Help to fund a small school with a BIG heart!

I am Karina Louw and for the past 20 years I have been associated with a very special early learning centre called Fun in the Son Christian Pre-school. This school is situated in the beautiful city of George South Africa.I started working there first as a teacher, then later became Director and Principal.The passion I have for children and good, quality childcare I believe is my calling and destiny and see my role as custodian of this school as an honour and priviledge. Other than my monthly salary I do not aim to gain financially from this institution.

WHERE WE ARE CURRENTLY

During 2011 the school property came on auction, an article 21 non-profit organization was established and it was decided to form a governing body made up of parents and teachers

to administer the school. Currently, we have 11 staff members made up of 5 qualified teachers, 4 classroom assistants, 1 cleaning lady and an admin and financial person. We are registered with our local authorities such as social development and health department and our financials are annually audited. We offer full daycare and holiday club which includes nutritious meals and snacks for the learners in our care. Our motto is "where love and learning come together" and we believe strongly in being multi-cultural, anti-bias and welcoming to all religious groups...we believe it is in the sandpit and on the playground that children learn to be accepting and tolerant of one another....something our South African society so desperately needs.

WHERE WE WOULD LIKE TO BE

Our community school is centrally situated and we currently accomodate children aged between 18 months and 6 years. It has been our long term vision to have a cosy baby class accomodating babies from 3 months old, in a safe and loving environment and sadly have turned away daily enquiries as we have not had the necessary funds to build and equip this additional class. We also see this baby class as a feeder to our older age groups. Our school building is also in dire need of a fresh coat of paint and repairs that need to be done to a leaking roof. In our garden one area still needs to be covered with astro turf to eliminate sand and dust. Sadly, we cannot depend on our government to assist us.

My appeal is therefore, would YOU our international community assist us to reach our goals? We would love to be proud of our school appearance and to extend our reach towards good quality early childhood development for working parents. After all children deserve only the best!

We are appealing for $25 000 to make this all happen.

Another desire of mine is to see the school establish an ongoing fund to enable sponsorship of an underprivileged child for one year. I am convinced that many would like to assist in this area too.

Being the forever optimist in life and being a firm believer in the greater good out there, I would like to thank you for considering my request and ultimately helping in making our dreams come true.