Priority One: The Community Center Building
The Community Center is located in the heart of Ivory Park, near schools
and markets. Local government officials have granted community leaders
access to and control over the buildings to bring all the aspects of the Ivory
Park Project into one complex. The Community Center will be a hub of day care, health and nutrition
services, after school activities, and senior services for the township. It will
house the Ke A Bona eye clinic, the Suppa du Mamma soup kitchen, youth
and senior programs, the Sedimosang day care center, a nutritional program
for AIDS orphans, and the library.
Click here to read more about the Community Center »
Priority Two: The Library at the Community Center
The Library at the Community Center will be a center for learning, literacy, and community building. It will allow children from sixty schools in Ivory Park to have access to books written in a variety of South Africa’s eleven official languages. The library will be targeted particularly for youth and children. However, literacy is an intergenerational problem, so there will be programs for children to learn with and from seniors, older youth, and other adult volunteers. The local schools will also be able to rely on this library for their students.
Click here to read more about the Library »
Priority Three: The Sedimosang Day Care Center
The Sedimosang Day Care Center began with a dedicated
volunteer teacher working in a one-room shack and has grown
into a vibrant seven-room center with a strong staff of teachers,
care givers, and cooks. Over 170 children come five days a week – many of them AIDS orphans. They learn the fundamentals of language, reading, writing, math, and social studies. The teachers are not only helping them develop the skills they
need to succeed in school, but also they are teaching the
children how to value themselves, their bodies, and their minds.
Click here to read more about the Day Care Center »
Priority Four: The Suppa du Mama Soup Kitchen
The Suppa du Mamma soup kitchen started as a way to provide
seniors with little to no income with two balanced meals a week. This
program has become a vital source of community building for seniors
in Ivory Park.
The seniors come together for fellowship and support. They bring
what little they have and combine it for a meal to feed dozens. They are identifying key
needs in their lives, finding creative solutions for long-term
change and finding new ways to connect intergenerationally with
the young people who will be tomorrow’s leaders.