Imfundo Educare - Western Cape

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We live in a beautiful country, but the reality is that there are still too many people living below the bread line, in 3rd world country conditions. We may not be able to help the multitudes living in dire poverty circumstances, but we are endeavouring to try to improve the lives of some of those that need help out there. Besides providing food for impoverished communities, we want to make a lasting difference. It is important to us to do more just provide food; for if we stop providing food tomorrow, would we really have made any long-term difference? If we are to have any impact in future generations, we believe that it will be through education. When we looked at how we can have the most profound effect, we realized that we need to go back to the foundation years of a child’s life. By trying to assist an adult who has grown up in an impoverished community, we are only really treating the symptom...and not the cause. If we want to have an impact that will create a sustainable change in the future, we must go back to the foundation of a child’s development. For this reason we decided to concentrate our efforts on providing facilities that will give pre-schoolers a solid foundation. Early childhood development / education from age 3 or 4 has become an absolute necessity; children that start their school career without pre-school education, starts off, in grade 1, at a disadvantage. This handicap will follow the child through the years and eventually manifest in learning and behavioural problems. All too often these children are labelled ‘problem’ children, simply because they have never coped. It is hardly surprising that so many of these children drop out of school at a young age and opt to make a life begging on the streets. Whilst pre-school is vitally important, for all children, it has become a luxury. For the children living in informal settlements or impoverished communities, pre-schooling is a luxury that they can’t afford, and so the first time they enter an educational facility is at age 7, to start grade 1. We strongly believe that this is too late; as a child's brain develops rapidly during the first seven years of life. It is a time of rapid cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional and motor development. All boys and girls, of all races, have the same physical, mental, emotional and social needs; they all have the same capacity for learning. What happens if children are not mentally stimulated in their formative years? The absence of experiences that will stimulate the brain during critical periods can have a lasting impact. Critical periods are times when the brain is most ripe for the learning and acquisition of new skills. Let's consider vision as an example. We know that if a child does not focus one eye appropriately during the critical period of visual development (by 6 years of age) the child will never achieve normal vision in that eye. This happens because the brain was not stimulated during the critical period of visual development, there will be a lasting deficit. The young child mimics everything in the environment uncritically-not only the sounds of speech, the gestures of people, but also the attitudes and values of parents and peers. Sadly, and most often, the circumstances in impoverished communities are often tainted with alcohol & drug abuse by the adults; malnutrition is also very prevalent. It seems odd that we expect these children to flourish and function on the same level as children who have had early childhood development and good nutrition (physical development), when they get to grade 1. The foundation years of a youngster’s life sets the trend for their future outlook. We cannot reverse the effects of past generation’s, but we can be pro-active in having a positive impact on the next generation, by intervening and creating an alternative to what they are currently experiencing. For this reason, we are trying to bridge this gap for as many children as is possible, with the funding / sponsorship that is available to the Rolemodels Foundation. The IMFUNDO Educare Projects ~ The word ‘Imfundo’ is derived from the Nguni language and directly translated means ‘the acquisition of knowledge & education’. Three Imfundo Educare projects are currently functional in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and in the Western Cape. Together with the support of the RoleModels SA Titleholders / Contestants and kind volunteers, we need to continue initiating and sustaining more Imfundo Projects, so that we can reach as many children as possible. The only source of income for the foundation are the RoleModels SA pageants / events and donations from the community from time to time. Long term plans include an after-care / homework facilities, where these children can go to for assistance with homework & assignments. Often the parents of children in impoverished communities are illiterate or absent. It must be very difficult, or near to impossible, for these children to cope with the school curriculum and to achieve tasks set out by teachers, without support at home. For this reason the foundation must create a support structure, to keep children in school and to encourage them to complete grade 12. Furthermore, the plan is also to initiate Skills Development Centers, where school leavers can learn skills to create self-sustainability, eg. carpentry, sewing, agricultural, etc. The foundation has initiated an Agricultural project in Worcester, Western Cape, where we were able to rent a farm to grow crops on. The produce will help with the fresh food requirements at the Imfundo Educare facility in Worcester, whilst ultimately also providing training for school leavers in agricultural skills.