Cape Town - Visitors to the V&A Waterfront can visit an early childhood development centre.
The pop-up centre, consisting of two brightly coloured converted shipping containers at the Clock Tower Precinct, is aimed at raising awareness of early childhood development centres, said Breadline Africa programme director Puleng Phooko.
One of the containers has been converted into a classroom and the other into a kitchen.
The NGO specialises in renovating disused shipping containers, which are then used for educare centres, libraries and other purposes. Two hundred containers have been supplied since 1993.
“Many women start early childhood development centres at their homes. If they don’t have the right infrastructure, they can’t always access the resources they need.”
She said parents often couldn’t pay to send their children to the centres and many centres struggled.
Phooko said a centre in Khayelitsha called Masande would eventually get the containers.
Masande’s existing premises leak in the rain and educational material is limited.
The containers, which were erected in partnership with the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, will be open to visitors until July 18, Mandela Day, and volunteers are on site to brief them.
The two containers as well as two others, to be converted into a classroom and an ablution block, will be presented to Masande on July 18.
Phooko said children from Joe Slovo would visit the container as well as other sites at the V&A Waterfront during this period.
People can also make donations of blankets, toys or other education material for children up to 6 years old at the containers.
“We have found that many children don’t have blankets at their schools,” Phooko said.
Cape Argus