Nellmapius Preschool Hub
“Pen has supported preschools like this for several years, but the ASAP sponsored toys have brought it to a new level.”
The front of the Nellmapius Preschool
Nellmapius is a poor neighborhood in the east of Pretoria.
Nellmapius Preschool Hub
July, 2021
Nellmapius is a poor neighborhood in the east of Pretoria. Along with the neighboring Mamelodi, it was set aside for non-white people under apartheid. The needs in these areas are huge, but there is much goodwill, capacity, and a willingness to improve their own circumstances. There are about 50 creches or in-home daycares in a 6-mile radius of the Phenyo Preschool in Nellmapius where 20-30 children may sit in front of a T.V. all day in one or two-room apartments while their mothers work, look for work or beg. There are no playgrounds or toys and caregivers typically lack the training to lay an educational foundation.
But this is where Pen’s Preschool Forum, and ASAP come in, to upgrade a preschool so it can serve as a Preschool Hub for local creches . Caregivers come to a Preschool Hub like Phenyo to receive weekly mentoring from PEN staff in early childhood education and to borrow toys from the Educational Toy Library sponsored by ASAP.
Pen has supported preschools like this for several years, but the ASAP sponsored toys have brought it to a new level. In the beginning the forum worked mainly in the inner city of Pretoria, and now outreach has spread to other areas such as Nellmapius and Mamelod.
But in order to do the work properly, the Preschool Forum needs a hub to include its own office, a room for the toy library, and space for training caregivers so they can become teachers! In Nellmapius they partnered with pastor Jacob Boshielo’s church, the Willow Manor Christian Centre, and the Phenyo Christian Centre, a preschool on the church’s property. Pen made an agreement with Phenyo and the church to use two rooms in the preschool building to establish a local hub of the Preschool Forum.
But it is strange how something like a leaking roof can become a stumbling block in an endeavor to further early child development.
Thanks to sponsorships from ASAP and to a lesser extent from Stella Street Congregation, a Dutch Reformed Church where most of the South Africa ASAP team worship, the roof could be repaired and the rooms renovated. The first phase of this work was completed July 21, 2021. Shelves, a cupboard, tables and other furniture will be installed in the next few weeks and then the educational toys will arrive.
Then the support of preschools in the area can really get going, and the educational foundation of cognitive, physical, social and emotional skills can be laid in the lives of the little children of the area. The dream is that they can build a solid education on the foundation laid, qualify for productive jobs, and lift themselves and their families out of the poverty they are in now.
As one ASAP team member commented, ”And this will all be because God brought people together - from the USA and South Africa, from different races and different languages, from different economic backgrounds - and made them channels of God’s love for the least and marginalized of society.”
A front view of the building which will house the office of the new Nellmapius Hub of Pen’s Pre-School Forum. The window on the left is the window of the room where the library of educational toys will be kept. The biggest part of the building, not used by Pen, houses a local pre-school, one of several in the area which will be supported by Pen’s Pre-School Forum.
The renovated room that wil be used as office of the Nelmapius Hub of Pen’s Pre-school Forum. Last touches are still being done here to the carpet and the skirtings. The cupboard and desks must then be installed. The people on the picture are from the left rev Fay van Eeden (minister at Stellastraat Congregation) and Rieneke Schutte, team leader of Pen’s Pre-School forum.
Marlese Nel (Asap’s South African representative and member of Stellastreet Congregation) give the thumbs up for the work on the roof of the building which wil house the office of the new Nellmapius Hub of Pen’s Pre-School Forum. The open window on the far right, is the window of the new hub’s office.
The repaired roof of the building which wil house the new office of the Nellmapius hub of Pen’s Pre-school Forum. it is properly sealed and waterproof to protect the office against the highveld thunderstorms that the summer brings.
A part of the South African team that take hands with ASAP in order to further early child development in poor communities. From the left they are Louise Jackson (chairperson of Stellastraat Congregation’s Outreach Ministry), Rieneke Schutte (Team leader of the PEN Pre-School forum), Prof Malan Nel of Stellastreet congregation), Marlese Nel (Asap’s South African representative and member of Stella Street Congregation) and Rev Fay van Eeden (Minister for the Outreach Ministry of Stella Street congregation.
Louise Jackson (chairperson of the outreach ministry of Stellastraat Congregation) on the left and rev Fay van Eeden (minister for outreach in Stellstraat) in the restored room that will be used as toy library for the new Nellmapius hub of Pen’s Pre-School Forum. The next step is to install shelves and to bring the educational toys that will be used to support several pre-schools in the area. Everything should be up and running by the middle of next month (August 2021).
“And this will all be because God brought people together - from the USA and South Africa, from different races and different languages, from different economic backgrounds - and made them channels of God’s love for the least and marginalized of society.”