Our Goal

In 2010 Nelleke and I visited South Africa. During that trip we also visited the Mamello Community Crèche in the township Meloding, close to the town of Virginia. My uncle introduced us to the principal of this crèche, Emely Mgcamphalala (on the right in the picture). This crèche is a private initiative under the supervision of a "management committee". Daily about 160 children come to the crèche and are supervised by 4 teachers. There is governemental control of the quality of the teachers. The government also gives a small subsidy for daily meals for the children and pays the wages of the teachers. All other matters are left to private initiative. There are two ladies, who prepare the daily meals, one volunteer, and a gardener. Housing consists of an old caravan donated by the gold mines, which gives room to the office, a small kitchen and a classroom. It is in a rather poor condition and poorly protected against burglary.

There are four different age groups of children and they all get some basic education: Emely and the other teachers are all qualified teachers. There is a baby group, 2-3 year group, a 3-4 year group, and a 5-6 year group. After the fourth group, children go to the normal education system.
When the children go to sleep, they lie on the floor in two rooms. The building is made of corrugated iron and the floor is made of tamped earth, on some places covered with carpets. The building, is completely insufficient. The sanitary facilities consist of two toilets, one of which is currently broken.

The crèche is recognized as Community Creche, but except for the salaries for the teachers it receives no money from the government. For the rest, the "community" is to provide funding, but the contribution of parents often is not sufficient because of poverty and unemployment. Emely has asked us if we could help out and we hope to persuade people to donate money.

George M. Welling and Nelleke Bakker