A school opened on the premises by the end of July 1901 and accommodated 500 children. Since it was situated on the banks of the Orange River, it had an ample water supply and initially, plenty of wood from the river bush. Residents were housed in white tents with initially only five people per tent. Later, tents would house as many people as possible. Initially, fresh meat, milk, fruit and vegetables were supplied to residents until January 1901 when overpopulation led to only meat and flour being provided. While conditions were still better, the camp's shoe shop provided a pair of shoes for all the residents. Clothes were also supplied to those who arrived without any. Soon after the camp was established, a measles epidemic broke out then many inhabitants were infected with scarlet fever and diphtheria. A record of the camp's death figures was only made from January 1901. By July of that year, 412 people are believed to have died in the camp. Reports on the conditions of the camp by British health practitioners attributed the deteriorating health of children to the lack of hygiene and maternal neglect of Boer women. Blaming mothers and absolving themselves of responsibility of deteriorating quality of life was a recurring theme in British reports. Even a hundred years after the camp existed, where the tents were positioned is still visible because of the original paving made using empty food and milk tins. A memorial was erected in the local cemetery in honour of those who died in the camp. Nqamakwe  Nqamakwe is a town in Amatole District Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.In 1865 a number of Mfengu clans were resettled in the area around Nqamakwe. As refugees from the Mfacane wars further north, they had relatively few links to their former rural tribal economy and, at a relatively early stage, came under the guidance of European missionaries. Realising the need for an education in the colonial economy they were now attempting to enter, they began, on their own initiative, to collect funds and to lay down the groundwork for the establishment of a technical training institute.It is also birthplace of South African activists Govan Mbeki and Annie Silinga, as well as the cardiologist and professor Bongani Mayosi. The village of Nqamakwe was established in 1876 as the seat of the new Government Agent to the amaMfengu, and the College was opened in 1877 on a site located a short distance outside Nqamakwe.