Norma Road Primary School

One of our biggest and continuing projects is our beloved Norma Road Primary School in Athlone. Here our work is never finished. Over 300 children from underprivileged Cape Town areas go to this school where they get their education in English and really get a chance for a more prosperous future.

The Maurits van Nierop Foundation is supporting the remedial teaching programme of the school with a fulltime remedial teacher since 2011. The remedial teaching programme was brought to our attention by Tarryn Kelly, wife of Brendan, one of Maurits’ best friends in Cape Town. Tarryn was associated to the school through a project from the Psychology Department of the University of the Western Cape.

More than half of the pupils are from underprivileged areas such as Khayelitsha, Gugulethu and Langa and are native Xhosa speaking. Many have learning disorders. The school can only afford a remedial teacher for 3 days a week and only for pupils in standard 1, 2 and 3.

The school also runs a limited sports programme. With hardly any budget the children get exposed to various sports, amongst others hockey! This is also a continious potential area for support. The MVNF is for instance always looking to facilitate hockey clinics run by players of Dutch National or First League club teams that visit Cape Town on a fairly regular basis.

There is a continuous shortage of hockey equipment and the MVNF is therefore calling on the Dutch hockey community to donate their used or unused sticks and shoes, so that we can try to get these transported to Cape Town.

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Restoration project 2016

August 18 2016 was a very special day for our Foundation and the Norma Road Primary School. With a small but impressive ceremony the new facilities, which were realized during the winter recess (our summer holiday), were taken into use. Thanks to the enormous proceeds so far in 2016 we were able to fully renovate all toilet blocks. Plumbing and new toilets (no less than thirty!) and basins were installed and everything was neatly tiled. Thanks to the local contacts of Rene Naylor, our MvNF ambassador on the spot, all labour costs were covered by sponsors.

To give the whole project a firm foundation we took the opportunity to modernize the kitchen facilities of the teachers, where they can prepare breakfast and lunch for 300 children. Because there was no warm water we installed a boiler which makes live a lot easier for all concerned. We also found out that the teachers only had two toilets at their disposal. By converting a storage into six toilets that problem was solved. A most impressive moment for our Foundation and an absolute highlight of our activities in the Cape Town region.

Once again we want to thank all people who in the past years did their outmost to make our Foundation a big success. Together we were able to organize this splendid local project en bring it to a successful conclusion. All the photographs of the new facilities and a short film of the ceremony are on the website. Rene’s moving words on Maurits, the Foundation and the fantastic Norma Road Primary School wil stay in our memory for a long time.

Together we were able to organize this splendid local project en bring it to a successful conclusion.

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Library

Another ongoing project is updating the library. Especially the geography and history books were very outdated.

Thanks largely to the contributions from our ambassador Thijs Vermeulen, who indicated that he would like his donations to the MVNF to be used for the benefit of the library, a significant number of new books have been purchased and we will keep on doing that.

Thanks largely to the contributions from our ambassador Thijs Vermeulen

Digital projectors

In South Africa, education is increasingly dependent on the internet. An ever-growing part of the curriculum is followed “online.” For large private schools, this is not an issue at all, but for schools in less affluent neighborhoods, it is completely inaccessible.

Thanks to the MVNF, the school is able to equip five classrooms with the necessary infrastructure. The projectors (beamers) needed for this were purchased through a one-time, project-based donation from the Dorpshuis Bloemendaal Foundation.

The MVNF and, of course, the Norma Road School are very grateful to the Dorpshuis Bloemendaal Foundation.

The Maurits van Nierop Award

The latest visit to Cape Town by Joke van Nierop coincided with the end of the school year in South Africa.

Together with our ambassador in Cape Town, Rene Naylor, she had the honor of presenting awards during the annual “prize-giving ceremony.” It was especially nice to present the Maurits van Nierop Award, for the student who has made the most progress in reading, to Lindinkosi Dube, a Xhosa-speaking boy who is receiving education in English at the Norma Road School.

All we can conclude is that this project is the ideal and right cause for the MVNF since it fits the aim of the foundation perfectly.

Want to visit the Norma Road Primary School?

Norma Road
Silvertown, Athlone
Cape Town – South Africa

Norma Road Primary School

One of our biggest and continuing projects is our beloved Norma Road Primary School in Athlone. Here our work is never finished. Over 300 children from underprivileged Cape Town areas go to this school where they get their education in English and really get a chance for a more prosperous future.

Restoration project 2016

Library

Another ongoing project is updating the library. Especially the geography and history books were very outdated.

Digital projectors

In South Africa, education is increasingly dependent on the internet. An ever-growing part of the curriculum is followed “online.” For large private schools, this is not an issue at all, but for schools in less affluent neighborhoods, it is completely inaccessible.

The Maurits van Nierop Award

The latest visit to Cape Town by Joke van Nierop coincided with the end of the school year in South Africa.

Sporting Chance

Norma Road Primary School

Gary Kirsten Foundation

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