While Learning In Reach is intent on redefining Early Childhood Development in marginalised communities, we realise that the child only spends a few hours a day at school. A larger part of their learning and development is impacted by their surrounding community. It is therefore imperative for us to address the environment surrounding the child if we are to have a profound impact on the child’s future prospects.

As a result, Learning In Reach has embarked on a journey with the community of Lavender Hill to empower and uplift the caregivers who influence and support the child.

In the two short months since registering as an NPO, Learning In Reach has recognised the desperate hopelessness of the people of Lavender Hill, and the need to identify opportunities to address this. Our first community co-design workshop, held in mid-May, showed an astounding absence of anything positive to share about the community, and a lack of pride and belonging.

We set about searching for local skills that could be harnessed to create success stories that would motivate and encourage others. The first few projects have built an exciting foundation of leading by example, of motivation, inspiration and action.

We invited parents at a local primary school to join our School Gardening Club. They learned to plant a vegetable garden that will sustain their families, simultaneously maintaining the school garden and providing for the feeding scheme and education program.

Donate towards a school garden here or offer your gardening skills, compost, seeds, soil or mulch.

The Lavender Hill Kitchen has paired community bakers and cooks with successful entrepreneurs who run their own food-related businesses. They now provide soups to local business parks, sell loaves of bread and soups at a local market, and have catered for local functions. Place your order through thelavenderhillkitchen@gmail.com and follow their Facebook page @thelavenderhillkitchen.

The Lavender Hill Collection has been mentored by Chic Mamas Do Care. Our recent Pop-Up Shop met with a great reception from the surrounding community. The excitement was inspiring, and the lessons and entrepreneurial experience invaluable. Challenged for space, we are eager to build a hub where activities like this can take place. More on that later!

Donate items of clothing you no longer wear. We’re happy to collect in the Southern Suburbs, Cape Town. Email donations@learninginreach.org.za or join their facebook group.

The Young Knitters Club started as an initiative of a local grandmother who wanted to share knitting skills with young children in her neighbourhood. Starting with just 10 young girls, she now has over 30 girls and boys in her group, and has new volunteers from the community working with her. Donate your left-over balls of wool or unwanted needles and crochet hooks. E-mail donations@learninginreach.org.za.

The Krotoa Community Empowerment Co-Operative plans to create a food and herb garden, envisioning an empowerment hub which includes an internet cafe, ecological resource centre, tea garden, market and play space. This large project requires financial support. Invest in this powerful project. E-mail krotoacoop@gmail.com for more information, and follow their facebook page.

An important part of what we do is collaborate with like-minded organisations to provide opportunities to youth and caregivers in marginalised communities. R-Labs offers amazing learning opportunities in Athlone. We have connected a group of Lavender Hill youth to these opportunities, but they need support and assistance to participate. Lack of transport and communication tools pose challenges that we must resolve to ensure that the opportunity is not wasted. If you can assist with mentoring, lifting, or providing old cell phones, laptops, notepads and pens, etc, please do get in touch through donations@learninginreach.org.za.

The #PowerOf67: We spent a Saturday afternoon crammed into a small, dark container, while thirty enthusiastic children were taught how to knit. This brought home the urgency to deliver on our vision of a hub of productive activity, where children and caregivers can create a lifestyle of learning, creativity and entrepreneurship. There is currently no such space in Lavender Hill.

Aligning ourselves with the values of Nelson Mandela, on Mandela Day, we set an ambitious goal of reaching R1 million to set us on course to creating this space. We received generous donations from people as far afield as Australia, UK and Canada. The challenge isn’t over, and as we strive to make every day a Mandela Day, we encourage you to do the same. Keep sharing the #PowerOf67 and in 3 easy steps, we can change a whole community. Read More…

It is with great excitement and energy that we enter August. Our teacher training workshops kick off, sharing Mathematics Methods for Early Childhood Development. We forge ahead with our Young Mother’s Stay & Play sessions, encouraging healthy development and early stimulation and learning.

With love

The Learning In Reach Team