Katlego Creche (pre-school) Print E-mail
Katlego Creche in Rooiboklaagte is the pre-school for many of the children who then attend Cheue Lower Primary School. Seeds of Light obtained an accredited pre-school curriculum for the creche.  We have been working with and supporting the teachers in building their teaching skills so that the children get a strong early childhood learning experience. We have donated materials, toys, books, art supplies, and food for lunches. 

 
Cheue Primary School in Rooiboklaagte Print E-mail
Cheue Primary School is a 73 year-old primary school in Rooiboklaagte, a former homeland area under apartheid.  The school is located in an area with a very high incidence of HIV, high unemployment and extreme poverty.  Seeds of Light began partnering with Cheue in March 2009.  Much has already been accomplished in our work together. 

Some projects already completed at the Cheue Primary School include:

A borehole was drilled bringing water to the school, and a group of unemployed women were supported to establish a large vegetable garden to add fresh nutritious vegetables to the children’s lunches and to help the poorest of the poor school families.  The garden is 100% run by unemployed women from the community. 

School classrooms were repainted, window glass installed, door locks repaired, chalkboards hung and colorful designs were added to the rooms and the outside of the building. The funding and labor for this project was a joint effort between Seeds of Light, the local community, school children and their parents from a private school in South Africa, and volunteers from the USA. 

A school uniform program was established to provide official uniforms for those children too poor to afford proper attire.  Sixty-six children were the first to receive uniforms and shoes.

Cheue's first new computer was purchased. Donated computers were refurbished to expand the learners' skills and thus, their ability to be able to successfully enter today's job market. The computers also provide increased administrative efficiency.
 
The Funjwa Primary School
funjwa computer classesThe Funjwa Primary School, one of many in the area, has over 900 children from kindergarten through fourth grade, with an average of 50-60 children per classroom. They range in age from 6-13. Many are orphans or “vulnerable children,” meaning one or more parents have AIDS.

When we first visited the school in April of 2004, we found the classrooms to be very minimal. Some had no desks, tables or chairs. Many children sat on the cement floor. Pencils were broken into three pieces to make sure there were enough to go around. There was no play equipment outside. The children used pieces of newspaper for toilet paper, and there was no soap to wash their hands because there was no running water.

The dedicated teachers have few supplies to use in their classrooms, yet they are masters at creating something out of nothing. While some of the children who attend Funjwa are orphans, the lucky ones come from families whose mother or father might earn the equivalent of approximately $17 a month. In South Africa, families pay for their children to go to public school. About 90% of the children at the Funjwa Primary School can’t afford to pay for school fees, and the principal allows them to attend anyway.

We found an even more pressing problem for the school. We found that most of the children do not get nutritious food at home. We also learned that the government-supplied school lunches were unreliable, and often a child’s only source of food was the school lunch. So if the school lunch didn’t arrive, the kids may have gone hungry for days at a time.

When asked how Seeds of Light could help, the school principal said that she wanted to provide more food to supplement the existing and unreliable lunch program and that she wanted to do this by expanding the school’s garden.

Seeds of Light’s first project, along with our sister organization, Seeds of Light South Africa (SOLSA), was to fund the purchase of desks and school supplies.

Within a month or two, our next project was to drill a well and install water tanks to supply the water needs of the garden. The garden now supplies vegetables for the children’s lunches year round, with the excess food going to people in the surrounding community.

Seeds of Light has also donated a computer laboratory for classes for children and adults. Along with these supportive projects, Seeds of Light has sponsored a music department and supplied it with several instruments, including a keyboard.