Cape Town - A small educare centre in Khayelitsha has become the latest project to showcase an affordable innovation for early childhood development.
The crèche, known as Masande, had a leaking roof, no flushing toilets, and insufficient learning materials for its 42 children, but earlier this week, it got a new lease of life as four recycled shipping containers – redone as two classrooms, a kitchen and an ablution block – were installed by poverty relief organisation Breadline Africa.
After sailing the seas in their former life, the shipping containers stood at the V&A Waterfront as a “pop-up crèche” which showed the potential that disused containers had if they were repurposed as places of safety and learning for small children.
They were then donated to Masande which will now be their permanent home.
Ntombentsha Sobekwa, manager of Masande, said: “When I started the centre, conditions were very bad and time after time I was promised help, but nothing ever came of it. A huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders – finally, a promise delivered.”
Sobekwa was a community health worker for 15 years, and during that time, as she went from door to door offering assistance, she encountered many children “affected by and infected with HIV, tuberculosis, sexual abuse and neglect”.
In January 2009, she opened the crèche as a way of trying to alleviate the situation.
Programme director for Breadline Africa Puleng Phooko says: “It is so inspiring to support an individual who is making a difference in the lives of children who are exposed to dreadful conditions and who come from heartbreaking circumstances. As a team we are more than thrilled to be supporting Ntombentsha and ultimately the community in this way.”
During the containers’ life as a pop-up crèche, collections made during Mandela month resulted in a supply of blankets, books, and educational and developmental learning materials. A day after the crèche was fitted with the containers, a library – also made from an upcycled shipping container – was installed at Pondo Combined School in Limpopo by Breadline Africa.
Other facilities made from upcycled containers by the organisation have included sports club change rooms, health clinics, stand-alone ablution blocks, libraries, and media centres in school.
Cape Times