Waldorf school Stellenbosch
Stellenbosch Waldorf School was started 1993 as Honeybush Kindergarten and 1996 with the first class. Stellenbosch is a finely preserved historical town with a long history of wine making. It is a popular university and tourist town in a fertile part of the country where the winter rain often washes part of the school's road away... There are farms all around, and mostly they grow grapes and vegetables.
The kindergarden started out as an initiative by interested parents in the hall of another, existing, school. From there it moved to premises in the Jonkershoek, a part of Stellenbosch set in a mountain valley. 2000 the school moved again and is now renting former farm buildings. However we finally achieved the step of getting land, where we hopefulle soon will be able to build a permanent home for our school.
After the start new classes were added to year by year and at the moment we have 117 children ranging from playgroup to class 7. From here most pupils go on to complete their schooling at non Waldorf high schools, as the schools in Cape Town are fairly far away.
We are really pleased that in 2005 and 2006 the school's first pupils, who had completed their first 7 years at the school, finished their high school education at schools in the Stellenbosch and Somerset West area. Nobody is surprised and everyone is delighted that they did very well.
Half of our families come from Somerset West - a location closer to the sea and much more commercial, even though people there like to refer to it as the "village".
Some of the founder parents are still with the school and Mr. McDonald is one of them. The story is that he had heard of the school and arrived at the gate, on his bicycle, saying that he had heard that this was the school for his children.
Our children are taught in English though many have either Xhosa or Afrikaans as home language and these are taught as well.
As a non-state school we got no subsidies at all. Out of this reason we have rather no possibilities to take in children, whose parents can´t afford the monthly school fees of 1,400 Rand (175 Euro).
Unfortunately even 15 years after the end of Apartheid there still are many social barriers. Many children still have living conditions predetermined by their colour. An independent school like ours can offer them a better education - and thus the possibility to change their life.
In the moment we have three children looking for a sponsorship. We took them trusting that we will find the necessary support. Two of them are the children of Mr. McDonald - Brisco and his little sister Vumile. They live in the poor township Kayamandi (see below). As soon as we will have found sponsors for this three children, we can take in more children in need.
Lucille Valentine
The Kayamandi township
Kayamandi is ironically a Xhosa term for “pleasurable home”. However the townships are the poorest living areas in South Africa, founded during the Apartheid regime to segregate black people. Kayamandi was built in the 60s to house black migrant male labourers employed on the farms in the Stellenbosch area. Today it has a population of over 22,000 living on an area just over 1 square kilometre (in comparison: Berlin has 3,4 million inhabitants and 890 km2 equivalent to 4,000 people per square kilometre).
Even in 1996 no single shack had running water. And also today most people have to take water from the tap on the roadside. In each of the around 4,000 shacks 5-7 people live together sharing one or two rooms. More than 50% have got only primary education, if ever. And a similar percentage has no regular employment and only 100 Euro or less per month for living. But as elsewhere also in South Africa living becomes more expensive every day...