When I first got to know Vrygrond, in 1995, it had a Crèche, surprisingly well made for a structure of boards and tin. When we initiated the rehousing development, this Crèche fell outside the demarcated area of Vrygrond.

In August 2000 we decided to try to raise the money to build a new Crèche, on a site owned by the Trust. The money to do this came from two sources, - Yabonga which was set up by Ursel Berlin-Hasenbichler, an Austrian woman who visited South Africa by chance, loved it and ended up staying here. Ursel raised money from her contacts in the world of finance in Europe, and teamed up with Ulpha Robertson, an ex-teacher turned businesswoman.

The other funder was David Altschuler’s London based charity One to One Foundation. If you want to know more about Dave and his long and admirable connection with Vrygrond, go to the section on Donors.

Between the two, these funders raised the money and materials to build the present Crèche. It consists essentially of 8 large shipping containers bolted together and cut out so as to provide classrooms. These are spanned by a central roof. Toilets and a kitchen were added onto the end.

The new Crèche opened in December 2000, and was a great success from the beginning. It was lucky to have Berenice Bougaard, one of the original Trustees, as its manager. Berry is one of those dynamos who always remains cheerful and resilient, often in the face of great difficulties. With her motivating the teachers, the Crèche became a model of how to provide decent pre primary care to underprivileged kids.

  In Oct 2003 Yabonga raised more money to add two high quality brick classrooms to the Crèche.

At present the Crèche has about 180 kids in six classes, They receive two meals a day, which for many of them is the only food they get.

The Crèche gets subsidies from the Dept of Social Welfare but they are erratic and cover only a quarter of the running costs. The bulk of the funding raised by this Trust goes towards making up the shortfall every month to enable the Crèche to keep on running. Up to May 2007 the Trust (thanks to its supporters) paid about R18,000 (£1,300) every month to the Crèche.

In June we took on 5 teaching assistants, which we think will make a major difference in the attention being given to the kids. This is part of our plan to improve the education being offered at the Crèche. It will add another R6000 pm onto the wage bill.