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Our Mission is to provide a stimulating and nurturing environment that provides children with the opportunity to develop and grow in a developmentally appropriate environment.
Masakhane was established in the early 1990s to assist with the empowerment of women in this impoverished community. Administered and supported by Valley Development Project (VDP), the creche has grown into a preschool which now has a total of 126 children attending daily. The children aged 3 years to 6 years are cared for by 6 teaching staff assisted by volunteers, a cook, a cleaner and a gardener.
The beautiful school buildings, donated by the Rotary Club Cape of Goodhope, has plenty of space where children are allowed to play freely as they follow the daily programme. There are 6 cleasses: 2 for 3-4 year olds, 1 for 4-5 year olds and 3 Grade R classes.
The educators are all very conscientious and provide the best care and education by planning exciting activities for the young learners. In this way Masakhane has become a school of best practise and with ongoing staff training and development they plan to continue giving their very best. |
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In the early 1990s when the Noordhoek squatter area was still an illegal settlement, Valley Development Projects (VDP), an NGO operating in the community, established places of care using the local residents as staff. Initially Masakhane operated from Winnie Tsotso's shack, which was soon replaced by a corrugated iron structure and old shipping containers.
Over the years the staff became more skilled and empowered through in-service capacity building as well as formal training. Today we have three 3 fully qualified teachers and 3 still completing their studies. Zanele Bontshi, one of the early teachers, is now the principal.
In 2003 the local Cape of Good Hope Rotary Club, agreed to become VDP's development partner and sponsored a beautiful brick and mortar building with six classrooms. This enabled the centre to accommodate 126 children aged 3 to 6 years. With the help of local business people, notably Herbie Eichel of Fish Hoek Galley Restaurant, the school became a well-resourced centre and model to other educare facilities in the community. Herbie initially donated R25 000.00 for education equipment and went on to provide financial support for teaching staff and additional programmes.
The teaching medium at Masakhane had always been Xhosa as this is the mother tongue of the local residents. This however, meant that children who attended other primary schools in the area where the teaching medium was English, struggled to communicate. In order to facilitate the integration of children from Masiphumelele into the education system of the Valley, it was decided to introduce English as an additional language.
An appeal in the local media resulted in a number of enthusiastic volunteers who give their time to read and interact with the children and augment the work done by the teachers. School leavers, working as gap year volunteers work as classroom assistants, learning first hand what it is like to teach young children. Hopefully they will be inspired to become educare teachers themselves.
Masakhane has gone from strength to strength. What started as a simple creche in the early 1990s has flourished into a fully-fledged PreSchool registered with the Department of Education. Staff are extremely motivated and the results are evident in the children they teach.
Empowerment through Education Fund (E-T-E ) is now sponsoring promising graduates from Masakhane. The E-T-E Fund aims to sponsor the complete education, Grade 1 through tertiary education. Each year, approximately 5 children who exhibit the most talent, determination and potential will be selected by the teachers and E-T-E Board with the approval, support and consent of all parents.
The E-T-E Fund will pay for and monitor the education of each child, with a small contribution from their parents and from the schools to ensure the buy-in and full commitment of all parties.
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