By Philda Essop
Almost 2 000 children in Delft spend their days in overcrowded and dangerous conditions in illegal crèches - and some of them are left playing around open gas cookers.
A pilot study by the Western Cape department of social services and poverty alleviation revealed that a number of illegal crèches are being operated out of small Reconstruction and Development Programme houses in this impoverished community.
In some of them, up to 30 children are crammed into a small room.
The department believes the situation is similar in other areas across the city and the province.
Last week, a six-month-old baby burnt to death after an open-flame stove fell over in such a crèches in Delft.
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The report indicates that 1 871 children, ranging from small babies to pupils requiring afterschool care, are looked after in these informal facilities.
Of the 33 crèches visited, 24 were unregistered.
Major concerns raised by the report include:
Many teachers who have several years' experience in caring for children lack training.
The teacher/child ratio is lower than the minimum standard.
There is not enough space and accommodation.
Children are packed into small rooms.
Health hazards and dangerous conditions include children playing around open gas stoves.
Most facilities operate from small RDP houses, Wendy houses, containers or garages.
Illegal creches, which occur in all Delft areas, are most prevalent in Delft South, which has 11 unregistered crèches.
Seventeen crèches are being registered while the rest have consulted neither local authorities nor the department of social services for advice or guidance.
Of all the Delft facilities, 24 indicated that staff had received some form of training. The rest relied on experience in working with children, the investigation found.
Sharon Follentine of the department told the Cape Argus their biggest concern was to ensure that most children had access to early childhood development.
"People set up a crèche not necessarily to provide a service, but to make money. These are the people not coming forward to the department. Very often they do not know there are legal requirements."
She suspects that the problem is much wider than the Delft area.
"My hunch is that it is happening all over the city and the province. I think it's a national problem."
"We will roll out the process in other areas so that we can get a provincial picture. We are assisting 375 facilities to get registration, 726 are already registered and funded, while 143 are registered and in the process of getting funding," said Follentine.
The department would draw up a plan for unregistered crèches.
"Every child we lose as a result of risk is unnecessary. With appropriate training one can eliminate many of the risk factors.
"It is a health hazard to cram a lot of children into a small area, not having a fire extinguisher, access to water, an evacuation plan and simple things like first-aid kits. Cramming many children into a small space is not conducive to learning - it's only containment of children," said Follentine.
The second phase of the investigation will include the development of an implementation plan which will focus on capacity building and infrastructure development.
- This article was originally published on page 3 of Cape Argus on August 25, 2005
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