December 2022
Victory4All has a beautiful centre in Humansdorp for children and young people with physical or mental disabilities and/or learning difficulties, called Rainbow Village. The different parts of this centre are Rainbow School, the Skills Centre, the Rainbow Angels and three foster homes.
It is a lively centre, where lots of laughter can be heard. All staff members strive to make each department a safe place where the kids are free to be themselves and develop at their own pace.
Rainbow School has about 85 students with various learning or behavioural difficulties. In the small groups at Rainbow School, the gifts and talents of these children are sought out and stimulated, with love, attention and specialised educational methods. Often they are able to do so much more than they ever expected.
The Rainbow children receive two healthy meals a day: porridge in the morning and a warm, nutritious lunch in the afternoon.
When the kids turn 18, they can join the Rainbow Skills Centre. Here they take part in different programmes, such as woodwork, catering, gardening, a carwash, an art gallery and needlework. The practical and social skills that these youngsters learn here, make it easier for them to find a job.
It’s amazing for them to learn things they had never thought possible. It feels special to have a real job and be able to sell the goods you manufactured with your own hands. For example, a couple of companies in the neighbourhood order their team lunches from the catering group. The stroopwafel (Dutch caramel wafels) bakery called Soete Swaan, also part of the Rainbow Skills Centre, is gaining much popularity and ships its sweet goods all over the country.
The Rainbow Angels group is a safe place where children with multiple handicaps receive loving care. The personalised learning and development tools are aimed at the improvement of communication and motor skills, mainly through playing. They are also stimulated in many creative ways, for example through music, dance and reading from the Bible and storybooks, which the children absolutely love.
It’s amazing to see them develop and progress, even if it’s with tiny steps at a time.
Some of these children were found in a shack, where they spent years on a bed. Parents often have no idea how to care for their child, how to stimulate their growth and development or even make life bearable for them. Because there is close to no support from the government or the health system, we give a lot of attention to family support and education at Rainbow. We also advise and assist in finding specialised healthcare equipment, such as personalised wheelchairs.
In the Rainbow Village Foster homes (three of the eight Victory4All homes) we take in children who had to be rescued from unsafe and unstable living conditions. Here they are loved, cared for and given room and support to work through their traumas. It’s amazing to see these wounded little ones blossom and find pleasure in life again. Most of these children also go to one of the schools within Victory4All.
