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FiX Africa Home School was founded in January 2016 by the Carinus van der Walt Trust. Living in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa and confronted with the need to bridge a gap in the primary education of her Fragile X Syndrome/Severe learning disabled, non-speaking child, Darla Carinus, pursued all avenues available and found that there was nothing suitable for her in Port Elizabeth whilst she waited for the special needs schools in the Eastern and Western Cape to contact her. Jayden van der Walt was ‘wait’listed. However, educating special needs children in their formative years whilst waiting assessment was lacking. Contacting the Department of Education and obtaining another exemption for her son for 2016 the urgency of doing something and filling the gap became more apparent.

Having been home schooled herself on the ACE system in Lesotho, Southern Africa, Darla obtained the services of a special needs educarer/facilitator. Lindy van Loggerenberg has come to FiX Africa with years of experience with special needs children, working at Victory Kids, St Barts and facilitating children with special needs to mainstream into appropriate schools.

Darla involved her Mom (Sandra Fraser Carinus). She had tutored and home schooled Darla in Lesotho and worked at the ACE School, Mabelreign Learning Centre, Harare, Zimbabwe in the early 80’s as a Kindergarten (Grade R to 1) teacher facilitator.

Tonya Carinus Voultsos offers her legal eagle advice and wisdom and is an advocate for children with severe learning disabilities.

Whilst the tree might appear to be planted upside down, same as our special needs children who look and act different and appear “upside down”, the baobab is the symbol of the strength of Africa.

Rooted in Africa the tree is revered for its healing properties, incredible resilience and strength. The Baobab is unusual in that it is approximately 90% water and it mirrors a human being and the earth, which are comprised of 90% water.

Every part of the baobab tree is valuable just like our learning disabled children - the bark can be turned into rope and clothing, the seeds can be used to make cosmetic oils, the leaves are edible and can store water and the fruit pulp is extraordinarily rich in nutrients.

Our inability to live with difference is a measure of our limited knowledge. (Kofi Asare Opoku)

VISION : Learning to live with differences compassionately and Forming Individual eXcellence in a home school environment in South Africa.

MISSION: Recognises that each child is an individual; all children are creative; and that all children need to succeed. The primary goal is to respect the individual needs of children; fostering a caring and creative learning environment that emphasizes the social (communication), emotional, physical, intellectual development of each child.