Building Project
The Berakah Educational Centre
The building of the Berakah Educational Centre is in full swing. The new kitchen is finished, the ablution block is in full use, the University of Pretoria's faculty for Building Economics is on board with many students involved with the building of more classrooms, a generous grant for concrete for the foundations and flooring of the hall and other surfaces, was made by Group Five and grants for materials and services are streaming in. We were able to give up the temporal site and moved into the new facility at the end of October.
Although not complete yet, the new centre houses all the programmes of Berakah, namely the Day Care Centre, where we are presenting Early Childhood Development Programmes, the After School Care Centre and facilities for Adult Basic Education and Training. In addition to that, we will have a hall, that will make it possible to present workshops to young people (art,craft making, music, drama etc). The hall will also be made available to the community for functions, as there is no such option presently in the area. In addition to the classrooms and hall, the centre will have an administration block, vegetable gardens, kitchen and covered dining area. Recreation facilities and music rooms will be adjacent to a small infirmary and the care-taker will have a permanent residence on the property.
Plans for the Berakah Educational Centre has been approved in the second week of February 2009 and site clearing and ground-works begun in March 2009. The first phase, an ablution block for boys and girls with adjacent classrooms, was sponsored by the Rotary Club, Pretoria East. This phase was completed and opened on the 5th of September 2009 followed by Phase Two the building of a Kitchen, which was completed and taken into use at the end of October 2009. The UP is busy with Phase Three, classrooms and offices.
The Viva Centre
In addition to the building of the education centre, Berakah, formed a partnership with the University of Pretoria and Echo Youth, to develop a centre for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, the Viva Centre. Ground was obtained from the local council in the informal settlement (squatter camp) and grants received for an electric fence, ground works, concrete and the first two wooden houses. This centre will be a self-sustaining village for the OVC and the families that provide them care. There will be a vegetable garden, child care facilities and a business development centre.
Plans for the second Viva Centre in Nelmapius (a settlement adjacent to our present location) is in the pipeline. It is our aim to duplicate the concepts of both the Berakah Educational Centre as well as the Viva villages, where-ever the need exists, in Gauteng, South Africa and in the future also in other countries. People with contacts or information about cities and towns where such centres are needed, are invited to contact Meleney Kriel (CEO - Berakah Educational Foundation)
Volunteers from Echo Youth, the Hatfield Christian Church's Young Adults and Escom, have been involved in the building of the Viva Village. Trenches were dug for the pipes, ceptic tank and sewer connections, they also helped to clad the insides of the wooden houses, build a roofed veranda and welded beds into double bunks for the children.
The story in pictures...
For more information regarding the costs and what we need to complete these projects, please see Resource Requirements.
Building of Phase one as on the 17 Jul 09
Existing pavillion on site, to be
converted into kitchen as per August 09
Kitchen during contruction Sep 09
Kitchen as per 25 Sep 09
The Electric
Fence going up at the Viva Centre Site
Earth Works at the Viva Centre
as per 20 Sep 09
Children queing at the new ablution block Sep 09
Volunteers at Viva,
building and painting beds Oct 09 
Volunteers digging
trenches at Viva Oct 09 
Children at Berakah
26 Oct 09