Deep Rural Support

Over the past few years, supporting resource-poor preschools has become an integral part of the ways we support the community. We currently have 24 crèches (preschools) throughout the local tribal and farming area that we support through bimonthly teacher support workshops where in addition to passing on new songs, teaching methods and early childhood development philosophies, non-profit management principles (as they are nearly all registered as non-profit organizations). We also pass on toy and other donations received from a local lady with connections in Johannesburg. Nearly 1000 children attend these preschools daily from deep rural areas, and only four of the preschools receive any funding from the government (largely for feeding the children and stipends for the staff) and are excluded from accessing any funds due to having only mud buildings and no access to running water and toilets. Additionally, the educational levels of the teachers are generally low, and their available resources even lower.

For many of the children, attending crèche is the first chance that they have at early childhood development, including learning shapes, colors, and holding a pencil/crayon for the first time. Attending a well-equipped crèche truly gives the children in this area a head-start, as grade R (kindergarden) in the tribal area schools is normally between 40 and 70 children and gives the littlies limited chances at individual attention they need for a good start to their schooling

Helping those in need

The support comprises two important pillars: on the one hand, promoting the self-reliance of people and, on the other hand, providing emergency aid. For people to be self-reliant, it is first necessary to provide for their basic necessities of life. A safe roof over the head, clean drinking water and a toilet for hygiene.

SELF-RELIANCE

Our ideal image is that people there will no longer need our help there in the future. After all, the best way to help people is by teaching them how to stand on their own two feet and independently set up new initiatives.

To promote the self-reliance of the people, we create various initiatives. In this way we teach children to grow food from an early age and the harvest is used directly to provide food for the kids' clubs. Where possible, people make vegetable gardens to provide for their own necessities of life and, for example, to be able to sell food at the market. Read about other initiatives here:

When the children leave school, they are dependent on themselves; after all, there are no more parents and with that, there is no structure and no food. That is why Kids clubs have been developed. Between 100 and 150 children attend every day. They have received thereby women from the neighborhood who have been trained for this. The kid's clubs work like a magnet on the children, they feel safe and at home here. Through the Kids Clubs, we can teach the children structure, give them food and teach them various social skills, so children can develop positively. We are currently busy providing good food for these many orphans. We can use any financial support for this.