Exciting times for Peacock

The kids at Peacock were delighted with the Teddy bears and toys donated by some of AWOL's guests.

Sally reports that tourists are now doing art with the kids at Peacock as a part of the Township Tours. The kids LOVE it and have produced some lovely things... Enjoy the blog exhibition below...

ART EXHIITION: Team efforts - a nice kind of sharing!

We'll print a set of greetings cards - proceeds to go towards teacher training and classroom equipment at Peacock. We are also making t-shirts which are for sale during tours or online... more on that soon, too.


An incredibly affectionate and gentle young guy who just came up silently and gave the best hugs in the world to a bunch of total strangers (me & my tourists) in the middle of Masi! Christmas tour 2009.

The back wall of the creche after it rotted away & collapsed in December 2008 - it was soon fixed up again by neighbours and community members.

Dec tour 2008 to the (delapidated) creche...

Part of the December tour 2008 group with Ma Noluntu (centre) & kids on a very windy day at Masi. This group gave a Christmas gift donation and pretty beaded wall decoration to Peacock for its future building.


Hello Everyone,

Despite being a bit of a challenge, 2009 ended on a high note for our 'rebuild Peacock Educare' project. It was not a year to be asking for donations and tours were pretty sparse too, but we have had a number of kind donations and several pledges for financial support from visitors over the last few years. It looks like we are really going to see a new building for the kids of Peacock very soon (hopefully this year!)

Several new developments, realisations and pieces of advice are shaping new parameters for the actual design & cost of the creche.

Noluntu has been given a government housing grant which means a 6 metre x 10 metre house consisting of a kitchen, sitting room, two bedrooms and a bathroom is to be built on her property to replace the current shack she has. She is delighted. I met with the official at the government organisation, Sosebenza, who are building this and they may be starting the building of her house as soon as next month - March 2010!

The new house has to obey the rules as far as building (boundary) lines and so will be positioned fairly centrally with the front side close to the front perimeter of the property and two passageways down each side. The creche shack will then have about 3 metres ( 10ft) x 9 metres (30ft) of open space (where the kids jungle gym now is) in front of it, as it now stands. However, it is currently built right on the boundary which would not be allowed once it is a formal brick building. We will probably be able to expand the current size of the creche building by about 6m x 3m (18 m squared) SO - we have to look at some creative ideas to generate more room for the interior of the creche itself and outdoor play space.

Building it as an extension onto the back of the house building will make it south facing which in this hemisphere is not ideal as buildings need to be north facing in order to face the sun. (maybe a sun roof and an easterly and/or westerly double door can help with passive solar for winter? and perhaps the southerly aspect will help with cooling in summer). We will also have to take note of the fact that the predominant wind in summer is the south easterly - and have the doors on the western side. Kids can then play outside on the west & south sides which will be partially shaded by the buildings.

Other possibilities may include building an upstairs bedroom above part of the creche building and then using one of the interior bedrooms of the proposed house as a bathroom for the kids - breaking through from the inside and sealing this off from the private house (if Nolumto likes the idea and it is affordable).

We have realised that the new building has to be made of fireproof materials such as brick, not wood after several places including the other creche in Khayelitsha which I wrote about in 2007 was burnt down (and fortunately also rebuilt!).

Sally & I are in the midst of several meetings to see who else we may be able to bring on board for advice/assistance/funding.

At one of the meetings held last year, Noluntu expressed that she is feeling some pressure from the community who are eager to see improvements at the Peacock Educare Centre.

The main objectives at this stage are to build the best building possible, given the resources we have in 2010 - with a view to possible improvements at a later date if necessary. To this end we will put forward as many innovative ways of making use of the space and building resources as possible and work out a plan of action. We are hoping to have a good idea of what this will be by the next blog entry in mid-March.

Thanks again to all those who have contributed and visited!
Happy 2010!