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The Vita Brevis Foundation aims at improving living conditions of various groups living in Africa.
It intends to realize this aim by:

care and crisis centres for children faced with difficult family situations;
practical education and training for young people living in poverty, so as to provide them with income-earning opportunities. Self-help and development of competencies are the key approaches to achieve this;
construction or renovation of accommodation to organize these activities;
In addition, the Foundation pursues its aims by providing information, by initiating new projects and events, and by raising and providing funds for locally-developed projects and agencies. Local authorities and agencies are encouraged to take part in this work as much as possible.

FRANKENSLAG 382, 2582 JC DEN HAAG, THE NETHERLANDS

The initiative to create this foundation was taken by Ms. Zwaantje Kortleven in September 2007. She invited Mr Harry Bemelmans and Ms Ankie Kortlang as members of the board and to work together with her.

Origin: In 2005 Ms. Kortleven assisted a number of youth from Philippi Township in Cape Town to find their way to post-secondary education through coaching of their competencies.

Furthermore she provided coaching to the principals of child-care centres of the same township. She did this as a volunteer of the South African Education and Environment Project in Cape Town (www.saep.org) . This organization aims at improving the social and economic conditions poor people in the township by actively involving them.

Photo 1 Ms. Kortleven coaching the child-care centre principals in computer skills.

In 2006 Ms. Kortleven decided to renovate or rebuild, in cooperation with SAEP, a number of day-care centres in Philippi Township. Together with Ankie Kortlang she started raising funds for this purpose and developed a major project.

Without the involvement of Harry Bemelmans , director from a vocational training school Amsterdam, The Netherlands (ROC Amsterdam), who sent trainees and teachers to built the crèche ,as well as a building construction firm called Veerhuis (Volendam, The Netherlands) who provided an innovative construction method for the project, the day-care centre would not have been realised. Youth from the township itself actively contributed to the construction.

Besides the building firm Veerhuis and other Dutch builders a contribution was made available by Cordaid in The Hague. Building materials not available locally were shipped by container by the various Dutch firms and organizations. The cost of shipping those was underwritten by a Japanese shipping enterprise.

The first child day-care centre, Zamukhanyo Educare, was completed in April 2007.

Photo 2 The old crèche building.

Photo 3 The new crèche building.

Agencies other than SAEP are now requesting assistance to improve township living conditions, including outside Cape Town, and to have workshops, child day-care centres and training centres constructed to cater for poor people in townships.

This led to the creation of the VITA BREVIS Foundation.

The Board of the Foundation is composed of:

Ms. Zwaantje Kortleven, Chairperson
    Frankenslag 382
    2582 JB Den Haag
    The Netherlands

   Mr. Harrie Bemelmans, Secretary
   Gerrit van der Veenstraat 161
   1077 EA Amsterdam
   The Netherlands

Ms. Ankie Kortlang, Treasurer
   Van Slingelandtstraat 4
   2582 XP Den Haag
   The Netherlands

The Foundation is registered with the Chamber of Commerce in The Hague, The Netherlands, as Stichting Vita Brevis Foundation The Netherlands.

Bank: INGbank Scheveningen
Bankaccount: 65 12 74 265

In Cape Town the Foundation cooperates with SAEP.