Our History

Kamelia Kids is a local community Not for Profit Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), previously known as the Camelia Botnar Children’s Centre. The Camelia Botnar Centre first opened in 1979 during the International Year of the Child providing early year’s education on a sessional basis to children aged 0 to 5 years with special and additional needs only. 

Up until 2014, the Centre had relied on donor funding, fundraising income, and the Government’s Free Entitlement Provision to sustain its operations. However, during 2014 a critical financial situation emerged where the charity was on the brink of closure.

Emergency funding was received on condition that the activities of the charity should be subjected to a critical review with the aim of developing a business model that would be sustainable. 

To move forward the charity was required to extend and expand its activities to provide for ALL children within its catchment area and, where policies permit, to introduce fees for the services it provided. The proposal to launch a new extended service in January 2015 was approved and the Centre was rebranded as Kamelia Kids.

Today, Kamelia Kids provides a nurturing, caring, and stimulating environment for all children, including those who have experienced a difficult start in life. We have a commitment to ensuring that ALL children feel fully valued and cared for and that they and their families are given all the support they need to reach their full potential.

Our charitable and community roots influence our care ethos and our values, and our charitable status also means that monies received from fees, grants and fundraising can be invested back into the business to the benefit of our children and families.

Our charity objectives are:

“To support all children particularly those with special and additional needs due to sickness, physical or mental disability, poverty or social and economic circumstances through the provision of facilities, help and education, including support to their families and carers, to enable them to achieve the best possible educational, developmental and other outcomes.”