Qhamani Educare is run by Nokhaya Manxiwa-Nqeza, an exemplary principal whose contributions to her community were acknowledged in 2004 when she was nominated for South Africa’s Woman of Worth Award, and selected as one of the finalists. Nokhaya has been an active member of the Safety Unity Crèche Forum for a number of years, and advocated on behalf of Philippi’s educare centres by addressing a Parliamentary Committee regarding the importance of early childhood development in 2005. That year she also appeared on a national television programme, encouraging the government and donors to commit more money for pre-school education. 

Nokhaya and her staff of six have sought out training and have found fundraising seminars to be particularly useful, in addition to information on child development. Nokhaya has received computer training and continues to be tutored in this by SAEP, and has participated in lessons on financial management to improve her record keeping capabilities. Qhamani has housed a number of SAEP volunteers over the years, a situation that both the volunteers and Qhamani’s staff have profited from.

Qhamani currently cares for approximately 105 children. The building of Qhamani’s new structure is SAEP’s success story of 2008, as it saw the conclusion of a year’s worth of hard work and dedication from the Qhamani community, SAEP staff, volunteers and numerous donors. Completing the structure is to date, the most challenging and biggest building project ever undertaken by SAEP. Many individuals and organizations contributed funds, and the work began on Do It Day 2007 when JDI and Greater Good SA sponsored the demolition of the old structure under the supervision of Isabel Babenschneider and the help of Johan Pauw, a Dutch building volunteer. Over the next year, Qhamani became a double-storey brick building with three large classrooms, a kitchen, an office, sickbay, caretaker’s room and toilet facilities. Funds for the building were contributed by Wings of Support, Commundo and Impulsis, JDI, Dingo Marshall, Quakers, Cape Gate, Wharton School, Nussbaum Foundation, Friends of Isabel Babenschneider, and Imtech Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG.

A tremendous amount of organization and management was contributed by Isabel Babenschneider who oversaw the fundraising and building, with the help of all the volunteers who participated in this momentous project. Thank you to everyone involved!