Our focus for the last, nearly 10 years, has been all about one village, Skaaprus (now Bambanani). Our focus is still on the village and the Vulinqondo DayCare Centre but there have been other areas that, in the last 6 months or so have started asking for attention.
We were called by Pastor JJ just before Christmas 2019. He had seen an article in the newspaper about the needs of the village and had some clothes that he wanted to donate. Over the next month or so we came to get to know Pastor JJ and his wife and understand more about his church and ministry.
He has a fascinating story to tell which deserves its own space to be told so we will get into that another time. But what really stood out to us was that he wanted to build a daycare centre for the children of farmworkers that live on the Amersfoort Road (about 8 km out of Ermelo to the south-west).
Pastor JJ has a church and Sunday School on some farmland that has been donated by a local farmer. The building is very basic and in the winter is just too cold to work from.
New Daycare Centre Plans
Having built the Vulinqondo Day Care Centre over the last 10 years or so we felt that we should help Pastor JJ build a church and daycare centre. We are looking to build in the same way that we are in the village, using natural techniques. With an earthbag foundation & straw bale walls. Our Friend, Henk, from Über Architectural has very kindly drawn the plans for both. We will break ground on this in September and believe that by Christmas it will be able to function as a Daycare Centre.