Masakhane Educare

Masakhane Educare is one of approximately 28 educare centres in Masiphumelele and Ocean View, which provide early learning opportunities for children in these two communities. In the early 1990s when the Noordhoek squatter area was still an illegal settlement, Valley Development Projects (VDP), an NGO operating in the community, established places of care using the local residents as staff. Initially Masakhane operated from Winnie Tsotso's shack, which was soon replaced by a corrugated iron structure and old shipping containers.

Green Curtains

About 14 years ago, residents of Atlantic Heights, an informal settlement in Ocean View, joined forces and created a preschool creche to look after their young children so that their parents could go off to work safe in the knowledge that their children were being well looked after. With the support of the Valley Development Project (VDP), some 105 children are fed, given lessons and cared for every day. The children each receive a cooked breakfast and lunch courtesy of the VDP and prepared by Roslene Jacobs.