The Nhlangasi Day Care Centre is an early learning centre for 90 children drawn from the rural communities living in and around Phalaborwa in the Limpopo Province. Every year at the height of summer, many of their mothers are out harvesting the marula fruit, indigenous to southern Africa, from which Amarula is made.
The Amarula Trust, a not-for-profit initiative established to support community upliftment and conservation programmes, was instrumental in the establishment of the facility in 2004. Operating all year round with a team of six teachers who take care of the children, the centre’s activities are designed to equip the children, who range in age from toddlers to pre-primary schoolers with the building blocks for their formal schooling. Many are already familiar with the alphabet by the time they enter primary school.
Says the trust’s Lorien Kee who visited the centre ahead of the 2011 harvest: “We support enabling projects intended to help marginalised rural communities find ways to break the impact of poverty. Research has shown that one of the most critical impediments to successful formal learning and the development of life skills is a lack of early learning stimuli through games, story-telling, problem-solving and physical play. By exposing these children to such activities, the centre hopes to give them a head start for life.”
She says the trust continues to provide support to the centre, ensuring ready access to water thanks to a borehole drilled on-site, as well as donating toys and educational material.
Amarula, known as the spirit of Africa, is South Africa’s most widely distributed liquor brand, selling in 103 countries worldwide. It has been ranked as one of the world’s fastest-growing spirit brands by Drinks International, based on data researched by Euromonitor.
The Amarula Trust focuses on promoting social and geo-physical sustainability through a range of projects established nationwide.
For further information on Amarula Cream please visit www.amarula.com and on the Amarula Trust www.amarulatrust.com.
