Madombidzha School Concept

Project for “School & Dining Room” for mentally handicapped children in Madombizha (South Africa)
The association “Clam per la Dignitat” (CxD) of Sant Just Desvern (Barcelona), has been recently formed, although it has some history behind it. It came into being through the activities of a group of young people - JAS (Juventud Alegre de Sarria) - of Barcelona involved in social work during the 1990’s.

Among other activities, JAS organized a work camp in 1998 in the city of Louis Trichardt (LTT, South Africa) and its nine surrounding villages. It also set up a work camp with the participation of young South Africans in Barcelona in 1999.

During these work camps, it became evident to the play-time monitors and from the teachers working in rural areas, that it was necessary to provide the area with 3 schools with dining rooms/ canteens equipped for physically disabled children, nine common areas and a nursery school. To this end, the project of CxD aims to:
- establish public services in the nine villages
- provide resources for training new educators and teachers, as well as other professionals and,
- support and develop local initiatives in the form of co-operatives and micro-companies.

In a first phase we want to focus on the pilot project of building and operating the school & dining room for mentally handicapped people in Madombizha (Madombizha School). The constructed area of the school & dining room is 1000m2. Due to its dimensions there are four phases planned for its construction (600m2, 200m2, 100m2 and 100m2). These four phases can function independently. Depending on finances, our first target is the building of the initial phase of the school & dinning room, aiming to have this operational by 2003/2004.