Guernsey charity to build ‘game changer’ Eduhub in South Africa

Nigel and Jayne Pascoe founded the charity and have made more than 20 charitable trips to South Africa since Goal50 was founded in 2010.

The new Eduhub to support 100 children and their families will be built in Heideveld in South Africa.

Its exterior walls will be constructed using 6,000 tyres filled with recycled building rubble, and will be three times bigger than the Ulwazi pre-school which was constructed four years ago in the Delft settlement.

Ulwazi’s head teacher Patience Bangani said it was a privilege to meet the couple.

‘Their initiative to build an Eduhub in Heideveld will be a game changer for the community,’ she said.

‘In Delft, we have seen the importance of such a facility to our people and it has been a lifeline to hundreds of children.’

Mrs Pascoe said that Guernsey often takes its safety for granted.

‘These people live in fear every day. On the morning of our departure, I heard gunshots. As we drove the short distance to the airport, the man’s body was still at the side of the road,’ she said.

Mr Pascoe said that he was keen to hear from anyone interested in learning about the work of Goal50 and particularly from South Africans.

‘Guernsey is privileged to have approximately 5% of its population coming from South Africa. It would be great to keep supporting the South African nation from 6,000 miles away.’

‘ESG [Environmental, Social and Governance] targeting is high on the agenda for a lot of businesses. Maybe Goal50 and local businesses could help each other?’ he said.

Goal50 was set up to support the township settlements in Cape Town with food programmes, job schemes and drug rehabilitation assistance.

It houses 27 children attending a pre–school creche, many of whom had come from homes where family members were either in prison, killed in gang fights or struggling with drug and solvent abuse.

Mr and Mrs Pascoe have recently returned from South Africa, where knitted jumpers and toys were given to children, and a visit was made to the Ark for Men Drug Rehabilitation Centre.

About 450 men who were gangsters, traffickers and addicts are now going through a biblical rehab programme,

Mr Pascoe spoke to them about the journey of life and the Liverpool FC anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone and related it to how God was always with them.

A Liverpool football shirt and a bag of footballs were left, as well as three weeks’-worth of breakfast ingredients.