Khulani Special Needs School, South Africa

On our recent visit to the Mdudla School, our friends at the “&Beyond Foundation” introduced us to the Khulani Special School in the community of Mduku. The school is very close to both the Mdudla and Advent Hope Schools, which we currently support with funding for buildings, educational materials, food and medical aid.

The Khulani Special Needs School is today home to 30 physically and mentally disabled children, whose age ranges from 4 years to 12 years old. Despite their severe problems and appalling living conditions, the children are well cared for and are generally very happy. The prevalence of disability amongst children in Mduku and the neighbouring communities of Mnqobokazi and Nibela is unusually high and yet the nearest formal special school is over 150km away. Thus a few members of the community got together to address the issue and the Khulani was born with children being looked after initially under a tree tent. Today the children live in two very cramped buildings, no bigger than a garden shed, where they eat, work and sleep all together. By day the rooms become a classroom and kitchen and by night a dormitory.

Through the local community and the “&Beyond Foundation”, the school has recently been given a 1 hectare site, in which to build a new school from scratch. Having spent the day with the children and their carers it soon became very apparent that significant help was needed and therefore the Point Foundation has agreed to become a major fund donor as well as provide some volunteers to go down and assist the school in November. The first phase for work is estimated at 800,000 Rand (£70,000) and it is envisaged that eventually the Khulani Special School will house over 150 disabled children who will be able to live and learn in considerably better surroundings than which they are used to today. We will be extremely proud to be associated with such amazing people and children who, despite terrible conditions, are so inspirational to us all.

Update from our latest visit

The Khulani Special Needs School is now home to around 50 physically and mentally disabled children. Some of the children are orphans while others live with their families and come to the school daily, many covering large distances as this is the only special needs school in 150km. The Point Foundation have been supporting the Khulani with food, medical and educational aid for two years now and recently funded the building of four specialized toilets and showers. We have put a significant amount of funds into the new build project, which our partners The &Beyond Foundation" are managing. Following an extraordinary amount of lobbying of the South African Government, by &Beyond and the local community, they have now agreed to help the rebuilding of the school with funding and labour and a special department has been enlisted to move the project forward.

The photos show the latest addition to the school - a mobile classroom, which has been altered to suit to children's needs. This means that now the existing building, which the children use and for which are a dormitory by night and a classroom and kitchen by day, can be used purely for living in with no need to put beds away in the morning.

The final plan for this new school has been completed and building will start at the end of the year - 12 months behind original schedule. Eventually it is hoped that the school will be home to around 150 children with a further 150 coming in daily for classes. The Point Foundation will continue to support the &Beyond Foundation and the Khulani School with both funding and with volunteers.