Manenberg is one of the most
distressed Cape Town communities in South Africa. It is one of five areas that has been
identified by the City of Cape Town
as a Zone of poverty and social disintegration. The Department of Social
Services Western Cape estimates the population of Manenberg at 65,000 people
(2004), but because the number of people in informal housing--the back yard
dwellers--fluctuates greatly, it makes the figure closer to 80,000 people at
any given time. Police statistics reveal
that it is the community with the highest rate of public violence in Cape Town. The
unemployment rate is 66%.
The purpose of the Manenberg
Initiative is to screen all preschool children in the Manenberg and Heideveld
communities in order to identify children with physical and/or developmental
problems. Despite socio-economic hardship, the Initiative aims to lay a more
solid foundation for future generations by improving the school drop-out rate,
and to structure appropriate interventions through a parenting program or, where
appropriate, refer the children for specialist attention.
A donated shipping container
has been converted and made fit for use and will be used to house the project
in the backyard of the Manenberg Clinic. This container-cum-clinic-operational
from July 2007 onwards-will be equipped with educational toys and other
learning aids. From this container, two
medical interns with pediatric skills and experience, along with Early
Childhood Development staff will carry out screenings during the weekday
working hours of the clinic, helping children to work on the following
developmental skills: social and emotional, language, fine motor and gross
motor.
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