ECD School in South Africa

The Rotary Club of Swellendam, South Africa is looking for an International Partner for a grant to support a local, disadvantaged community with a new Early Childhood Development School (ECD). This school will provide classrooms for up to 150 young children. The Club has found funds locally to erect the shell of the school, but they are in need of funds to fit out the school with a kitchen and toilet block.  Anyone interested should contact Marshall Schmitt (mjschmitt@michaelbest.com) , who can provide a more detailed description of the project, or Nigel Coley (nigelcoley@gmail.com), who is a member of the Swellendam Club looking for help.

Project/Programme motivation

Swellendam Rotary Club was approached by the Executive Mayor of Swellendam in October 2022 with a proposal that Swellendam RC should facilitate and enable a crèche and preschool to be built in the Rondomskrik area of Railton.  This area contains some 700 households and is being expanded with the addition of a further 300 homes in 2023 and 600 more 2024.  There are no crèche or preschool facilities in the area and children must be taxied to and from facilities in other parts of town.  These are themselves under pressure and have waiting lists. The provision of preschool facilities in Rondomskrik is in the Swellendam Municipal Integrated Development Plan which enables the Municipality to assist in the provision of land and services.

The Rondomskrik area of Railton is a very poor community where most of the inhabitants qualify for All Pay assistance.  The families living there do not have spare money to transport their young children to preschools and crèches at the other side of town. This lack of mental stimulation opportunities for preschool age children results in high failure rates at primary and secondary education and a large problem with truancy. Less than half of the children from this area achieve matriculation at grade 12. The Early Childhood Development Centre will help to reduce these shortcomings and offer children a better chance of completing their schooling successfully. The families living in this area are fully supportive of the initiative to provide Early Childhood Development facilities, as can be seen from the results of a community survey initiated by the Swellendam Rotary Club and the Swellendam municipality.

The project will provide up to 150 places for creche and preschool age children to prepare for Grade R classes at primary school, following the prescribed Department of Education curriculum and Department of Social Development guidelines. It will also provide permanent full-time jobs for 8 teachers and training opportunities for them to improve their qualifications. There will also be 3 part-time jobs provided for less skilled inhabitants.  These jobs are desperately needed in the community. There will also be opportunities to utilize the building for adult literacy and numeracy courses with further opportunities for part-time teaching posts. The Department of Health in Swellendam has also expressed interest in using the building for regular health outreach sessions.

Since beginning the project in 2023, Swellendam Rotary club has achieved the following

1. Successfully bid for and purchased ERF7106 in the centre of Rondomskrik Railton Swellendam. The Title is currently with the Land registry for registration of the title deed. There is a serious backlog.
2. Established a charitable trust registered with the Master of the High Court, the Swellendam Rotary School Trust (registration number IT000952/20239C0) which will own the land and buildings on behalf of the children of Railton, maintain the site, establish and appoint a Board of Governors for the school and oversee the financial management of the school.
3. Applied for and received Planning Permission to build the School, cleared the site, and completed the engineering survey.
4. Completed Phase 1 of the build, which is the main building structure, outside walls, roof, windows and doors through a corporate grant of R1.6million. See pictures below.

The second phase of the build is awaiting further funding,  which we hope will be provided by Lotto.  Swellendam Rotary club, in partnership with other Rotary Clubs worldwide and the Rotary Foundation will provide training and equipment for the school and teachers to comply with the requirements of the Department of Education, which will provide a daily stipend to fund the day to day running of the school.  The Swellendam Rotary School Trust will partner with additional funding sources, such as Pick and Pay, Inceba, Cipla and others to maintain the school and ensure its sustainability.  A school food garden will be established to help to feed the children and the poorest in the community on a sustainable basis which will also provide opportunities for employment and maintenance funding.  The Rotary club of Swellendam has already established 2 sustainable community food gardens over the last 3 years which are operating successfully and independently.

The Rotary Club of Swellendam has a track record of sustainable projects.  It established and facilitated the construction of the Rotary Park Retirement village in Swellendam in the 1990s, which is now fully independent and has 130 houses, a frail care facility and Community Centre.