Vredenburg Children's Project
Every child has a right to education. We all believe in and propound this truth. And yet in South Africa, many children are not accessing this basic right. Daily, these children face enormous challenges, many of them living in dire circumstances.
It is not surprising that their progress at school is affected. In some cases, they may not even have been able to go to school. Vredenburg Children’s Project was born out of a serious concern about out-of-school children – children who have never been to school and children who have dropped out of school prematurely.
How does the Vredenburg Children’s Project make a difference in education?
Vredenburg Children’s Project focusses mainly on the right of all children to access education. We looked at children who have dropped out of school or who have never accessed schooling. We understood that risk as well as protective factors exist both within individuals, and across the various settings in which they live, e.g. family, peer group, school and community. We also focussed on children with disabilities who are often excluded from or not able to benefit fully from education. We saw how they were, in many instances, doubly disadvantaged by circumstances in their homes, communities and the broader society. Efforts to prevent or remedy school and educational exclusion need to target all the different layers of the child’s ecosystem.
What are the challenges the Vredenburg Children’s Project are currently facing?
The main challenges the Vredenburg Children’s Project are facing is poverty (where number of households with no income = 2060) and unemployment, negative attitude of the community towards children with special needs, problems with the care dependency grant, lack of information, inclusion into mainstream schools, concern about future employment for these children, racial conflict and tension, community is not disability-friendly and lack of municipal services.
How can these challenges be overcome?
We decided to implement the project in two phases. The first phase has two main focuses, the first is to gain a greater understanding of both the nature and the extent of the problem of out-of-school and vulnerable young children in the Vredenburg community. The second focus is to identify existing and potential resources and services in the community which could support these children. The first phase culminates in the drafting of this report to be used as a basis for further planning and action.
The second phase of the project is to be an “action” phase with the focus on mobilising and capacitating a network of role-players at all levels who can join hands to support the inclusion of all children in educational settings. Working within a developmental paradigm, we are endeavouring to build partnerships with local role-players and to promote local ownership of the project. This, we believe, is crucial to the sustainability of the Vredenburg Children’s Project.
Why is the Vredenburg Children’s Project so successful?
The children’s project is so successful because it targets the problems within the community first before implementing a solution. This way integration of children with special needs into the community and schools are easier and more accepted. One of our guiding principles is to ensure that we work in partnership with the community of Vredenburg with the aim of promoting local ownership of the project. As we have gradually got to know key role players in the community, we have increasingly been able to consult them in the planning for the project.
