Fynbos Academy Needs Support
Fynbos Academy on the farm, Langverwacht, Papiesvlei, Stanford, originally started as an informal daycare centre established by a fynbos farmer in Stanford over a decade ago to provide a safe place for children after school. Since then, it has grown and developed into a fully-fledged academy, registered as an independent school with the Department of Education as Fynbos Academy.
The original daycare centre established on the farm was set up to provide a safe place for children to go after school, whilst their parents were out working. However, once opened, it did not take long for the teachers in charge to realise that most of the children in their care were far behind where they should be academically.
It was gradually realised that these children needed help, so the decision was made to upgrade the daycare centre and turn it into a facility that provides professionally qualified educators to assist with daily homework and extra tuition in literacy and numeracy required to enable each child to reach their full potential. The centre became the first academy that was born out of the project and was renamed Fynbos Academy.
Apart from assisting with daily homework, professionally qualified educators also provide extra tuition in literacy and numeracy to enable each child to reach his or her full potential. There are 58 learners, grades RR to 7, and 7 teachers. The children are transported daily from a radius of approximately 40 kilometres, mostly from surrounding farms, and they receive 2 meals a day. Fynbos Academy strive to have smaller classes to assist learners who come from difficult circumstances and are unlikely to do well in bigger classes. The main areas where they require support and partnership are: *Educator salaries; *Vehicles running cost ±R1,039,000 per year; *Two additional buses; *Food; *Stationery and textbooks; *School roof replacement.
Their future vision:
The dream would be to expand the current Primary school into a High school over the next 5 years; the availability of land is 13,000m2; their first priority would be to get the school to a sustainable financial position after this goal is reached. This will require investments to create further facilities. The dream after this is to offer tertiary education on the premises, with a strong focus on technical and agricultural skills development.
Fynbos Academy is a South African registered Non-Profit Organization - 195-240 NPO and is supported by GrapeHub Foundation, a Dutch ANBI registered institution created by GrapeHub B.V. For interested businesses and individuals who are interested to join their cause, Fynbos Academy would love to hear from you: Tel 087 405 2233; WhatsApp 064 880 4632; email info@impaq.co.za; website www.fynbosacademy.co.za.
Their banking details are: Fynbos Academy; ABSA current account no 4084 974 087 ABSA; branch 632005.
Hardus Botha
