Doctors at SCP Radiology’s Worcester branch are celebrating the official registration of an early childhood development centre which they have been instrumental in developing. The Kolgansies ECD Centre is an initiative of the Lena Johnson Trust, an NPO which runs a feeding scheme in the poverty-ridden neighbourhood of Avian Park. Doctors at SCP have been supporting this feeding scheme for more than a decade.

The ECD centre’s development was prompted by a gang-related shooting in 2019 when the founder of the feeding scheme, Lena Johnson, was hit by a stray bullet. She felt compelled to create a place of safety for young children in the neighbourhood and approached her long-time supporters for help.

It took Drs Johan Blomerus and Riaan Joubert, in collaboration with a handful of other business owners in town, three years to conclude the purchase and transfer of a suitable neighbouring property, to restore the building to an acceptable condition, and to transform it into a well-equipped ECD centre.

The centre finally opened its doors on 1 February 2022. Almost two years later, it has just finalised a lengthy registration process with the Department of Social Development. The centre has also been granted Section 18A status, which allows for tax-deductible donations.

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A decade of ongoing support

It is a milestone that Dr Blomerus says he is happy to celebrate. He and Dr Joubert have been closely involved with the Trust since 2012.

What started as occasional food contributions to a single soup kitchen back then, soon became a formalised programme. A small group of businesses – including the local radiology practice – started taking turns to drop off a weekly food donation, a schedule that is being sustained to this day. The scheme now provides nutritious meals to over 200 local children each week.

The addition of the ECD centre

The ECD centre has been developed in a fully restored ruin right across from Johnson’s own house and soup kitchen. The businesses also sponsored the tertiary studies of an ECD teacher from the neighbourhood.

This combination enables Johnson and her colleagues to provide preschool children with an approved, quality ECD programme on a daily basis while also managing to sustain the larger feeding scheme.

Official registration with the Department of Social Development marks the final step in establishing Kolgansies ECD Centre and Dr Blomerus is looking forward to many more years of meaningful support.

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For more information on SCP Radiology’s social responsibility efforts, click here.