History of the Heideveld community
Heideveld is a township area on the Cape Flats, less than 20kms from Cape Town city centre. Swathes of families were resettled here in the 1960s after the apartheid government forcibly removed them from District Six, an area much nearer to the city and public amenities.
Fifty years on, the community is facing huge problems relating to unemployment, drug and alcohol dependency, violence and family fragmentation, overcrowding, malnutrition, child abuse, gangsterism, truancy and school drop out. The schools in the area are very poor, with huge classes – some with around 50 children, morale is often low and the staff are not always trained adequately. The literacy rate in Heideveld is around 24% and the average child drops out of school at just 12 years old. The net result is a lot of broken families with many, many vulnerable children who do not have basic care and…affection that we take for granted.