GVI Cape Town, the GVI Charitable Trust and our project partners, Cynthia Isaacs and the Westlake Baptist Church have recently partnered in a very exciting and much needed venture with the opening of the Hope Edu-care Centre. This is a new pre-primary centre in the Westlake community which is entirely funded by the GVI Charitable Trust with the primary goal of getting kids off the street and into a positive, constructive environment.
The families don't have to pay anything for their children to attend which makes this nursery unique and not only do they receive a good foundation for future learning from positive role models they are also given at least two meals a day, which for some of the kids may be the only substantial nutritional meal they get. Last week one of the children who up until a month ago spent every day on the streets woke his mother up in the early hours and demanded she got him ready as he didn't want to be late for school!
Four members of the GVI Cape Town team will be leading as many willing participants as we can round up from the local community and volunteers in country at the time in running the Safari Half Marathon on the 2nd of May to raise extra funds for The Hope Edu-care Centre. If you or anyone you know will be in Cape Town with GVI at the time and are interested in joining in the fun please get in contact to find out more details. There are also smaller events such as a half marathon relay and 5k or 10k walks for those who are slightly less ambitious but equally enthusiastic to help.
We would all greatly appreciate any sponsorship or donations you may kindly wish to make, as would the people and children of Westlake. Money raised will go into developing the Hope Edu-care Centre into a bright, happy environment which the whole community can be proud of. If we raise the target of R10000 this will be allocated as follows: R2000 to decorate the interior and exterior of the main classroom building, R1500 to section off a dedciated play area for the kids and put down child-friendly wood chipping, R1500 to plant flowers and trees around the site and create a school garden and R5000 for the one thing any pre-school can't be without, a jungle gym! Anything we raise over the target will go towards building a second classroom container which will enable us to take even more kids off the streets.
GVI, our partners, the people of Westlake and the beautiful children would like to thank everyone who supports our cause and invite you to follow the runners and the Hope Centre's progress at http://gvisouthernafrica.blogspot.com/
