Aunty Betty, a mother to many
Better known as Aunty Betty, Betty Kennedy, is well-known and loved by everyone she meets
POLOKWANE – Aunty Betty is a beacon of love and hope in Polokwane, and is best known as the founder of Myngenoegen English Private School (Meps).
She attended shool in Venda, but could not understand the language and subsequently failed. She dropped out of school and started to work as a tea girl and later a shopkeeper.
“I started a crèche at my house in Westenburg in the city in 1990 with only four children. It soon grew and more and more children attended the crèche and soon there were 120 children who stayed with me day and night. They were between the ages of one to six years and I looked after them like they were my own,” she says.
After the authorities lodged concerns about the crèche and its facility size, she bought her mother’s house and started a school.
Soon this too became too small and she decided to buy an even bigger property where she could take care of the children.
“I looked to buy a smallholding close to Westenburg and found a place to buy on Myngenoegen plots just a short distance away. I did not have a lot of money at the time so the smallholding we bought wasn’t in pristine condition. We cleaned up the workshop and developed it into bathrooms for the children. We created a crèche and a boarding house and soon the children grew up and needed to attend school. I built classrooms for the Gr 1 to 3 learners, and as the children do not pay any school fees, it was tough to get the finances, but still the school thrived.”
She explains that people would bring her their grandchildren to help raise them after their parents died, and one father who was terminally ill asked her to look after his three children shortly before he died.
“We are a close knit family at the school. Although there are only 380 learners attending the school, I want to know each and every one of them. I took in so many children over the years, raised them, saw them finish Gr 12, and they still call me sometimes to say hello. For me it has always been about the happiness and well-being of the children.”
Meps is thriving and they are currently building a hall. The school is involved with the community, giving meals to old age homes in Seshego, Westenburg, Moria and Ons Tuiste in Polokwane.
