Genesis – an initiative of the community

Light for the Children has been called into existence by people who live in the slums themselves and who have taken the need of the children for food, education and a safe place during the day to their heart. In the most simple ways, they’ve been following these needs until they have joined with the church community in this area and built offers for the children.

1999 they were able to buy land with this support and to start the building of a centre for a pre-school and a soup kitchen. The organizer put up the walls with their self-made bricks together with the community.  In this way the centre was being acknowledged as a project for the development of the community as well. Different institutions have been helping with building the roofs.

The founders were Gerhard Hamutenya, Filippus Matjapuka, Henk Olwage. In 2002 the project Shalom was integrated then, founded by Isabella Matroos. The centre is situated directly at the border to the slums and is forming part of it. After a while the children could be spread into different age groups, classes resulted, teaching youth as well as afternoon care and the garden came afterwards.

The parents are being supported to find a suitable elementary school or another school for the children leaving pre-school and the youth. The project is strongly dependent on donations and there are constantly financial fluctuations. In 2010 the contact between Michael Hoppe and Henk Olwage, the church pastor and leader of Light for the Children was made.