Dear Friends of Golden Sunbeams
Our latest kindergarten project – “Covenant Kids EDC Centre” in Rusthof near Strand – creates space!
A clever and unusual expansion concept will enable almost 30 more boys and girls to attend this coveted kindergarten in the future.
The kindergarten, which was opened by Chrizell and George Strangman in mid-2020, during the peak phase of the pandemic, is receiving an enormous number of parents who are keen to enrol their children there.
The reason for this is the educational concept, which focuses on the individual development of children between the ages of 4 months and 6 years. In small groups and a safe, harmonious and stimulating learning environment, children can discover and develop their individuality while being prepared for school. Another reason for the large number of participants: the children are taught in English. Of course, all children receive a healthy breakfast and lunch.
Computer courses are even offered for the little ones for an additional fee.
So we asked ourselves, how can additional space be created on the Strangmans’ not-too-large lot to enable many more boys and girls to attend this innovative ECD Centre?
We discussed different options for expanding the house with George, who luckily is an architect, and finally came up with a very simple idea: let’s build a garage and use it as an additional classroom for the time being!
Earlier this year we received planning permission to build a double garage. We immediately started building our garage, which has direct access to the house.
First the windows were taken out in the front area and the open areas were closed and plastered. In this way, the children were not disturbed too much during the construction phase.
Before we could start building the garage, all the paving stones in front of the entrance area had to be removed.
“A garage” you are probably asking yourself now “are you serious?”. Yes, because inside the newly created space will be designed to be child-friendly, cheerful and bright, with large windows that let in lots of light and sun. Thanks to this addition, 28 more boys and girls will be able to play and learn in the Covenant Kids EDC Centre in the future.
And then everything happened very quickly and the shell of the garage was completed in a very short time.
Because Chrizell and George still dream of expanding the kindergarten by adding a floor, the garage had to have a flat roof with a reinforced and therefore extremely expensive substructure.
Let’s see if one day we’ll be able to support them both in realising their dream.
We hope, together with George and Chrizell, that their motto on the Covenant Kids wall will eventually come true.
The first thing to do now is to complete the building as quickly as possible and to design the new room in a friendly and child-friendly manner so that there is space for the additional children.
We would like to thank our friends, donors and sponsors for their financial support so that we can implement projects like these and sustainably improve the livelihoods of many disadvantaged children.
Sending warm regards from beautiful False Bay in South Africa
Britta & Bernd