, and the ladies plan to spend lots of valuable time with the kids, doing art, extra lessons, and all the important stuff that children need after school.

As PCC enters its tenth year, we are excited to see how we can be more and more relevant, in reaching more children, providing better all around care, and having a home that children and staff are proud of. Thank you to everyone, over the years, who has built PCC into what it is today. We look forward to what the next ten years will bring!

December is a month of transition here at PCC.

Transition for kids

The school year is now over and the children are at PCC during the day. They are enjoying some down time after a full year of school, and even our older girls are home from boarding school in Mt Moorosi. Because they no longer have to keep their heads closely shaved for school, they are all growing their hair out and getting inventive shaving designs and patterns into their hair. Some of them look ridiculous, but it’s a simple way for them to express themselves. This year we have 15 children who finished primary school and are preparing to attend secondary school. ‘Me Esther has been working hard for months gathering all of the necessary documentation to submit applications for each of these children to receive a grant to pay secondary school fees. (Grades 1-7 are free in Lesotho, but for the final 5 years, we must pay tuition for the children to attend school) From our preschool group, Lucky 2 and George will be transitioning to Grade 1. Already they are beginning to act like older children and don’t often play with the other preschoolers on the playground.

Transition for staff

When we (the Strugnells) arrived at PCC 16 months ago, our goal was clear. We were to guide PCC through the transition to being managed day to day by our local Basotho staff. We are now at the point of ‘taking the training wheels off’ and having our Basotho Management Team (Ntate Moruti, ‘Me Esther, Ntate Khosana, and Ntate Labone) assume full leadership of PCC’s daily operations. They are all rising to the occasion and performing with excellence, as expected. Part of the transition to Basotho Management involves us stepping back from our normal roles. We no longer lead the morning staff meeting, and we are asking our managers to do the daily problem solving, planning, and budgeting. One transition that has been fun for us to watch as directors has been the shift in how the staff communicate with us. Previously, the staff would approach us with a problem and say, “What should we do?” Now our conversations sound more like this, “This is the situation. We met as a management team, discussed possible solutions, and implemented the best one. Just wanted to let you know.”

Transition for Strugnells

Boys home from school having fun 'fishing' with our dog Bingo

As our family prepares for our transition to Mission Aviation Fellowship, the season is bittersweet. We are excited for this new chapter and look forward to the new challenges and blessings of being based in Lesotho’s capital, Maseru. We are also excited about the next three months when our family travels to the United States for training, support-raising, and family visits. And at the same time, we are sad to leave this season of life behind. Though we will continue as the directors of PCC, and will visit frequently, we are sad to leave behind our little hut in the mountains. Am I looking forward to having a flushing toilet and shower in my house? Absolutely. But I will miss the rustic simplicity of daily life here and always look back on it fondly.

Have a great Christmas,

Emily, Grant, Jane and the whole family at PCC