The Valley Primary School is situated in the rural area of Durbanville. It accommodates children from Grade R up to Grade 7. The children come from households that face great economic challenges. Approximately 50% of the children stay on surrounding wine farms where their parents are employed as seasonal workers from September to March. The other 50% of the children are transported by bus by the WCED from Morningside in Durbanville as well as from informal settlements in Fisantekraal (just outside Durbanville ) and Du Noon. There is a yearly intake of approximately 200 children. There are 7 teachers fully employed at the school.
The children are exposed to various social challenges such as poverty, alcohol- and drug abuse and crime and very often come from households where a single parent tries to make ends meet on a state grant. There are approximately 30 volunteers assisting with various aspects of the children’s lives. These are not only restricted to school activities such as library services, physical exercises, reading support, mathematics support and literacy development, but include professionals such as an audiologist, doctor, optometrist, etc.
There are currently 180 out of the 200 learners that receive daily meals at the school, which is made possible by the Peninsula School Feeding Association’s food scheme to schools. They deliver the basic food ingredients once a week to the school, which ingredients must then be cooked and prepared by the school personnel. That translates to approximately 1800 meals a week.
This is where Western Province Nomads are looking to assist the Valley School. The kitchen that the meals are prepared in is totally inadequate for the amount of meals that they need to prepare weekly. The size of the kitchen is approximately 2.5m x 4m. All the children’s eating utensils, the kitchen utensils and other kitchen equipment and washing facilities need to be accommodated in this space, which leaves very little working space. There is no space for storing the food, which out of necessity needs to be stored in the adjacent computer room. Which further impacts on the education that can be provided.
The school’s wish is to extend the kitchen facilities so that there will be adequate working space, that all the food can be stored in the kitchen and that the computer room can be used for the purpose that it was intended for. Given the disadvantaged areas that the children come from I can assure you that the meals that they receive daily are as important a part of their day as is the education that they receive, if not more so.
UPDATE Feb 2024: The plans for the building work at The Valley Primary School have been finalised. They have been accepted by the school governing body and submitted to the Western Cape Department of Education for their input, whereafter it will go to the City of Cape Town for approval. The plans have been drafted to both double the size of the kitchen and increase the size of the adjoining offices for the school secretary and principal. After the building work has been completed, WP Nomads will endeavour to assist with the supply of more reliable kitchen items (fridge, stove, etc) from any remaining funds. We are hopeful that work will be completed before the onset of winter 2024.