Khumbulani Centre
| Location | Khayelitsha, Cape Town |
|---|---|
| Field | Creche and day care centre for children from distressed backgrounds. |
| Director | Gloria Bebeza |
| Website | No website available |
The centre also provides support to people living with HIV/AIDS, giving advice, assistance, food and the opportunity to share and feel part of part of a community.
The centre also runs and maintains a vegetable garden and soup kitchen, to feed the children and those people on ARV’s and/or who belong to the support group.
Interesting facts about Khumbulani
The project was originally intended to be an orphanage but their application was denied by social services due to the fact that Social Services in South Africa are moving
away from orphanages to a foster care system which is less institutionalised.
They operate as a day care centre but in reality Gloria and Nondomiso (the two founders and directors) have adopted 10 children between the two of them.
In terms of salaries, 4 volunteers in the day care centre receive R500.00 (approx $71.00) per month from social services. No one else receives salaries.
Khayelitsha at a glance...
- It is one of over 20 townships in the Cape Town area
- It has a population of around 1.5 million people
- HIV/Aids infection rate estimated at around 40 percent
- Unemployment estimated at 65 percent
- Home to an estimated 14 000 orphans
History of Khayelitsha
The Group Areas Act, passed in the 1950s, prohibited Blacks from living in the cities. The discrimination and black population control by the apartheid regime did not prevent blacks from settling in the outskirts of Cape Town. After the scrapping of pass laws in 1987 many blacks, mainly Xhosas, moved into areas around Cape Town in search of work. By this time many blacks were already illegally settled in townships (black neighbourhood) like Nyanga and Crossroads. As the black population grew, the apartheid regime sought to solve the problem by establishing new black neighbourhoods. Khayelitsha was established in 1985.
The Western Cape was a preference area for the local coloured population and a system called influx control was in place preventing Xhosas from travelling from the Transkei without the required permit. After the historic 1994 elections hundreds of thousands moved to urban areas in search of work, putting up shacks made of tin, wood and cardboard - this is one of them.
Apartheid is over, but its legacy - and the shacks, remain. Today Khayelitsha is home to around 1,5 million people, and runs for a number of kilometres along the N2 highway. The ethnic makeup of Khayelitsha is approximately 90% Black African and 10% Coloured, with Xhosa being the predominant language of the residents.
Khayelitsha is today reputed to be the third largest township in South Africa, after the townships of Soweto in Gauteng and Mdanstane near East London. Since the ANC came to power in the country in 1994, the ruling party claims that living conditions in the township have improved markedly. There have been many developments such as new brick housing being built, new schools being built, and the creation of a central business district in the Township. However many residents strongly dispute the claim that the quality of life has improved. They claim that crime rates remain very high and that only a small portion of residents see improvements as a result of infrastructure and welfare intervention.
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PO Box 16491 | Vlaeberg | 8018 | South Africa
Registered Section 21 Company 2007/030289/08
Tel: +27 21 683 8523 | Fax: +27 21 683 8520 | Mobile: +27 82 496 4889
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