The official opening of Masizame’s Fairy Footsteps Centre
The Masizame Early Childhood Development Centre (ECD) in Kwanokuthula saw the official opening of their new Fairy Footsteps Centre, which was held on Monday the 15th of February 2016.
Established in 1992, Masizame, which is an isiXhosa word meaning ‘Let’s try’, provides child protection services to the vulnerable children of Plettenberg Bay through its three projects. These projects include – a Child & Youth Care Centre that provides residential statutory care, a Drop-In Centre that provides day care programmes to children active in or at risk of street activity and an Early Childhood Development Centre for children aged 3 to 6.
As an NPO Masizame relies heavily on external contributions in order to serve these children and operate efficiently. The newly established Fairy Footsteps Centre was co-financed through a R60 000 grant received from The Childwick Trust (UK) which operates in South Africa as The Jim Joel Fund. The centre is named Fairy Footsteps as a tribute to Mr Joel’s champion horse of the early 1980’s.
The Fairy Footsteps Centre is a multipurpose space that has been built in order to enable Masizame to expand the breadth of their therapeutic services. This space is currently being used as a play area for Yoga mindfulness classes and will host baby stimulation as well as significant carer/child bonding and attachment classes.
It takes time for the children to develop a sense of emotional and physical safety.
The Masizame programs are set to meet the children where they stand, rather than where the programme thinks they should be and this helps the youth to develop a sense of safety.
Many of these children are infected or affected by HIV/AIDS and other chronic diseases as a result of physical and emotional abuse. The Masizame parental empowerment programme selects parents for vocational training once they have dedicated themselves to volunteer their services at Masizame for a period of no less than 6 months.
There are over 90 vulnerable children serviced on a daily basis and once these children graduate from Masizame, they are enthusiastic and motivated for lifelong learning. They have all managed to sustain a 100% track record of attendance at the mainstream schools and it is hoped that these shining stars will be role-models to the remaining children at Masizame ECD Centre.
The ShowMe Plett team had the pleasure of attending the opening of the Fairy Footsteps Centre. We met up with Karen of the Childwick Trust and her husband Stuart, who had flown in from the UK to attend the opening. Linda and Ole Olsen from the Aquavit Guest House were also present, as they had introduced Karen to the Masizame ECD Centre.
Once the ribbon was cut and the doors were opened, we were amazed by the warm and vibrant atmosphere – this is a homely space that is sure to service many more children in the upcoming years.
Next we were treated to songs and dance performed by all of these special children. When you see their enthusiasm and smiles, it’s very hard to believe they have come from abusive backgrounds.
Masizame extends a huge thank you to all those who made this possible.
If you are interested in contributing or finding out more about Masizame contact Nicholas Coleman.