Crèche means Pre-school

Today, I went out to the crèches for the first time. Currently, SAEP is working with thirteen crèches in the township Phillipi outside of Cape Town. Phillipi is a black township established in the eighties after violence in a nearby township force residents out. Approximately, 110,000 people live in this relatively small area of land. You can read more about Phillipi and see a few pictures of the township at http://www.saep.org/TownshipConnection/index.htm. For those of you a little more number curious, like me, 2001 census statistics are at http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/stats/2001census/Documents/Philippi.htm. You can see that 60% of the township is unemployed and the vast majority of them live on less than R1600 per month, with an exchange rate of 7:1, that’s less than US$230.

Not all crèches are formal, registered pre-schools. Of the ones that SAEP works with, three are not yet registered with all of the different departments necessary to receive government subsidies. Thus, SAEP is working with these crèches to meet the necessary obligations to become registered. The rest of the crèches are registered, but face a variety of different issues from structural to personnel to supplies.

For all of the crèches, SAEP supplies E-pap, a highly nutritious porridge-like meal. It comes in a variety of flavors, including vanilla, strawberry, and banana. Most importantly, the children really like it. They eat it every morning for breakfast and then the crèche provides a lunch, which is supposed to include some fresh veggies.

This morning, we went to five of the crèches. Two are brand new to the program and are in the process of meeting the requirements to become registered. The others have been in the program longer, and one has grown and improved significantly.

The first crèche that we visited was Thandolwetu. This is a brand new crèche. It only has one room and one staff person, the principal. I don’t have any pictures of the structure, because the women that were there didn’t speak any English and I didn’t want to seem intrusive. The structure was very bare, not more than 10 by 5 feet, with a worn rug in the center of a concrete floor. There were a few toys. The principle was not there and she has no other staff, so there were two mothers watching the six children. There seemed to be no organized activity and essentially it was a babysitting facility. I make no judgment in this comment; it is made simply as a fact to show the different levels at which the crèches are. South Africa has Early Childhood Development standards, but at this point, at least in the townships, they are more like goals. Some crèches are better able to meet these standards, and part of what SAEP is hoping to do is facilitate the growth of these crèches so that they are really places of learning and not just babysitting.

The second facility was Qhama. It had two rooms into which the babies (0-2) and the older children (3-5) were divided. Immediately upon walking into the room with the younger children, I was swarmed and the children were saying a word that sounded like shäp, which is an informal hello, and grabbing my hand palm-to-palm and snapping our thumbs. While the younger children seemed to just be playing, the older children did seem to be engaged in an organized activity, which stopped when I entered the room. SAEP has been working with Qhama for awhile and has seen a few improvements. When the toilet at Qhama was first installed, it was just a toilet in the ground. Later the shack was built around it. The Qhama structure, like many crèches, is a large, used shipping container. When I say large, I mean the size of a mobile home. Qhama is two containers L-shaped, another crèche that we visited today, Noluthando, is two containers side-by-side, like a double-wide. SAEP has had some success in securing these containers to use as crèches, and hopefully, some of the new crèches will also be able to obtain them.

Kiddies Educare was the third crèche that we visited and it is also one of the new crèches. It was in much better condition than Thandolwetu, although the container that it is housed in has some roof leaking problems and was just the one room. I had the pleasure of meeting Margaret, the principal, and was very impressed with the conversation that she had with Isabel. She seemed very aware and able to express herself and her desires for her crèche. Kiddies also has had the good fortune of being adopted by the Forest School in Rosebank. The Forest School has collected donation items to give to Kiddies, as well as teamed a group of dads to go out to Phillipi to do some construction. Currently, they are in the planning and budgeting phase, but hopefully before too long they will be able to get some projects going.

The fourth crèche that we visited is the crèche that best exemplifies what SAEP is able to do when the principal is organized and motivated. Originally, this crèche, Qhamani, was a one room structure much like the other that we visited. But through the fundraising and coordinating efforts of SAEP, it is now a permanent brick-faced, two-story structure. The site that Qhamani is located now is the same site that the original structure stood. While their new building was being built, a temporary structure was built from the old building materials onto the back of the principal’s home. Two weeks ago, the children moved into the new building! The exterior and structural components are complete, but the inside is still pretty raw. Isabel is working on the fundraising to get the walls plastered and tiles on the floor now. Baby steps, it takes baby steps.

Finally, we went to Nolutando. Nolutando is the double-wide crèche, which used to be two containers pushed together. SAEP coordinated efforts to get the gap sealed so that it didn’t leak when it rained. Nolutando is also an example of why a motivated principal is such a critical element to the success of the crèche. At Nolutando, SAEP has had a difficult time getting the principal to engage, and so there has been far less improvement.

There were so many things going through my mind this morning as we visited these crèches. First, I kept looking at these beautiful children with their bright eyes and happy smiles, listening to their laughter, and wondering how any leader, any adult for that matter, could live a selfish life when there are children among us. If there are angels out there, I believe that they are in the souls of children. I wanted to hug each and every one of them and tell them that I would spend my life making it a better world for them. It’s not just poverty, although that is a desperate issue, but the face of the world in general. Greed. Corruption. Hatred. Violence. It will take all I’ve got and getting everyone I know involved too, but damn it, I’m going to leave this world better than when I came into it.

Second, I was thinking about the things I *really* do take for granted. Like toilets. It’s one thing to go camping, but an entirely different thing to not have access to one on a regular basis. It is going to be so important that I remember that there are no assumptions as I go through this evaluation process. Having toilets, a solid roof, space to play are assets for these crèches because they are certainly not guaranteed.

It was a beautiful, wonderful day and I can’t wait to head back out to Phillipi and really play with these darling children. I know that everyone is really excited about their projects, but I just can’t believe that you are going to have more fun that I will getting to play with babies!

I will close this post with an apology: I am sorry that these are so long, but it’s my record as well of my thoughts, reactions, and experiences. Please feel free to stop reading when you get bored.

Always,

Sarah