VALENTINE’S DAY

a.    VALENTINE’S DAY

Valentine’s day is no longer a celebration of  romantic love exclusively, as it now embrace’s love of all kinds: Friendship, family and everything in between. Our learners celebrated valentines by sharing with us their talents like, singing, poetry, modelling and dancing.

On that day we discovered that indeed I Can! has  TALENT!!!!

b.     VALENTINES DAY – PARC DU CAP

On the 14 February 2014 Business Practice learners in Parc Du Cap had a valentine’s project to  research  the meaning of Valentine’s Day and where it came from. The following are some of the interviews  from the learners about its history:

“My understanding of Valentine’s Day is that it’s not only about loving couples, it’s about sharing love with all the special people in our lives. February was chosen as the love month because this is the month Saint Valentino died on the 14th of February. Red and white are the colours that are associated with Valentines because blood was shed when he died. That is why we have the red. wWite is for peace as he was at peace about what he did. He married young couples even though he knew it was against the law and when he died he was finally at peace about everything. The heart symbol during this month of February symbolizes love. To me Valentines means the day where you show how much you love and appreciate people around you and also to show appreciation by wearing red and white.”

By Miliswa Zwelinjani

c.   Valentino’s Story

Research done by Sandy’s Class

Let me introduce myself, my name is Valentine. I lived in Rome during the third century. Rome was ruled by an emperor named Claudius. I didn’t like Emperor Claudius and I wasn’t the only one. A lot of people shared my feeling. Claudius wanted to have a big army. He expected men to volunteer to join; many men just did not want to fight in wars. They did not want to leave their wives and families. As you might have guessed not many men signed up. This made Claudius furious. So what happened? He had a crazy idea. He thought that if men were not married, they would not mind joining the army. So Claudius decided not to allow any marriages. Young people thought this new law was cruel. I thought it was preposterous! I certainly wasn’t going to support that law.

Did I mention I was a priest? One of my favourite activities was to marry couples. Even after emperor Claudius passed his law. I kept on performing marriage ceremonies secretly, of course. It was really quite exciting. Imagine a small candlelight room with only the bride and groom and myself. We would whisper the words of the ceremony, listening all the while for the steps of soldiers.

One night, we did hear footsteps. It was scary! Thank goodness the couple I was marrying escaped in time. I was caught. I was thrown in jail and told that my punishment was death. I tried to stay cheerful and also do you know what? Wonderful things happened, many people came to visit me in jail. They threw notes and flowers through the window. They wanted me to know that they too believe in love. One of these young people was the daughter of the prison guard. Her father allowed her to visit me in the cell. Sometimes we would sit and talk for hours. She helped me to keep my spirit up. She agreed that I did the right thing by ignoring emperor and going ahead with the secret marriages. On the day I was to die, I left my friend a little note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. I signed it, “Love it from your Valentine”.

I believe that note started a custom of exchanging love messages on Valentine’s day. It was written on the day I died 14 February.

d.     LETTER OF APPRECIATION by A.S Nogaga (Department of Education)

On behalf of the Department of Education Port Elizabeth District, I hereby wish to convey words of gratitude and appreciation for the good work that you are doing for our schools. You are providing an enabling environment for our young people in general and the disabled youth in particular to obtain skills and knowledge for their development. You are also exposing them to workplace situation as well as helping the schools to execute their administrative duties.

Your institution is contributing positively to the development of previously disadvantaged communities. The school communities appreciate the wonderful contribution that you are making.

We are looking forward to a long and lasting relationship with you.

 e.     BELLVILLE:

Academy Life in February has been a buzz with new happenings: In addition to being the month of love, we have welcomed many new learners as well as staff members. 20 new learners sponsored by I & J have joined the academy as well as learners from Entrade, Nalco, ARB and Quest. They are a high-spirited bunch and we look forward to an exciting year ahead.

We have also welcomed three young dynamic facilitators to our team in February; Ntombodidi, Nosandi and Tumi  have undertaken to bring fresh new ideas and enthusiasm to our Academy.

The staff and learners were caught up in the spirit of love and dressed for the occasion in their black, red and white. We had a competition for best dressed, valentine cupcakes on sale and we ralled a beautiful luxury hamper, which one of our Domestic Services Learners, Percival Borrins won.

Instead of just focusing on love and romance we urged learners to seriously consider the responsibilities the youth have that goes hand in hand with being inlove. Topics discussed included mutual respect, self-respect and safe sex.

A fun and educational day was enjoyed by all.

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