love, hold, care

Early Childcare

Projects

Daycare centres

Many daycare centres are formed to prevent unsupervised children from taking to the streets. In poorer communities, parents go to work early in the mornings and come back late afternoon or early evening. Older siblings are at school, so often little children are left to their own devices. It is known that little children start roaming around in packs, similar to dogs, for survival. Together they protect their territory and each other. This is often the early start of gang formation.

Daycare centres provide a loving, safe environment for these children, where adults can look after them and take care of their needs.

At the same time people from the community – often with little education themselves – are employed as teachers. These teachers are then given further training to become qualified teachers or daycare workers.

Children's Homes

There are many children with great needs in South Africa, including children with disabilities, affected by or infected with HIV/Aids, abandoned or abused. Initially these children come from desperate situations and, due to their medical conditions, require constant attention, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Feeding the children may be necessary as often as every 2 to 3 hours, with little chance of free time or sleep for the providers.

Imagine being abandoned in a field, the despair and the hopelessness that one feels in such a situation. Imagine having a mother that is too drunk to look after you or being raped because there is no adult supervision. These children are confronted with rejection at a very early age.

With love, healing and a nurturing environment, children can become strong, worthy people who can reach out to others. Many of our homes have witnessed miracles – severely disabled children that learn to walk, talk and sing; children infected with incurable diseases that were healed; children too ill to take nourishment that grew to be strong and capable; the list goes on...

Children and Youth Clubs

In the greater Cape Town area, youth clubs provide opportunities for the youth, enabling them to manage their leisure time in a productive manner by engaging them in social and recreational activities. Youth programmes and activities are introduced to improve the social, economical and intellectual wellbeing of the youth.

Counsellors provide the youth with opportunities to discuss problems with reliable, trustworthy professionals, who can assist them in dealing with and solving problems and help them to develop a positive attitude. Counselling includes topics such as dealing with fear, developing self esteem, sexual abuse, family problems and drug related problems.

A variety of activities are organised for the youth to develop life skills and acquire knowledge about different spheres of life.

Physical fitness programmes are aimed at developing health and creating awareness of the importance of exercise for a healthy and productive life, while also imparting the rules and habits of exercising. Music programmes are conducted to improve skills and talent.

Places of Safety

Shelters are established to accommodate the growing number of sick, abandoned, abused and disabled children until their families can be reunited or they can be placed with a foster family.

Caregivers at these centres are trained to provide appropriate stimulation and care to children who have been rescued from unacceptable home environments.

Programmes to uplift needy parents offer rehabilitation – the ultimate goal being to reunite them with their children.

Schools

South Africa still has some 4.7 million people who are totally illiterate (never attended school) and another 4.9 million adults who are functionally illiterate (left school after Grade 7).

Think about the things that you have done in the last 24 hours that involved reading, writing, listening and speaking. Literacy can be viewed as involving all of these abilities through mediated thought. Without literacy or with limited literacy, a person’s ability to have control over his or her life and to make informed choices is severely compromised. Without access to the activities that literacy provides, the cycle of poverty and unemployment will continue from one generation to the next.

There are a number of poorly resourced schools in South Africa where volunteers can offer a valuable assistance. Here, you will help to alleviate the workload of teachers that often have to cope with classes of more than 50 students. Your teaching skills in subjects ranging from English to Maths and Science; your ability to vividly portray your lessons with limited resources and your enthusiasm to become involved in co-curricular activities such as sport, music, singing, drama will make an invaluable difference.

Soup Kitchens

Soup Kitchens are not limited to feeding the poor on the streets, but have been introduced at various schools and daycare centres to provide children with at least one nutritious bowl of soup a day.

Soup kitchens originated in the eighteenth century and remain an important component of private food relief, especially in the poorer areas of South Africa. The majority of soup kitchens are affiliated with larger non-profit organisations, often churches, which supply the food and often volunteer to staff the operation.

Assistance is required in areas as diverse as teaching the community to grow their own vegetables gardens for soup; assisting in providing, making and serving soup; and organising fund raisers to assist soup projects.