Kiddies Educare Centre is run by Margaret Makhafola, a principal who has attained levels 4, 5 and 6 through courses at Cape College. When Margaret migrated to Cape Town from Pretoria she learned Xhosa, and she now speaks several of South Africa’s national languages, including English. Her experience and education has been enormously useful in the running of her centre which now caters for over 40 children and is staffed by two teachers. The centre was founded in 1999.

SAEP was approached at the end of 2007 by a Bridging Year Intern who lives next door to the crèche. She saw that Kiddies Educare was in need of further support, and could benefit from SAEP’s services. The centre is very basic and in need of renovation, and is built on the grounds of the principal’s home. It is too small to comfortably accommodate the number of children it serves, and would need massive expansions if it were to take on additional learners. Kiddies keeps comprehensive financial records and is successful in collecting fees from parents. Margaret wishes to have her staff trained in various courses, however many training programmes require attendees to have attained a grade 12 education, which the majority of her teachers have not completed.

Kiddies was lucky to have begun a collaboration with the Forres Pre-Primary School in Rondebosch, which has offered regular donations of money, toys and supplies to the centre and has begun to work closely in a mentorship position. Teachers, parents and children have been heavily involved in fundraising and visiting the crèche. To read more about Forres and Kiddies, click here.