Breadline Africa donated a much-needed educational container classroom to help a Khayelitsha Educare centre comply with Governmental regulations.
Khayelitsha, South Africa (20 June 2022) – The Yibanathi Educare Centre, a pre-school in Monwabisi Park in Khayelitsha, started in 2004 and today looks after 135 young children with ages ranging from birth to five years old. They hoped to access government funding but found their classroom didn’t fit regulations.
To become registered with the Department of Basic Education, the school must provide safe and secure infrastructure. The principal, Phindeka Ndaza was hoping to have her beloved centre registered, but with metal shack structures used for the classrooms, kitchen and toilet facilities, the centre didn’t comply with the necessary safe infrastructure regulations.
Access to quality education remains a major social issue in South Africa and for many pre-schools operating in under-resourced communities, their primary financial resources are from private investors and aid from funding programmes run by non-profit organisations. These sources are important financial lifelines for pre-schools in poverty-stricken communities as many national budgets, including the Department of Basic Education, have been tightened to reallocate more funds towards Covid-19 relief.
With unsafe infrastructure and only two flushing toilets for the staff and children, the centre desperately needed an upgrade to be considered a safe and sanitary place to teach young children. CSI funding received from the Development Bank of Southern Africa, allowed Breadline Africa to provide a converted shipping container subdivided into a kitchen and toilet facility with two spacious classrooms – one 36m² prefabricated classroom and two joined converted 6m shipping containers were used to create an additional classroom for the children.
“At Breadline Africa, our decision to use shipping containers and prefabricated structures allows us to install classroom units that are safe, well-equipped, and compliant with all ECD and municipal health and safety standards. We have provided more than 850 infrastructure units and aim to reach 1,000 units benefitting more than 250,000 children by 2023. We appreciate the support of incredible organisations such as the Development Bank of Southern Africa who have funded these great changes at Yibanathi Educare Centre” says Marion Wagner, Breadline Africa’s director.
“We are thrilled with our new facilities and can’t thank the Development Bank of Southern Africa and Breadline Africa enough for not only providing a safe space for our children but supporting us to become registered,” says Ndaza.
“We are excited to have Breadline Africa as one of our CSI partners”, says Sebolelo Matsoso, Head of Communications and Marketing at the DBSA. “Khayelitsha, like many other similar communities, faces numerous challenges, and these new facilities for Yibanathi Educare Centre will go a long way toward establishing and shaping the children’s foundation and future”, concludes Matsoso.
850 Educational Structures since 1993
Breadline Africa, one of the biggest suppliers of converted shipping containers for poverty relief in Southern Africa, has provided more than 850 educational infrastructure facilities to poverty-stricken communities since its establishment in 1993.
The South African-based non-profit organisation believes that every child has the capacity to do something amazing with his or her life. When a child’s imagination is unlocked, possibilities are opened up, allowing them to choose a path for their own future.
Breadline Africa enables this journey by providing initiatives and infrastructure to support childhood development in Southern Africa. The renovated containers and prefabricated units are used as early childhood development centres (pre-schools), classrooms, kitchens, toilet blocks and primary school libraries and feeding kitchens.