Nurturing pre-school children

The early years in a child’s life are critical for development as they are a period of rapid physical, mental, emotional, social and moral growth. This is considered by experts to be the most crucial stage in life, a stage that has more influence on the future well-being and learning prospects of an individual than any other.

Masicorp’s Early Childhood Development (ECD) projects are initiatives aiming to raise the standards of Early Childhood Development (ECD) provision for all children in Masiphumelele. Based on the findings from research and consultations with the community Masicorp ECD takes a participatory approach to addressing ECD and a rights-based approach asserting that all children have a right to a clean, safe and stimulating learning environment.

Masicorp ECD engages all key stakeholders, including, the City of Cape Town Social Development and Early Childhood Development (SDECD), the Department of Social Development (DSD) learning, learning providers, community NGOs, pre-school Principals, and the wider community. The partners work towards a common, holistic goal of: improving the standard of all facilities; provision of staff training; improving health/nutrition; and getting facilities registered with the DSD to receive financial subsidies.

Our Early Childhood Development (ECD) projects are working to help provide decent quality pre-school education for the 4500 township children aged 1 to 6. With the help of our volunteers and fundraisers we have made great progress, but more remains to be done.

A bit of history…

Even now the standard of the 20+ crèches (daycare facilities) in Masiphumelele varies dramatically. They can be seen as being in three main categories:

Registered crèches meet all the standards and norms for registration and are fully registered with the DSD (Department of Social Development) and in receipt of subsidies;
Unregistered crèches meet most of the standards and norms for registration, in particular building standards, but for various reasons are not registered with the Department of Social Development (DSD);
Informal crèches may meet some of the standards and norms but would require significant investment in order to get registered, in particularly significant improvements to facilities in order to meet the building standards. For example many are run from shacks which could never meet the fire regulations. Our aim is to raise the standards of care and learning outcomes for children aged 0-6 years.

Masi Educare – accommodating 156 learners from the community

In early 2018, Masi Educare was successfully registered with the Department of Social Development, and started receiving monthly funding, which subsidises the monthly school fees that are paid by parents. This income, as well as the assistance from our feeding scheme partners, enables us to cover the costs of running this centre, paying our teacher’s salaries as well as provide the children with two nutritious meals per day. Currently there are 156 children enrolled at this school, who are cared for by a team of teachers, and a principal. This centre came under Masicorp management in 2016, when a host of generous funders enabled us to extend, renovate and upgrade this school by adding 6 additional container classrooms. In 2019 we were pleased to once again receive our successful registration with DSD – allowing us to continue to offer the community a high quality of ECD education and care for their children.

Chasmay Educare – upgrade to accommodate 100 learners.

Our latest project is the Chasmay Educare ECD centre on our Chasmay Road campus. This school came under Masicorp management in late 2017, when it was at that time accommodating about 50 children from the Masi community. Renovations and upgrades were desperately needed, and in 2019 Masicorp was able to do just that. The playground and facilities were upgraded thanks to the generosity of various donors who made it all possible. Today the centre cares for 100 children, and employs 5 teachers from the Masi community. We have started the process of applying for registration so that we will be able to receive funding from the Department of Social Development – which will assist us to cover the running costs of the school.

Stay & Play for 17 informal community creches

Our Stay & Play Programme has been expanded in 2018, offering access for nearly 250 children to weekly stimulation and early years’ education. This programme provides early childhood learning opportunities for children who do not have a place in a pre-school and are attending informal creches in Masiphumelele, as well as a skills transfer to informal creche owners.

From observation and studies in the crèches in Masiphumelele it has become apparent that most of the children are not exposed to toys and structured learning and that many of the informal creche owners have no experience of this themselves. It is hoped that this programme will encourage the caregivers/creche owners to see how important the early years of a child’s life are and how they can incorporate structured activities, songs, play and reading into their creches.

The children also receive art therapy through the programme, where the therapist is able to identify children who may need extra assistance, support or intervention. Each creche owner also receives a ”toolkit’ of games and materials they are able to use in their creche.

Partnerships provide key support for Masiphumelele daycare facilities

The key to making Masiphumelele’s crèches sustainable is to get them registered with the Department of Social Development (DSD) so that a government subsidy can be received for each child. Registration is not just a matter of improved infrastructure. The DSD require the staff at each crèche to be fully qualified before they will consider registration. At Masicorp we strongly support and implement the policy to upskill and invest in our Early Child Development (ECD) teachers. We believe that by investing in our staff, we help them reach their full potential so that the learners can also get the best quality of education that they deserve. There are a total of eight staff (seven Masi Educare teachers and one Chasmay Educare teacher) who are studying through various formal training institutes which provide NQF level courses. Four are expecting to complete their course this year and the other four teachers will be finishing their studies in 2020. This year, the teachers have also taken part in a wide array of short courses so that they acquire the different skills needed to better educate the children in their care.

DSD registration complete for Home of Love and Siyakhanya pre-schools

Department of Social Department (DSD) registration has been achieved for Home of Love and Siyakhanya pre-schools for 55 learners Like many pre-schools in Masiphumelele, both Siyakhanya and the Home of Love began as informal crèches run by well-meaning members of the community. Over time Masicorp has provided assistance by providing kitchen facilities and improving the building facilities on site. Providing safer, more hygienic structures to create loving and nurturing environments for the children and their adult support network is important, but is not the only step in becoming compliant with the DSD.