ABOUT

EDUCARE MPAME

Our Story

Our Story

In 2019, Educare Mpame was established as an NPO (non-profit organization) and became a fixture in the community. 

Our Approach

Our Approach

Our preschool is multilingual. Education in rural governments schools is only in isiXhosa. Furthermore schools in Mpame..

Our Mission

Our Mission

To improve the standard of education in the Mpame area by creating creches for foundation education...

Our Team

Our Team

Meet the team that keeps the dream alive and kicking...

OUR STORY

How it all began

Throughout our professional lives, buzzing Cape Town was home base for us, Jean-Marie and Tony Robertson. Tony having a career as a Civil Engineer, I as a Personal Trainer. We’ve always loved to travel, and the Wild Coast had often been our destination. I have been involved in volunteer work in Cape Town specifically teaching early literacy.

It was on one of these trips that we came into contact with teachers from a local school in Mpame. There was no preschool yet. Initially helping with donating school materials and toys, the contact was intensified over the years. In 2016 the idea manifested itself:
 Why not retire to Mpame and help uplift the rural community, focussing on preschool education?

FIRST HUT

Initially we rented a huge round hut from a family in Mpame located in their homestead.  The views were magnificent but life was not without challenges.  We had no indoor plumbing or electricity and had to make use of an outside pit toilet.  Medical care, shopping, banking and other logistics are still a challenge as we live more than 4 hours away from a reasonable city. We made do but eventually built a shower block and flushing toilet as well as rigging up some indoor cold water plumbing.  In 2022 we managed to build our own beautiful small home.  We have a lovely veggie garden and grow a variety of veggies for eating.

Apart from the creches, we have built a very strong bond with a group of neighbouring kids that runs around in a little pack, visiting us everyday.  I try to expose them to many different experiences that would other wise not have been possible for them.  They visit us everyday and we bake and cook together.  On weekends we love to go swimming and picnicking at the rock pools close by.

Arrival

When we arrived in Mpame we soon realised that almost 90% of the village was illiterate. There is no high school in the village and kids have to travel far to attend one.  There is also a 95% unemployment rate and people mostly rely on government grants.

In the beginning, I worked as an assistant teacher for English literacy at the local Mpame Junior Secondary school but after a year realised that the focus of my working with young students lay elsewhere. We seized a key opportunity when the local chief suggested finishing the semi-built preschool buildings. With support from friends and a generous sponsor, we confidently built two new ECDC’s, securing a brighter future for the community’s children.

NPO ESTIABLISHED

Educare Mpame is a nonprofit company

The individual creches Little Flower and Sunshine are both independent in NPO which fall under the Educare Mpame umbrella

At the end of 2018 an ex South African Chris North who, lives in Australia and had a history as a childhood in Mpame, wanted to sponsor a child. It was suggested by Nelca Ganda a local resident that we should open a creche rather, as nothing existed in Mpame.  In February 2018 we opened the first creche Sunshine in a small rondaval in the Mdikana Township.

At the end of March, the non-profit company Educare Mpame South Africa, was registered with public benefit organization privileges. In August the head man asked if we would build another creche in the NqankanqaTownship, which we did. So, after six months with no experience and flying by the seats of our pants, we had two Creches running catering for approximately 45 children.

In July of 2021 the head lady asked if we would not like to take over the building of two partially build creches which had been standing for about 6 or 7 years. We said if we could raise the money we would, drawings were done, and a business plan was drawn up. With assistance from the Sausen and Warner families in Germany money was raised from Fly and Help and Engagement Global to build the new creches. The Sausen and Warner families formed a non-profit organization Bildungsforderung Transkie which continues to sponsor Educare.

Initially all monies were raised through family, friends and us. The first major sponsor we got was to build the two new crashes organised by Bildungsforderung Transkie. As time has gone on we have got further sponsorships from Cape Kalula Foundation, Echo Tanks, Investec, Solon Foundation, Bridge-edFoundation, The Lunchbox Fund and My School.

The monthly running cost for the two creches is R 26 000.00 for 52 children or R 500 per child.

