Perpetua House, in Monte Vista, the northern suburb of Cape Town, hopes to break barriers for special needs young people so that they, like all others, can live meaningful lives and become contributing members of society.
Founder and Principal Carolynn Greaves says Perpetua House has also created an environment for the children who have left school to meet, socialise, and contribute to the community while making a variety of goods in a crafting workshop.
Perpetua House is an intermediate and senior phase school for learners from the age of 12 years with special educational needs. The school caters for all special needs learners including those with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Downs syndrome and Cerebral Palsy. At the school, learners are taught, and trained, to be active members of society in a loving and nurturing environment that encourages them to develop to their full potential.
As an individual, Ms Greaves says the school has opened her eyes to the plight of the special needs children in the communities, particularly those with intellectual disabilities. According to Ms Greaves, the current school system is not always able to meet their needs which can result in them being placed in classrooms without adequate support.
Talking about her passion for teaching and how the idea of opening a school was born, she says she started working for a private inclusive primary school teaching grade 1’s learners. “My first group of learners was a full box of smarties – 11 children, amongst them a child with Down syndrome, a child with Pervasive Development Disorder, a child on the Autism Spectrum, and others. Having worked for a government school this was a baptism of fire, but these children crept into my heart, and we soldiered through.”
“As the children got older and progressed through the grades, the special needs children kept coming to see me for extra lessons, sports activities, and a hug. We also noticed that the CAPS curriculum was becoming increasingly challenging for our special needs learners even in our protected environment.”
She says the special needs learners were becoming increasingly aware of the fact that they were not doing the same work as their peers and this was resulting in unhappiness.
“The school owner and former principal, Gail Fouche and I, started doing research as to where we could send our children. We visited schools, special schools, day centres, residential centres, you name it we went. The best choice we found was a school in the Southern suburbs of Cape Town, but sadly our parents could not afford the school fees. Gail then took the leap of faith and decided we should open our own facility. We opened a Trust, and I was appointed the principal to run it.”
In January 2012, Perpetua House opened its doors and welcomed seven children. “When we started, we used to sit on and around garden furniture, working off a chalkboard and using my cell phone and notebook laptop. I had no official curriculum, just an idea of what I wanted to achieve with this group of teenagers,” she recalls.
Ms Greaves says as the years have passed, she has drawn from what was available like the School of Skills Curriculum and other resources that were available resulting in what the school has adopted. The school’s curriculum now has incorporated Numeracy and Literacy at the child’s level, Social Science, Natural Science and Life Skills for general knowledge and the major focus, Skill Development.
“Things changed slightly as the years passed, but the COVID-19 pandemic brought about our biggest change. I was sitting with two problems, a very reduced learner intake and our learners who had graduated had nowhere to go. I, therefore, started our crafters’ group for our young adults who have graduated. This solved both problems, bringing in much-needed income and providing our young adults with a safe environment to socialize and give them a sense of worth.”
“Our crafters meet twice a week where they are “employed” to work. They receive a pay allowance at the end of the month for coming to work and contributing. We make things to sell at markets and we have started making corporate gifts.”
Perpetua House gives as many youths as possible the opportunity to an education and a safe space to try and prepare them for the real world. “One of our goals is to expose our learners to a wide range of skills so that they can make informed decisions about their future careers. But as NPO, we charge fees where we can, but we rely on a great deal of sponsorship in the form of bursaries for our learners.” Contributions from the community make such a difference, like a fully maintained and insured school bus sponsored by Protea Toyota, Infiniti Insurance and Carl Greaves Brokers.
Just like many NPOs, the challenges the Perpetua House is facing include finances, compliance, admin, staffing, and then the heavy emotional toll. One of the long-term goals is to upgrade their facilities so that they can touch as many lives as possible. Sharon Paterson, CEO of Infiniti Insurance, a loyal sponsor of Perpetua House, challenges other companies out there to step forward and donate to the amazing little school filled with loving young people so that the good work can continue and, instead of being a burden on society, these young people can become, in Ms Greave’s words, contributors.
Ms Greaves says her work has become her life. “I have watched the children grow up from the ages of six or seven and celebrated their 21st birthdays with them. We have held hands at funerals and danced the night away at birthday parties.”
