PASCAP Trust - Partners with After School Care Projects
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Where did it all start?
PASCAP Trust was establised 1989 in response to the overwhelming effects of poverty on the lives of children in South Africa's apartheid townships. Unemployment, alcoholism, child abuse and gangsterism were some of the debilitating problems confronting children and family life. Often, the removal of children from these circumstances into foster or institutional care compounded the difficulties experienced by families, and children especially suffer the potentially irreversible effects of losing touch with their parents.
PASCAP Trust's first pilot programme was launched in Parkwood, a township in Cape Town, in 1992. The programme was a phenomenal success! Within 3 years the pass rates of children attending the programme rose by 70%, indicating improved levels of children's psycho-emotional and intellectual functioning. Children also appeared more relaxed, and less prone to physical and emotional threats. The first pilot led to more communities being interested in after school programmes. Today PASCAP Trust provides services in the Eastern and Western Cape provinces and offers information on after school practice to other parts of the country.
After school care to counter poverty
PASCAP Trust:
- partners and collaborates with communities, schools, organisations and government to develop after school programmes in high poverty profile communities
- develops and offers training programmes to enhance the skills of after school providers and decision-makers
- works to build the capacity of local communities to offer quality after school programmes that are sustainable
- networks with a wide range of social partners to enhance the after school experience for vulnerable children and youth by building systems to support after school providers
- trains and mentors after school facilitators to provide better after school opportunities for children and youth
- builds after school care models to promote the replication of best practices
- encourages communities to take ownership of their own after school programmes, and offers a range of services to build administrative, financial and operational sustainability.
Vision
PASCAP Trust has a vision of a society where children and youth thrive and grow - where safety, prosperity and opportunity are a way of life for all.
Mission statement
PASCAP Trust is committed to the development of innovative, effective and sustainable after school programmes for children and youth to enhance equal opportunity and life quality.
This process is aimed at, and includes the promotion of:
- children's rights in accordance with the Declaration of the Rights of the Child of the United Nations and the African Union,
- the development of gender and socio-economic equity, and
- human rights in accordance with the South African Bill of Rights and the International Human Rights Convention.