A little more about the Bhongolethu Foundation:

(source – https://wecanchange.co.za/ngo-npo/bongolwethu-foundation)

The Bhongolethu Foundation is an Early Childhood Development (ECD) school that is based in the township of Masiphumelele, which means ‘we will succeed’. Life is hard for its residents as they face a litany of problems including a severe lack of infrastructure and healthcare, an absence of law enforcement despite prevalent crime, and a desperate need for more accessible schools for children in the community. The City of Cape Town mayoral committee confirms that Masiphumelele remains one of the city’s most vulnerable communities in terms of the Socio-Economic Status (SES) Index. Given this environment ECD programs are critical to providing children with best possible foundation from which they can develop and grow considering the challenges they will face in life. We are working to make education a positive and possible experience for children in the Masiphumelele region. 

Bhongolethu offers the community access to an affordable and quality driven education that provides children a creative, stimulating, and encouraging  environment in which they can thrive. At Bhongolethu’s ECD School, we acknowledge that the child’s first six years are critical for the development of the brain and language as well as their physical, social, and emotional growth.

The environment we have created provides children with a safe and nurturing education full of rich opportunities to learn. We provide a diverse, multicultural, and non-discriminating approach, where differing needs and abilities are not only respected but valued within inclusive curriculum. This creates an emotionally secure environment that is conductive to learning.

Bhongolethu’s overarching objective is to provide Early Childhood Development education, whilst maintaining a specific preference for those disadvantaged or adversely affected by financial constraints, educational impediments, learning disabilities,inequality, or patterns of abuse. It plans to open a new class yearly until we reach our goal of educating children from Foundation to Intermediate (Grade 7).

Bhongolethu’s secondary objective is to address its learners’ individual needs by diminishing their identified disadvantage by creating opportunity for development using a progressive educational syllabus in conjunction with the standardmaterial.

Our Approach:

• Provide a diverse, multicultural and absolutely non-discriminatory approach, where diversity is valued and a closely held principle; 
• Offer a safe place of instruction for its learners that protects both their physical and emotional welfare; 
• Deliver education that will address the individual needs and enhance the lives of its learners, their parents, and their communities;
• Provide remedial lessons for its children with impediments to learning
• Support children through mentoring and other activities and programs; 
• Offer affordable education through a fee structure that seeks the maximum achievement of its objectives and that is decided on an equitable basis taking into account any socio-economic disadvantage.

Projects:

• Learn2Swim ~ to teach the children the fundamental skills of swimming over a 12-week period.
• Halthy Heart Lunch Program ~ to address gaps in the children’s nutritional patterns.
• Food Forests ~ the development of a vegetable garden on the school grounds.
• Junior Jive Music Program ~ a music and movement program for the children operated by Junior Jive, helping to develop their whole brain, and addressing learning barriers in the developmental stages, when it’s easier to overcome.
• Teacher Workshops ~ commitment to continual growth and development of our teaching staff makes them more effective at their job and provide the children with the best possible learning experience.