In 2021 after a request to a Germen organization SES for some help in training teachers, Nikola Geiger was sent to Mpame to help. SES sends retired professionals around the world to help in projects. Nikola has a vast background in The Montessori method of teaching, which has been incorporated with traditional teaching methods and used daily.

We have seen the impact Educare Mpame has made in our very remote community.  Mainly in parents and children taking their education more seriously, going to school regularly and looking towards better schooling opportunities after leaving the creches.

Looking forward; in 2025 we will be opening another cresh in the Zwelitsha Township. We are also trying to find a way to make Educare Mpame sustainable going into the future. We’ve had meetings with various parties to discuss how this could be done so that we would be able to employ a manager in the next year, so that in a few years we will be able to take a small step backwards and have a more overview management style of the organisation and not so hands on.

ABOUT

Our Approach

Language of Learning and Teaching

Our preschool is multilingual. Education in rural governments schools is only in isiXhosa. Furthermore schools in Mpame teaches only up to grade 9.  After this, parents need to send their children to out-of-town schools, only if they have the funds.  Here they arrive with no English and therefore the failure rate is about 90%. We teach in both English and isiXhosa to give these children a better chance to of making a success at this transition.

Excellent Foundation

We wish to provide our community's children with a solid foundation in education.  Where there had been no preschool education before, we now aim to prepare our learners to be at the mainstream school entrance level when they leave our preschool.

What we Teach

As at every preschool, we teach numeracy and literacy.  But in a very rural community it is also necessary for us to teach our learners to respect each other, their teachers, their parents and the environment.  We teach good manners such as 'please' and 'thank you'.  We teach them not to litter.  We teach them not to hit each other and to treat their animals well. These basics seem normal to us, but are not always the norm in all cultures.

Meals

We currently serve one cooked meal a day. Our menu has grown and we now serve hot maize meal porridge, samp and beans, pap and spinach  and cooked rice with soya mince. Every day we include veggies from our wonderful veggie gardens. We also serve a glass of juice after play time.  This is often the only cooked meal our learners will receive in a day. 

Community Involvement

We wish to involve the local community as much as possible. We have the full support of the local headman and his council.  Sunshine and Little Flower each employs a teacher and a cook from the local community. 

Including the Parents

'In rural communities, parents often place all responsibility for their children's education on the teachers.  Most parents here have unbelievable survival skills and intuition, but not much formal education. We want to get our parents involved in this process and therefore we hold parent's workshops where we teach them strategies for getting involved at home, such as telling their children bedtime stories and reinforcing the principles we teach at school.

ABOUT

Our Mission

  • To improve the standard of education in the Mpame area by creating creches for foundation education.
  • To supply volunteer teachers to assist at the two schools in Mpame.
  • To create extramural activities for the upliftment of the youth of Mpame.

Our Aims & Goals

  • To create and maintain four creches in the Mpame area so that when learners attend pre-school, they will be on the equivalent level of the elite city areas of South Africa.
  • To construct accommodation for local and overseas volunteer teachers to come and assist with education at local schools in Mpame.
  • To offer extracurricular activities aimed at empowering and uplifting the youth in the community.
  • To identify and assist learners who could apply for scholarships at elite schools in
    South Africa after completion of their education in Grade Nine in Mpame.
ABOUT

Our Team

Prof. Leonie Viljoen
Director

Tony Robertson
Managing Director

Nomzamo "Zamoh" Sinono
Director Teacher

Jean-Marie Robertson
Head of Education

Nthombuzuko "Ntosh" Cobothi
Teacher

Namhla "Tinkerbell" Gosa
Assistant Teacher/Cook

Sponsor a Meal

Ensuring that we maintain healthy bright minds
Monthly Meal: R100/month (R1200/year)

Sponsor a Child

Full Sponsor: R500/month (R6000/year)
Portion Sponsor:'R200/month (R2400/year)

Sponsor a Teacher

Full Sponsor: R4500/month (R54,000/year)
Portion Sponsor: R500/month (R6000/year)

Sponsor a Garden

Monthly assistance: R100/month (R1200/year)