Principal raises funds to fix educare after it was stripped bare

Calendar Tutor educare schools education School Uniform

Photo Credit: On File

The Nyanga Educare Centre was stripped bare and vandalised; the principal decided to launch a crowdfund to help open the school again.

Nyanga, South Africa (10 November 2020) – The Nyanga Educare Centre was left bare after it was broken into recently. The centre was a place where children were kept safe and educated, but due to it being so badly vandalised, that has been greatly affected.

The educare centre has set up a crowdfund in the hopes of repairing the damage and replacing everything that was stolen. They have eight teachers waiting to come back and hope to do so soon.

Nyanga Educare Centre has been serving young children and their families (0 – 6 years) in the impoverished township of Nyanga, Cape Town since the 1970s. In this time, they have enabled thousands of young children to receive early childhood development and get a strong start to their primary school education.

The Principal, Thembeka Rumbu, has been at the school since 1996 and leads a team of 8 teachers who are all certified ECD teachers. They serve 150 children and their families who pay R120 per month (babies R170) for their children to be cared for, 5 days per week with two nutritious meals a day.

“In early October, Principal of the Nyanga Educare Centre, Thembeka Rumbu arrived at the 50-year-old centre to find it stripped bare and badly vandalised. Thieves had smashed their way through the ceiling and stolen everything of value – such as cooking pots and utensils, the microwave, food, blankets and children’s mattresses. If that wasn’t bad enough, they also smashed all the toilets and basins and stole the plumbing. Devastated and distraught, Thembeka was forced to close the school and send away 150 parents and their children and babies.

With your help, we can restore and rebuild the Nyanga Educare Centre so that Thembeka and her team of 8 teachers can get back to caring for and teaching Nyanga’s children.

All funds raised will be used to repair the damage to the centre and replace the stolen equipment, mattresses, blankets, sanitiser and PPE.”

They hope to repair the school as soon as possible so all 150 children and babies can return. If you would like to help them get back on their feet, you can do so via the crowdfund here.