The Village and some of the children

 

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 Leratong Village where we started the project.

It is part of the greater Qwaqwa, but located on one of the highest peaks of the surrounding mountains. To get there you climb a very steep and rough road, so most people has moved away from there to find housing closer to town and work. The people left are as a rule old and unable to find work down in town. It has all the infrastructure we need as well as a school that can cater for at least 400 children, but presently less than 70 children attend, many from neighboring Lesotho. 

In the village there are also a number of pre-school children. Whilst the children in school get some help from government and their feeding scheme, these small ones get nothing. So in an effort to help treat the malnourishment found in this group of children we started a pre-school where they can receive food on a daily basis. Below are pictures of some of the kids visiting our house on a regular basis.

 

 

This where we started. This is the floor of the hall that will be the center of the project where pre-school, job creation projects and church will be held

 
 

This is what it looks like now. The walls are up and we are trusting in God for the $5500 to finish the roof structure. At the back is the storeroom where we store donations that are handed out to the most needy families in the village.

 
 

In September 2004 we started renting this building to run the feeding scheme for pre-school kids from. Since we had the building we decided to run a proper daycare together with the feeding scheme. Right now we are serving between 30 and 60 meals a day depending on the availability of funds.

 
 

We started construction of the first house in December 2004. This too is nearly finished.

 
 

During December we had a team from the US here to help us around the Center and while they were here this playground was constructed. Since it is the only recreation for the pre-school kids in the village, you will find kids here from early to late every day.

 
 

The bricks we use are baked locally by villagers. Some times during the year they make less bricks and then, like now, you are unable to get any good bricks. To keep the builder busy in these times we started construction of a stone building that will serve as accommodation for teams and visitors. It will have the most stunning view from it's deck  when finished.