Mar 20, 2009
C.H.S.A cuts the ribbon to officially open their unique new school
Christel De Haan with Cape Town Mayor, Helen Zille cutting the ribbon at the Christel House SA Inauguration.
Christel House South Africa (CHSA), a not-for-profit school for disadvantaged children in Cape Town, opened its brand new state-of-art school in Ottery Cape Town on the 17 March. The new premises was officially opened by the school’s founder Christel deHaan and the Honourable Mayor of Cape Town, Helen Zille.
Since its foundation in 2002, CHSA has been doing extraordinary work in helping to break the cycle of poverty by transforming children and their communities through education.
The new school premises have been a dream of Christel deHaan and the board of CHSA for many years as they were previously operating from premises in Athlone that were too small for the burgeoning school. The project was finally made possible last year when CHSA was able to negotiate a partnership between themselves, the Ottery Civic Association, Building Engineers Jakoet & Associates and the City of Cape Town who provided the eight hectares of land at a reduced rate needed to errect the school.
Ronald Fortune – Principle of the school said that since the first foundations were laid back in July of 2008, all the organisations involved have invested vast amounts of time, effort, money and love into the project.
“We could not have done it without the help of those partnerships and in such a short time, it is a truly amazing accomplishment.
“All of us at Christel House are extremely excited about this new beginning and we are raring to get the actual teaching and learning started. If all goes well all 690 students will be settled and ready to go by the 18 March,” said Fortune.
The brand new school encompasses both primary and secondary learning and has special facilities that include an impressive multipurpose hall, multimedia centre, biology, science, mathematics and technology laboratories, music, arts and dance studio as well as a huge sports field and a fynbos nature area for the children.
Mansoor Mohamed, the City`s Executive Director of Economic, Social Development and Tourism, said, “The City of Cape Town is pleased to be associated with Christel House School, an institution that helps many children and families to break the cycle of poverty. It has leased land in Ottery to Christel House for a few hundred rand per annum over an effective 50-year lease period and will continue to use its land to increase economic and social development opportunities for the residents of Cape Town.”
Sharon Williams – Director of Development and Marketing at the School explains that the Christel House philosophy is about empowering children through longitudinal work that prepares them in every way to be functioning members of society. “The school is going to help us to better achieve these goals.”
“It has been built with classrooms that are bigger than the standard size in South Africa. Seventy square meters compared to the average size classroom which is only about 55 square meters. At Christel House we believe that our children literally need the room to grow and the space to express themselves, especially given the lack of space in the communities where they come from,” explained Williams.
The building also has high ceilings and ventilated classrooms that will also provide for a more comfortable environment to teach and learn in.
Williams said that all in all the school has been built to optimise efficient and effective learning.
Christel deHaan proudly thanked each and every donor and investor who contributed to the building and infrastructure of the new school. “This school is a result of the hard work of so many people,” said DeHaan, the building is now complete but an enormous task still lies before us – the task of making this building a school that is a functioning and sufficient place of learning that will achieve the intended result of providing a ‘pipeline’ of learners ready to pave their own way into South Africa’s workforce,” she said.
She added that the School still needs to raise more than R5 million to meet the costs of building the new facility. Anyone who is interested in supporting the initiative can contact Sharon Williams on 021 696 9005
