Pre-school Children
The environment in which children spend their early years has an enormous impact on later development.
Young South African children in township communities have limited opportunities to be stimulated intellectually or emotionally.
With most parents commuting to jobs that are far from home, they leave early and return late and don’t have the means to arrange supervision for children. For decades, women in poverty-stricken townships have responded to the need for daycare of children who are unattended to.
Not only does this provide a much-needed service, but running a pre-school or daycare centre is also an opportunity for gainful self-employment. The vast majority of women running these centres have no formal training nor prior experience in the field of early childhood development and education.
Through Ikamva Labantu’s early childhood development (ECD) services and programmes we train educators and parents in recognised teaching methods, and provide educational equipment, nutritional and emotional support to more than 12,000 pre-school children in 200 under-developed daycare centres.