Education for underprivileged children, Cape Town

During the registration process it was discovered that extra work needs to be done to make the buildings more fire safe. Due to this safety factor we are currently unable to operate as usual. We are busy working with our project partners to ensure the building is to the correct standard so that we can be fully registered and provide a safe learning environment for all of the children. Once this has been established we will be back to continue the work the centre provides. Without your donations the children whose parents are unemployed or cannot afford school fees would hugely struggle.

This month GVI Cape Town said goodbye to Teaching Coordinator Melanie Welfare and Childcare Coordinator Tilda Christensson. Both of them played valuable roles within the Gordon’s Bay team and achieved a huge amount along the way.

Tilda came to Cape Town as a volunteer in September 2011. With her strong passion and enthusiasm she was welcomed to the staff team in January as Gordon’s Bay Childcare Coordinator. Tilda provided great support to our volunteers and built strong relationships with our project partners which within a short space of time helped her make a lot of progress at her project sites. One of her biggest achievements was a Construction Day at Grade R where she led a team of volunteers and staff to give the nursery building a colourful makeover.

Mel started with GVI in June 2010 in the Cape Town office before being drafted to the Gordon’s Bay field team in July 2011. As a trained teacher Mel brought a wealth of knowledge and initiated some great new programs for the ACJ Primary School. One of her greatest achievements was the planning and leading of the large Library project where the team of GVI staff and some volunteers renovated the unused space to transform it into a fully functioning library. The children and teachers have benefitted from it enormously. A great support to her colleagues, Mel will be dearly missed amongst the Cape Town team.

Mel and Tilda epitomise the passionate and dedicated people who work for GVI. Coming from different backgrounds and with varied experience, they are an example of how anyone with the heart and will to succeed can achieve so much.