New school, church for Villa Gloria residents
Villa Gloria residents can now rest assured when going out to work every morning as their little ones will be safe at the new Ministry of Hope preschool.
The Ministry of Hope hit the ground running in Krugersdorp and has been helping the destitute from day one.
Early in 2020, Deon Bresler and Erika Swart started helping the Villa Gloria commune for the destitute by repairing and refurbishing the home where they could, and helping the families with food and other necessities. Next on their to-do list was fixing the little school with its dilapidated classrooms on the grounds near the commune.
Ministry of Hope wanted to provide the preschool children on the premises with quality education and a safe environment during the day while their parents were out doing odd jobs or panhandling in town.
On Saturday, 12 September, Deon and Erika opened the upgraded school with some fanfare. The open-day activities boasted a jumping castle, lots of games on the school’s playground, a beauty pageant, and food and drinks for the Villa Gloria residents and visitors.
The Lord gave us a vision that this school would be a lighthouse in Krugersdorp. We opened the school with R3,35 in our pockets, literally!” Deon started.
Today, they are able to pay their staff a small salary of about R1 000. They explained that the lockdown has been especially difficult for them, but that they were able to prevail and keep moving ahead with the project.
Now that it seems that the lockdown is winding down, the Ministry of Hope is hoping for two things; to bring in more donors to help them grow the school and pay their teachers more, and to attract more learners from the wider Krugersdorp area to their classrooms.
They plan on adding another classroom in the near future in the style of a large Wendy house-type structure and later, build another school in the Munsieville area that will be run side by side with current principal Jessica van Jaarsveld.
During the open day, the Ministry of Hope set up their newly donated tent church right next to the school where they will be able to hold open-air church services for Villa Gloria residents, just a few metres away from their homes. But, they don’t plan on stopping there. Soon they’ll be opening more of these tent-church setups all over the Mogale City area in places they feel need it the most.
