Cape Town - South Africa

iThemba, Philippi - Learning for life in a township

Together with colleagues of the Lufthansa Call Center in Cape Town and the Lutheran priest Otto Kohlstock HelpAlliance is building an English teaching nursery school and thus try to offer better prospects to the children of the Cape Town township Philippi.

Philippi is one of the slum areas of Cape Town. There, amongst cardboard and corrugated iron huts you will find “iThemba Labantu” (which means hope for the people), a community centre being managed by the priest Otto Kohlstock from Berlin, who has lived and worked in Africa for more than 20 years.
Many of the people living there do not even have access to water or lavatories. During winter months many huts are regularly washed away. Malnutrition, violence and AIDS (approximately 50 percent of the population in this area are affected) represent the most significant problems. On the grounds of the community of iThemba Labantu. Otto Kohlstock and his team devote themselves to fighting AIDS and to helping those suffering from HIV. An old ship container was turned into a soup kitchen. Between 150 and 200 children and more than 100 adults get a hot meal there every day. In most cases this is their only meal every day. They aim at improving the hopeless situation of the people living in this township, because a lot of huge social problems still exist despite the upswing in South Africa since the elections in 1994.
The majority of the black population (about 80 percent of the total population) live in townships on the outskirts of the cities and frequently do not have the opportunity to profit from the state’s educational programs. The black population is divided into various ethnic groups with officially recognized languages like Zulu, Xhosa and others. English, which has developed into the teaching language since the end of apartheid is only spoken by a small minority.

For the first time 20 children of the Township Philippi will now receive the opportunity to learn English in two years of nursery school. The staff of the Lufthansa Call Center in Cape Town enabled a contact between priest Otto Kohlstock and the HelpAlliance. In April two colleagues of HelpAlliance satisfied themselves during an onsite inspection as to the urgency to support the project. Since then, classrooms as well as staff rooms were painted and windows and doors were repaired. Adequate furniture was bought and a teacher and assistant were taken on.

The support by colleagues in Cape Town as well as by the management of the call centres worldwide is overwhelming and represents a very good example of the social commitment of the Lufthansa staff.

More pictures to be found here