New, Big Ikhaya Labantwana Montessori getting ready to open…….

The days are drawing near….. very near….. to the opening of the New, Big Ikhaya Labantwana Montessori Early Learning Centre!!

It has been go go go since June last year and thanks to Luke and his building team, we will be moving out of our 5m rondawel into our beautiful, new building on 8 April 2013 🙂

Registrations for children for the new Early Learning Centre took place in early February this year and it was a very interesting week.  The new ILM will have 60 young, local children attending and all these children will be getting a solid Montessori foundation guided in both English and isiXhosa, as well as 2 healthy meals per day.

We have 12 local ladies who will start their Montessori Early Childhood Development training in May this year.  It is an NQF Level 5 accredited diploma and the training will take place over 2 years.  These ladies come from eight surrounding villages and they are all very keen to open Montessori pre-schools in their own villages.  ILM will be working closely with these ladies and we would really like to assist them to open their own pre-schools, so that many more young, rural children have the opportunity of building a solid foundation, which will assist them with all later learning and life skills.  The training is being largely sponsored and conducted by the Montessori Centre South Africa www.montessorisa.co.za  and we are extremely grateful to them for their amazing support of our project, thank you!!!

The new Early Learning Centre is going to need alot of support to sustain it and we have been working closely with the Department of Social Development in Mthatha, to try and secure their subsidy.  The bosses came down to check out out project and we took them around Coffee Bay in true Transkei style ……beer crates on a the back of a bakkie!  But it’s great to the see the lengths the Department will go to, to check out a project.  Thank you Mrs Titus, Mrs Jamda, Nesh and Ms Luchiti!

The Ikhaya Labantwana rondawel has stayed a hive of happiness, development and activity and unfortunately at the end  of 2012, we had to bid farewell to 6 of our children, who all went onto ‘big school’ and who I believe are doing very well 🙂

The children that stayed behind at ILM are all styling in their development and progress and they are very excited about going to their new school, that will have a flat floor, where the cylinders don’t fall over!  Check out what our children are up to inside the little rondawel.

The end of 2012 brought many kind people into ILM’s life and we would like to thank the following people for their financial generosity – Martin Berner from Germany, Anglo Gold Ashanti, Thermaire Investments from Durban and Mrs Iza Schurman and her class 5D from Hamburg in Germany. We would also like to thank Everite Building Products and  Group Five www.everite.co.za for the wonderful Red Roof that they donated for the new ILM – we really appreciate this!

Thanks a million to Bas and Andrea Van Stenis for the large amount of wonderful paper and cardboard which you donated to us and which you drove to us all the way from Cape Town – happy drawing and painting days for months to come 🙂

A special thank you must be given to our good friends, Jakob and Bruun from Stichting Obonto in Holland.  I am not quite sure where we would be without their support and continued fundraising efforts – you guys are stars!   Check out their good work at http://stichtingobonto.webnode.nl/

A large number of children at the new ILM are needing sponsorship, so if anyone out there would like to play a part in changing the future of a young rural child, for  just R300 per month, please feel free to contact me at happydays@sustainablecoffeebay.org.za

Wishing you all a very happy and blessed Easter!

Dawn and the abantwanas

P.S    We are still looking for a 2nd Montessori Directress to join us at the new ILM.  Please contact Dawn at the above email address……..spread the word!!!!