About Won Life
Won Life is a registered non profit organisation (NPO) working in the community of Fisantekraal, just outside of Durbanville. We have worked in this community since 1999.
Won Life believes that the future of our country is largely determined by the quality of education delivered to our youth. With a good education, children have the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty and carve out a preferred future for themselves and their families.
As we continue to impact and influence children’s lives, we will see the development of responsible and active citizens.
Vision Statement
Improving education to promote community upliftment in Fisantekraal.
Mission Statement
Won Life exists to improve the quality of education for the learners in the community of Fisantekraal. This is achieved through our four education-based programmes, namely: Early Learning Centre, Literacy Centre, Teacher Mentorship Programme and our High School Education Centre.
Early Learning Centre
The Early Learning Centre is a registered, independent Grade R preschool providing excellent, holistic education to 120 learners each year. It started as an informal day-care in 2005 and was registered with the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) in 2007 to become the first Grade R school in the community.
The facility allows us to provide additional services to the community and serves as a base for our organisation’s administration office. The Early Learning Centre has grown from strength to strength each year and is now an established haven for children in the community; a place of safety, both physically and emotionally, where they can freely discover the world around them and where foundations can be laid that will ensure that these little people are well-prepared for Grade 1 and set up for future school success. Our dynamic staff team consists of a Principal, four teachers, two teacher assistants as well as two kitchen and facilities staff.
Literacy Centre
The Won Life Literacy Centre was opened in May 2013 in converted and renovated shipping containers on Trevor Manuel Primary School’s premises. This programme uses curriculum developed by Shine Literacy, an established non-profit organisation focusing on English literacy intervention.
Our aim is to equip these young learners with critical comprehension skills which are key to their academic success. Learning to read has been identified by experts as the key educational goal for learners in Grades 1 to 3 as it is the core academic skill upon which all other academic skills are built. More than this, the programme facilitates a smoother transition to Grade 4 for the Xhosa learners who switch from Xhosa to English as their language of instruction as they enter the Intermediate Phase.
High School Programme
Our High School Programme involves a two-pronged approach. Firstly, to facilitate partnerships with external organisations that will add value in the high school environment. Examples of this are: OneSight, which offers eyecare and spectacles to all students in need, as well as The Usapho Foundation, who facilitate a Teen Parenting workshop for young learners navigating the pressures of parenting at a young age while, at the same time, completing their schooling.
The second aspect of our High School Programme is the Education Centre, which was established in 2017. The Education Centre provides a safe, well-resourced environment for high school learners from Fisantekraal to complete their homework, projects and studying so that they may successfully complete their high school education and ultimately choose an appropriate occupation or course of tertiary study.
Teacher Mentorship Programme
The Teacher Mentorship Programme was established in 2012 and currently equips 15 Foundation Phase teachers at Trevor Manual Primary School, the local government school in Fisantekraal, to deliver quality education to the children in their care. With approximately 200 children in each of the grades 1, 2 and 3, we have the opportunity to empower teachers to significantly influence the educational trajectory of almost 600 lives each year.
We are excited to announce that next year we will be extending this significant programme to include the Grade 4 teachers at Trevor Manuel Primary, thereby broadening our reach to begin to support Intermediate Phase teachers too.
