COLT Educare
The Children of Light Educare (COLT) opened its doors on the 17th October 2017 and has successfully established an Early Childhood Development Programme that offers free, quality education to children living in impoverished communities in Athlone and Lansdowne, Cape Town.
Vision
Integral Education that nurtures the innate divinity and potential of children.
Mission
To provide education that focuses on the physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual development of children by establishing independent early childhood development centres based on the principles of Integral Yoga.
The educare supports the notion that to ‘educate’ means to ‘bring out’. The philosophy of the educare is to create a nurturing and loving space for children to grow, learn and explore through play thus enabling them to be happy. Once they feel truly happy, their actions in daily life will be refined and flow from that space of happiness. Hence the school’s Motto is ‘Be Good Do Good’.
The core pillars that form the foundation of COLT are:
Serve – Be mindful that all you learn is to serve and care for humanity and the environment.
Love – Love is the primary principle that should guide all your actions. Love all beings equally.
Focus – Have an aim in life and focus all your thoughts and actions towards that to be successful.
Learn – Learn all that you require to lead a happy and meaningful life. Learn about yourself, the world and God.
Our Story
In 2017 with the resources available COLT commenced with six children from two communities operating 3 days per week from 8am to 11:30am. With further funding the service was extended to 4 days per week.
A qualified Educare teacher was appointed in April 2019. The service was extended to 5 days per week from 8am to 12:30pm, accommodating twelve children from three communities. In 2021 a second class was created for the 3 – 4 year olds and the Educare intake increased to a total of nineteen children from the three communities.
In 2022 COLT reached capacity and currently twenty children attend the Educare. It has become necessary to maintain a waiting list for the three communities – Hadji Ebrahim Crescent, Pook se Bos, and Flamingo Heights.
Extending contact time with the children would reduce the time that they spend roaming the streets. The next big step in the Educare’s growth is to lengthen the COLT daily program until 4pm on weekdays. Funding to cover the teachers’ remuneration for additional hours is the main limiting factor! Please help COLT give these children a better chance in life.
COLT is a registered non-profit organisation that relies on donations for all of its funding. A team of committed volunteers, together with four paid members of staff run the educare.