Ark Angels Educare

Ark Angels Educare is a registered South African Non Profit Organisation (Reg. No. 153-011 NPO) and a Public Benefit Organisation ( Reg. No. 930052454). It’s an ECD (Early Childhood Development) centre in the informal settlement of Overcome Heights / Vrygrond in Cape Town.

About Ark Angels Educare

In 2015 Prosper Torchere, Pastor of Ark Chapels Ministries, founded the Ark Angels Educare centre. The Educare was based in the shack which served as church on Sundays.

Through the initiative of Elke Zwicker, Trustee of ‘The SEEDS Trust’ (Schooling, Education, Empowerment, Developments), SEEDS agreed in 2017 to up-grade and build a new Ark Angels Centre by raising the necessary funds for the project.

In August 2017, The SEEDS Trust, as the owner, signed a MOU (memorandum of understanding) and lease agreement with Ark Angels to grant indefinite rent-free occupancy of the new building, while the City of Cape Town extended a 10 year lease of the land to Ark Angels Educare.

Why Early Childhood Development (ECD)

The formative years of a child’s life can never be fully recaptured at a later stage. From birth to five years old is the period when young minds and hearts are shaped – laying the foundations for the journey ahead. The acquisition oflanguage, problem solving abilities, numeracy, motor skills, reading and writing and the like are measurable in terms of developmental milestones, and have been shown to grow in proportion to the cognitive stimulation that a child receives.

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Contact Details

Elke Zwicker
Address: ERF 14337, St. Patrick Avenue, Seawinds 7945
Email: arkangels.educare@gmail.com

OVERCOME HEIGHTS/VRYGROND, MUIZENBERG

WHERE WE ARE

More than 45,000 people live in the informal settlement of Overcome Heights/ Vrygrond, located on the eastern flank of the Capricorn Industrial area near Muizenberg / Cape Town in South Africa.

Vrygrond has about 5’000 children in the 0 – 5 years range:

  • 69% of children (3’440) have no access to ECD facilities
  • 20% of children (983) attend a home-based, unregistered facility
  • 11% of children (577) attend a registered facility

The need in Vrygrond is echoed in multitudes of other communities

The children are subjected daily to squalor and violence. They are malnutrition-ed and unprepared for school. The living conditions in the shantytown are shocking. Almost all of the residents live in small corrugated iron shacks measuring about 9ft x 9ft. Few have running water in their homes and most are forced to share outside sanitation facilities. Due to the high unemployment, many homes have problems with alcohol, drugs, women and child abuse and crime.