About Us

The SEEDS trust

Schools Education Empowerment & Development Support

The SEEDS Trust was founded by Johann and Marlena van der Walt as a programme whereby members of a Hout Bay church were financially assisted to provide their children with higher education.

Over the subsequent years the mandate of the Trust was extended to include education and empowerment initiatives in the broader Hout Bay and Imizamo Yethu region in general. Apart from educational loans and scholarships for underprivileged people from the area, the Trust's primary initiative is the Little Lambs Christian Daycare project, that offers basic care, nutrition and preschool education for children from Imizamo Yetho.

Education brings hope for the future. Gives self-worth and dignity. All people should have a right to these. Through its various projects the SEEDS TRUST strives to make this possible to as many people as possible in an atmosphere of love and Godly values.

Imizamo Yethu

The township of Imizamo Yethu is situated in the picturesque seaside suburb of Hout Bay in Cape Town. Hout Bay is like a microcosm of South Africa, with a wealthy, mainly white community, living alongside the black community in Imizamo Yethu, and so called ‘coloured’ community in the township of Hangklip near the harbour.

Imizamo Yethu has a population of roughly 16,000-30,000 residents, who are mainly Xhosa speaking. The informal settlement was established in the early 1990s when 450 families who had been squatting in shacks around Hout Bay were moved to this new area on the side of a mountain overlooking the harbour.

The population of the township has mushroomed since then, as black people in search of work, education and a better future settled there.

History

 In 1999 Marlena & Johann van der Walt, members of the Vineyard Church in Hout Bay, started encouraging unemployed church members to begin caring for toddlers of working parents while they were at work for a share of the wages.

From 2001 donors like Marlis Schaper and others starting assisting with funds for food, nappies, equipment and other essentials and in 2005 the school was able to relocate to a beautiful green property leased from the YMCA directly on the boarder of the township.

Since then the school has continued to grow in size and in terms of the facilities it can offer. With a professional full-time manager Little Lambs now offers quality care and education to over 150 underprivileged children the Imizamo Yethu community.

The Concept

Parents are charged a nominal annual fee that is paid in 10 monthly installments.  Charges are as low as possible aimed at about 10% of what the parent earns while the child is in day care and as a result the school's operating costs have to be supplemented by donations and sponsorships, which are collected via SEEDS. SEEDS currently also pays the salary of the school manager.

The children have a loving, caring environment. They are taught Godly values, hygiene and simple life skills while enjoying games, fun activities and social interaction.

Three categories of children are catered for at present: babies in nappies, toddlers and pre-schoolers.

The Vision

At Little Lambs our vision is to create a daycare facility for the people of Imizamo Yethu where children are cared for in a loving environment and are taught Christian values and simple life skills and are prepared for formal schooling by employing people from the community and empowering them to become excellent career educators.

Our mission is to give the children of Little Lambs that vital head start for their successful lives in the future South Africa, by pursuing the following clear purpose:

1. Answer the substantial demand for pre-primary education and care in Imizamo Yethu

2. Provide the children with balanced nutrition that is a crucial factor in the physical and mental development of youth in their early life stages.

3. Enable parents of historically disadvantaged backgrounds to integrate into the South African workforce by providing a suitable and reliable space/care for their children while at work.

4. Create employment with reasonable pay within the community, for the community, to help break the cycle of poverty.

5. Create a space of interaction for members from ALL strata of SA society from different national, social, ethnic and economic backgrounds.