Day Care Center
To visit school on a regular basis is not at all usual in South Africa. So it is not surprising that one of the biggest problems of the country is the educational plight. Many children cannot go to school because they have to beg for food.
Furthermore, families in need do not have to pay school fees by law, but many schools have to charge them anyway, to finance themselves. That is why most of the children at the age of ten can neither read nor write nor calculate. Some of them even cannot count.
The Leka Gape Day Care Center is a project created for children who live in poor families or are homeless. It gives them a chance to spend their time meaningfully and creatively.
To protect the children from malnutrition, the Soup Kitchen offers them two meals a day, breakfast and lunch. Some of the Day Care Center children also attend the Education Program.
Three times a week from 10h00 to 12h00, they learn basics in reading and writing as preparation for school. After this program, they are able to attend Grade 1 or, if they get on very well, even Grade 2.
In the afternoons, Leka Gape offers homework supervision as well as leisure time activities and hygiene education. In addition, the staff is in contact with the parents, to convince them of the importance of visiting school.
Furthermore, schools are visited to enroll the children and to pay their school fees. To be up to date with the progress of the children, communication with teachers follows.
The schools are cooperating with the project by providing books for the Education Program, which takes place during the morning.
As continuous care taking is extremely important, the Day Care Center does not close during school holidays.
At this time, different programs take place, for example the dangers of HIV/Aids are discussed and ways of preventing oneself of it. As a change, the project strengthens their social competence by organizing trips and leisure games for them.
Currently over 50 children are daily attending the Day care Center. Some time ago, children had to be searched in the streets on a regular basis, but nowadays, people around Lulekani are interested in and informed about the project and many parents are bringing their children by themselves.
Since February 2004, the Day Care Center is integrated in the shelter, and the children living there are joining the programs of the Day Care center project as well.