July 2011
The Crèche at Lebanon
In the pipeline for three years or more the creche is undoubtedly our biggest project to date.
We had many promises and let downs but finally the creche is up and running.
We have 4 full time staff including a Head Teacher. The project agreed to pay the staff salaries for the first 18months and our time is almost up. It is a struggle but we hope we will receive sponsorship from within South Africa to help us. The children in the creche now number 25 and we have a waiting list. 5 have already moved to "Big School" and have settled in well. We also have more babies than we had expected so they need at least one member of staff full time
Without doubt ( and we may be a little prejudiced on this) they are the best kids you could hope to find anywhere. They have nothing and expect nothing so what ever they get is a sure bonus in their lives. Their Mums report that they wake up looking forward to going to the creche. The creche reports that the kids don't want to leave at night!
Our grateful thanks to all in the UK for donations large and small.
Also thanks to Cape Town Quakers for their generous donation and not least many thanks to our friends of the learning-journey group at Leiden University in Holland who gave us the donation we needed to start building the creche.
We are currently fund raising for the following:-
· Thanks to kind donors we have provided a sand pit and climbing frame. We are now trying to raise further funds for a perimeter security fence and to cover the running costs until local sponsorship and Government funding are available. We also require a lot more books which are very expensive in South Africa so we buy them 2nd hand and transport them over. We estimate costs for these as follows
Sand pit £150.00
Climbing frame £1000.00
Running costs for 6 months £6,000.00
Books £500.00
Security fence £1800.00
Total £8300.00
We now have a further "wish list" for which we need to raise funds including
Outdoor play equipment - small ride on toys etc
Coloured wooden blocks all shapes & sizes
Cooking pans - our old ones are now worn out
Visual teaching aids
Communication equipment ie- computer with internet access
Whilst we are sure much of this is available in the UK it presents logistical problems getting items to SA. Monetary donations are so much easier to handle.