Penduka Daycare Centre 

The Wake up! Montessori Early Education Centre is a facility which caters for the care and education of young children. The centre is governed by the school board with the aim of promoting and supporting early childhood development and education in Namibia.

Background of the Project

The Wake up! Centre was built as a result of a fundraising drive in The Netherlands by the Lions Club Regte Heide in Brabant. The funds were supplemented by two co-financing organisations: Wilde Ganzen and Cordaid.

In 2008 the trust was able to buy an institutional erf from the City of Windhoek, measuring 2538 m². A Dutch architect working in Windhoek, Hans Mulder, contributed the drawings for the centre free of charge and the building plan was approved by the Municipality in March 2009. This plan projects a number of seven classrooms to be built in phases, as the money becomes available.

» View a drawing of the building plan in phases (pdf 1.5 MB).

By January 2010 two classrooms and supporting buildings were realised: an office with storage facility, two classrooms, a kitchen and a hall. In Namibia contributions were solicited from various companies and individuals and resulted in donations of paint, flooring and trees. At the time there were no funds left to build a flat for the caretaker. As a temporary measure the trust acquired a caravan where the caretaker is now living. In late 2013, two more classrooms were built through the generous support of The Harry Lierens Foundation from The Netherlands and the Lions Club Windhoek Alte Feste who paid 50% each. These were opened in time for January 2014, allowing us to double our intake of children.

Early Childhood Education in Namibia

In Namibia children under the age of six are not yet guaranteed a place in formal education. In 2008 the Ministry of Education started to introduce a year of pre-primary education for children aged 5-6, adding a Grade ‘0’ to the government primary schools. However there are many more 5-6 year olds than the schools can accommodate. All early childhood education for the age group 2-5 is left to the private initiative of churches, NGOs, communities and individuals. In the less affluent suburbs of Windhoek most of the daycare facilities are home-based and lack adequate space, play- and learning materials and professional guidance. It is however in the early years that the groundwork needs to be done for all the learning that is to come, so that in primary school a child can develop to his/her full potential.

Our Objective

The objective of the Wake up! Montessori Early Education Centre is to provide quality care and education to children aged 1-6. To this effect centre has established an early education centre in the suburb of Otjomuise in Windhoek, which opened its doors on the 1st of February, 2010.

The Wake up! Centre has seven classrooms and accommodates a daycare centre for toddlers aged 2-3 (with 30 places) and a pre-school class for children aged 4-6 (with 50 places) and infants or babies 1 year olds (10 places). Children can stay at the centre up to 5pm. The centre reaches out to parents, early childhood educators and other community members in promoting early childhood development, by sharing ideas and supporting the development and production of teaching and learning resources.

Otjomuise

Otjomuise is a growing suburb of Windhoek with a high influx of migrants looking for employment opportunities. Erf 3063 is situated in the middle of an established residential area of low- and middle income housing. A stone's throw away (about 600m) there is a fast growing so-called 'informal settlement', where newcomers put up makeshift dwellings of corrugated iron and cardboard. In this informal settlement the municipality provides basic services such as communal taps and toilets but cannot keep up with the high demand for child care facilities and schools.

» View map showing location.

The Children

The children attending the centre come from the residential area around the centre and from the informal settlement ‘over the hill’ on top of our street (least income families). About a third of them can be considered vulnerable: they are children from single parents, handicapped parents and single mums or grandmothers without a job or with hardly a job. All our parents and guardians pay school fees; from N$900 to N$1200 a month 20 children are sponsor by the centre under the reduce fee program.