Pre-school in a shack settlement in Cape Town, South Africa https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/proposals-2012/pre-school-in-a-shack-settlement-in-cape-town-south-africa https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/@@site-logo/sitelogo-75x75.png

Pre-school in a shack settlement in Cape Town, South Africa

Additional Information
Used for	Your contribution will be used to fund the operations of the QQ Section Community Crèche, a preschool which provides the only affordable care for young children in the shack settlement of QQ Section in Cape Town, South Africa. The residents of QQ section each pitched in what they could to build the preschool representing a huge collective commitment to uplifting their own children. A grant of $15,000, enough to fund the preschool for an entire year, would be used specifically to provide early childcare development training, pay salaries for the preschool teachers, buy educational materials, provide nutritious meals for all the 45 children who attend the preschool and finally to achieve a much needed expansion of the preschool structure.
Benefits	QQ Section Community Crèche is a shining example of self-organised communities pulling together the little they have to take ownership of the development process and address the needs of their most vulnerable members. CHOSA works alongside the democratically elected Children’s Committee to provide the necessary resources to keep the crèche functioning and the children off the streets. While the children will benefit from educational programming and a warm meal, the community as a whole will learn how to organise themselves in such a way that they will be able to address further developmental issues themselves rather than merely becoming reliant on outsiders for handouts and developmental expertise.
Proposal Description	CHOSA’s mission is to identify and support communities and community based organizations (CBOs) that reach out and take care of orphans and other vulnerable children in South Africa. CHOSA takes a holistic and non-directive approach to community development which helps empower other marginalized people in these communities. Moreover, through community participation and ownership of the development process, CHOSA promotes local action, self-empowerment, and peer-to-peer networking as essential strategies for community-driven development. We do this by providing five major services to the projects with whom we partner: * Once-off grants * Ongoing grants * Capacity building * Networking * After School Programs Driven by the principle that communities should own their development process (see our Code of Ethics attached), we provide our partners with unrestricted funding and a supportive relationship that promotes autonomous decision-making. CHOSA's unique non-directive approach to development seeks to enable communities like QQ Section to take charge of the development process. CHOSA will provide the necessary support and training on the ground in Cape Town to make sure community leaders in QQ Section are accountable for every penny they spend. At the same time, however, by enabling the community to decide for themselves how funds should be spent, the community learns essential development tools such as self-organising, independent budgeting and how to make decisions that will ensure the best results for their children. QQ Section Community Crèche is not only a daycare and preschool for the informal settlement’s most vulnerable children, it also serves as the main meeting place and gathering area for the entire community of 660 households. The preschool is a symbol of hope and self-empowerment where the people themselves take charge of the development process in order to transform their lives. The grant will thus benefit both the children and the community at large. Since preschool in South Africa is not funded by the government, the poorest children have very limited educational opportunities. The early childhood education that the crèche provides for the children is vital to their future welbeing. Children growing up without essential nutrients will always be handicapped in the classroom. Thus, the nutritious breakfast and lunch that preschool teachers cook for all the children is necessary to counteract the sever instances of malnutrition in the community thereby enabling the children to absorb what they learn in the classroom. In addition, the training and salaries provided to the preschool teachers creates jobs in a struggling community and equips community members with skills that they will be able to use not only in their careers but also with future developmental initiatives inside their community. While teachers will be sent to a Early Childhood Development trainings, CHOSA itself will conduct suplementary trainings and workshops on financial management, democratic community governance, children's rights and how to identify and support children with special needs. A grant of $15,000, coupled with money raised from within the QQ Section community, is enough to fund the preschool for an entire year. The funding will be sent from CHOSA to the executive children's committee of QQ Section on a monthly basis and used specifically to provide the following: * Enrollment for teachers in Early childcare development training courses * Pay the salaries of preschool teachers * Buy much needed educational materials for the children * Provide nutritious meals for all 45 children who attend the preschool on a daily basis * With the leftover funding (approximately $3,000) not used for monthly costs, the preschool structure, recently rebuilt after a massive fire, will be expanded. Currently, the preschool is only two small classrooms and an adjacent kitchen. A third classroom for the oldest children preparing for 1st Grade as well as an office to hold documents and store material, are essential needs for the future effectiveness of the preschool. For more information on CHOSA, please check out our website at www.chosa.org and our blog at www.chosablog.wordpress.com For more information about our work with QQ Section shack settlement, including the devistating fire and how the community has responded possitively to it, please check out this link: www.chosablog.wordpress.com/?s=QQ+Section Photographs are also available upon request. If there are questions about the submission or further requests for information about CHOSA and the work we do, please do not hesitated to contact Jared Sacks via email: jsacks@chosa.org. Alternatively, you can contact Ellie Gunderson via email or phone: ellie@chosa.org or 734-757-3913