Helen Lieberman at the opening of the new ECD centre in Khayelitsha

Ikamva Labantu’s flagship ECD project – the opening of an Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centre in Khayelitsha – is finally nearing completion and due to open formally soon. The aim of the centre is to provide ECD practitioners with a holistic teaching and learning experience, providing assistance in the form of lectures and hands-on practical training.

Barbara Stemmert, head of Ikamva Labantu’s ECD programme, explains: “Many of our educare practitioners have struggled to implement their learnings in a practical environment, and so the idea of this new ECD centre was born. It provides an unprecedented chance for these practitioners to acquire their learning within an actual Educare environment, and apply their skills practically throughout the course of their training.”

The centre has a number of lecture rooms, as well as classrooms boasting large windows for observation purposes. Both untrained practitioners and those who have previously received training will participate in a ten-month course, designed to enable them to apply their learning on site. Community-based workers are also currently undergoing training in order to provide regular support within the Educare environment.

“One of Ikamva’s biggest priorities is assisting in early childhood development, and the new centre will help us to equip a greater number of Educare practitioners, whilst ensuring that their training is practically applicable in order to offer a better education for learners,” Stemmert concluded.