First-class Preschool Education for Children

Despite South Africa’s exemplary status on the African continent, broad sections of the population remain excluded from the country’s economic progress. Poverty and growing inequality are rampant, particularly in the poorer areas, the so-called townships. The economic crisis has also resulted in the loss of a large number of jobs. In particular, the many people without a school-leaving certificate or even completed training have no chance on the labour market. Unemployment is particularly high at around 70%, although on the other hand there is a lack of well-trained workers in the country. The hopelessness and lack of prospects in the townships lead to high crime and violence rates. Drug and alcohol abuse as well as prostitution are widespread.

There is also a lack of hygiene and medical care and thousands are infected with diseases such as HIV. The lack of access to good schools means that children and young people rarely find a way out of the local situation.

Many of the children are malnourished and exposed to local violence without protection. Most of their parents are illiterate and speak little or no English. There is a lack of educational infrastructure around the townships, so that the educational level of children living in townships lags two to three years behind that of other children. Without a good school education, however, the children have few career opportunities later on and so they often end up in the spiral of poverty, unemployment and crime.

In order to counteract the above-mentioned tendency of a lower educational level among children from poor districts, iThemba Pre-School focuses on high-quality early education for 83 children of the township aged between 3 and 6 years. They can then continue their education at the nearby iThemba primary school.

The pre-school relies on a holistic approach, which also leads to positive social developments: After all, learning to read, write and do arithmetic combined with positive role models and mutual respect has a great impact not only on the children but also on their families. For example, the school drop-out rate has already been significantly reduced and social behaviour has been positively influenced. The school also wants to contribute to more parents in the region recognising the value of school education and to a long-term reduction of violence in the township. Regular prevention trainings and behaviour in case of assaults and abuse help the children to protect themselves. But above all, the project wants to teach the children one thing: hope for a better future. The word iThemba, which comes from the Zulu language, means hope and is therefore perfectly suited to the school.

However, we still support many other projects in the region.
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