PND Centre talks 2020
KYA SANDS – Local NPO reflects on the year while planning for 2021.
Founder of PND Centre for Homework and Study in the Kya Sand informal settlement Judith Phiri writes:
The organisation that has continued to provide a support centre for children, youth and women in informal settlements is a registered NPO t/a (PCHS) PND Centre for Homework and Study in an informal settlement.
Our vision is to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty, affecting children, youth and women in informal settlements. Our mission is to fight poverty, promote a positive attitude towards school, promote sports, achieve gender equality and social cohesion and eradicate food insecurity.
This is done through:
- Providing a place, space and time for children living in informal settlements to do their schoolwork
- Tutoring and providing academic support to learners
- Providing access to computers and Internet where learners do schoolwork and youth and women learn basic computer skills and search for jobs
- Borrowing out and making available to children educational toys (Lego/Duplo)
- Organising sporting activities, soccer for U11, U13 and U15 boys playing in the Cosmo Junior League (CCLFA), with plans to introduce a girls’ team
- Promoting sustainable economic development activities (programmes that encourage women to start small businesses)
- Family integration programmes (parenting, family food support scheme)
- Supporting families with children living with disabilities (parenting, food, clothes, toys).
We had many highlights this year which were the following:
- Securing donations of ventilated cargo containers (used as classrooms, computer hub and administration office), kitchen, storeroom, and a solar system
- Opening the centre to the community and providing them with different educational and socio-economic programmes
- Community buy-in with children coming to the centre daily
- Establishment and registration/affiliation of a soccer team (U11, U13 and U15)
- Feeding over 1 500 families during Covid-19 lockdown
- Donations of books and clothing
- Establishment of industry or sector partnerships to increase organisational strength and credibility.
Our lowlights of the year were:
- Covid-19 lockdown and the economic decline which saw some donors pulling out due to economic challenges
- Reduction in budgets
- Unexpected costs for PPEs
- The newly established team was unable to get enough field time/ support/ training/coaching as we had anticipated due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
We are so grateful to Hartmann-Vitamed for making the project a success, without them our progress would have been slow.
For Christmas, we would love it if community members helped us make the following a reality:
- We would like to paint our centre, including the palisade fence and cargo containers. This will make it more attractive, draw in more learners, and protect our centre from rust
- We would also like to instal septic tank and flush toilets to replace mobile chemical toilets
- More donations of books and stationery
- Assistance in organising an end-of-year party for the children, with some small Christmas gifts for them.
Our hopes for next year are:
- To host a project launching an awareness campaign for all intended beneficiaries to know about the centre and the services they can get for free
- To introduce skills development, to increase youth and women employability
- Introduce more sporting activities
- To roll-out the concept to other provinces.
PCHS has a fundraiser page where one can assist and which can be found on our website www.pndprojects.co.za
