Net vir Pret

Net vir Pret (Just for Fun) has become a very important project within the EDSA portfolio and we are very committed to its ongoing development. It is developing out of school and youth work based mainly in and around the Barrydale/Smitsville township area in the Overberg, Western Cape.  It also works in isolated Farm Schools in the area.  EDSA raised the funds for the initial embryonic After-school Club in 2003, on the initiative of Ann Brown, EDSA founding Trustee, who became aware of the obvious need when she was visiting Barrydale. Net vir Pret is growing fast and now has a funded Youth and Community Worker, Project Development Worker and assistant Childrens Worker.  EDSA is very keen to help Net Vir Pret to sustain and further develop its activities.  Net Vir Pret has a well developed management committee and is a registered not for profit organisation. 

Its mission is to encourage self-esteem, confidence and a sense of responsibility among the children of rural fruit pickers in the Barrydale/Smitsville area of the Overberg, Western Cape many of whom are depleted by alcohol and decades of degrading racism; thereby reducing the possibility of petty crime,dependence on drugs and alcohol, and lack of ambition among these children of the new South Africa.

The aim of Net vir Pret is to provide crative and stimulating after-school activities which promote creativity, self-confidence and a sense of responsibility among marginalised rural coloured or mixed race young people.

Its activities include:

  • Net vir Pret after-school club, where under experienced leadership, children can make music, draw, paint, read, play with puzzles and construction/educational toys such as they will not have at home.
  • the training of high-school volunteers who assist the children in their creative activities.
  • extending the vision of these home-bound children by taking them outside their local rural area on leisure and educational trips to towns or the seaside.
  • visits from artists and educators of a different ethnic background, in particular from the Xhosa-speaking people who do not live in this area to extend experience and understanding 
  • the further development of several small toy libraries and play sessions so that these deprived children can play with the same creative and educational toys that their more fortunate peers take for granted.
  • regular holiday projects including a meal to ensure children are safe, secure and fed at these times whilst also being encouraged to participate in a range of creative activities 

Recent achievements include:

  • A gardening project in BF Oosthuizen school
  • The decoration of bleak and unadorned school entrances with exotic flowers made by the children at the after school club from discarded plastic bottles
  • The creation of a Christmas tree from recycled materials - featured in the Cape Argus newspaper
  • Children learning to make baskets and bead work
  • Children taking part in a local 16th June Youth Day Concert
  • The after school club giving a presentation of drumming and gumboot dancing to local dignitaries at the public library
  • Involvement in HIV and TB campaign with other organsiations - police, social services, health department
  • Xhosa and English lessons for the mainly Afrikaans speaking children
  • Involvement in a photographic project with disposable cameras and an exhibition in the local library and school.

Queue for toy libraryQueue for toy libraryThe salary of the Net vir Pret Youth and Community worker, Peter, is being funded for five years by a Dutch charity - Stichting Projecten Zuid Afrika together with the UK based Jephcott Charitable Trust and two private donors. This has made the development of Net vir Pret projects possible - many thanks to these visionary funders.

Net vir Pret has also established three toy libraries. The first in Smitsville has been running since 2004 and was an overnight success. Other toy libraries followed in two Farm Schools, also great successes and we are happy to say that some parents are getting involved. Net vir Pret, with further funding through EDSA, now wants to open toy libraries for children attending all the isolated Farm schools along the route 62. Most of their families rely on seasonal fruit picking and packing for their income however many have been addicted to the wine with which they were once paid. Many of the generation of workers brought up during apartheid years have been demoralized by their abusive history and have little ambition to break out of their cycle of poverty and alcoholism. The children in these isolated rural areas are deprived in many ways and certainly lack anything to stimulate their imagination in the home. The toys our children take for granted are unknown to these children and can make a great difference to their life. Toy libraries are an important resource to them and to their parents.

Funders for the existing toy libraries and other resources have included SAGA Charitable Trust; Jephcott Charitable Trust; the Toy Trust and many individual donors - again many thanks.

EDSA is urgently seeking further funding to develop the toy libraries and to sustain the after school and youth work as well as seeking ways of developing a one to one mentoring scheme for young people. For an Annual Report on the activites of Net vir Pret please contact: EDSA Trustees, c/o 14 Riverside Road, Oxford OX2 0HU or tel. 01865 248 189 or email trustees@edsa.org.uk